Hang Puthea, the presumptive “neutral” candidate on the new National Election Committee (NEC), said Wednesday that he would accept the nomination in order to pursue electoral reforms that the CPP and CNRP have failed to achieve. ...

The number of tourists travelling during the three-day Khmer New Year festivities saw a dramatic increase this year, with the largest attraction – Angkor Sangkran in Siem Reap – hosting more than a million visitors last week. ...

Local authorities armed with axes and hammers on Saturday attempted to dismantle homes in the capital’s Russey Keo district to make way for a new road that they hope will ease traffic, according to villagers. ...

The new computerized registry of voters for the next election will catalog citizens’ real names, reduce fraud, and get rid of the double-name glitches that plagued the last election cycle, says NEC spokesman Hang Puthea. ...

The ruling CPP held a ceremony on Saturday in Oddar Meanchey prov­ince to welcome 564 new members in what it says was a mass defection from the CNRP due to dissatisfaction with the opposition party. ...

New houses built for 100 families who were pushed off of their land by the construction of the Sesan Krom II Dam have been slammed as substandard by the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (Adhoc). ...

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has approved four new investment projects with a total capital of $8.4 million. ...

The National Election Committee yesterday said that local and international observers have until the end of December to register their credentials with the NEC in order to monitor the registration of new voters this year. ...

A government animal health official is monitoring the possible spread of African swine fever into new provinces bordering Vietnam. This follows an outbreak in Ratanakkiri in March, which was hoped had been kept under control. ...

Cambodia Tourism Marketing and Promotion Board, a joint institution between the government and the private sector, is studying a new strategy to attract more foreign visitors to the Kingdom, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said. ...

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng has announced that six new provincial governors have been selected to replace those who have reached retirement age, denying the move has anything to do with the old governors’ performances. ...

New figures show that Cambodia’s sugar exports to the European Union fell by 94.8 per cent between 2013 and 2015, amid accusations of rights abuses and land grabbing in the Kingdom’s industry. ...

Bank of China, one of the five biggest state-owned commercial banks in China, will expand its operations in Cambodia by opening new branches in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, a local bank executive said yesterday. ...

Fleeing strict new laws at home, surrogacy companies are moving their “wombs for rent” services from Thailand to Cambodia, causing some analysts to raise concerns that would-be parents could be swindled by the little-regulated industry. ...

Testing of a new electronic voter registration system is “running smoothly”, with more than 14,000 people registered across 24 provinces since the pilot project began on November 1, the National Election Committee announced yesterday. ...

A new draft of the proposed Telecommunications Law would give authorities the right to eavesdrop on any conversation, along with a host of other powers that a rights group has warned would effectively nationalize private service providers. ...

The new duty-free shop opened by China Duty Free Group (CDFG) in Sihanoukville will have a major impact on development of the tourism industry in the coastal resort, a senior provincial official said yesterday. ...

LGBT Cambodians driven into poverty by discrimination, and sometimes forced to sell sex to survive, may soon enjoy the benefits of a new online campaign designed to raise money to help them rebuild their lives. ...

The property sector in Preah Sihanouk province seems to be booming, thanks to new project developments, the growth in tourism and a twinning program between the province and Zhencheng district in China’s Guangdong province. ...

 Just months ahead of local elections, the Cambodian government has ordered the microfinance industry to cap interest rates on new and refinanced loans at 18 percent a year starting April 1. ...