Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Wednesday said that the government had begun formalizing the process for obtaining electronic national identity cards in a bid to reduce graft carried out by local authorities. Speaking on the sidelines of the 10th Government Discussion Forum on Electronic Identity at ...

Teachers around the country will recommence a labor strike today, demanding a raise in salary to $250 per month, teachers and the Cambodian Independent Teachers Union (CITA) said Tuesday. Teachers in Phnom Penh and at least five provinces on Monday began piecemeal strikes after CITA leader ...

With regional and international competition increasing, Cambodia’s workers could be falling behind. A new World Bank report says Cambodia’s labor force lacks the skills to advance the country’s economy, even as an increasing number of young people enter the labor market. Kem Lay, a sociology researcher, ...

Senior Cambodian People’s Party figures who have been at the forefront of negotiations with the opposition party yesterday offered lukewarm responses to the prospect of restarting talks that would bring an end to the opposition’s seven-month-long parliamentary boycott. Their position – that the opposition party was ...

Corruption remains the most significant challenge facing Cambodia’s economy, according to a survey of more than 300 employers conducted last year by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the results of which were released Tuesday. Despite legislation meant to stamp out graft, corruption continues to be perceived ...

Eight families involved in a land dispute in Kompong Chhnang province with Chea Kheng, the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem, on Wednesday walked away from a meeting that was set up at their local district administrative office to resolve the dispute, an ...

About 100 military and provincial police descended upon the rural village of Lor Peang on Monday morning, acting on what they said was a court order to arrest three villagers standing in the way of an agro-development project. More than 70 local residents involved in a ...

For 70-year-old Chan Shay, the choice between working through old age and a retirement in poverty is an obvious one. Shay, a cyclo taxi driver in Phnom Penh, said that while he dreams of retiring to his home in Takeo province, in reality he can see ...

Cambodian authorities have held two rounds of talks with garment factory owners and unions under a new mechanism to help break a deadlock over increasing the workers’ monthly minimum wage but to no avail. But Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that he expected the Garment ...

The Abbott government has sent a senior official to Phnom Penh to take charge of a controversial scheme to resettle refugees from Australia, even before Cambodia signs an agreement to accept them. Australia has also boosted the staff of its embassy in the Cambodian capital by ...

Southeast Asian nations displayed a rare show of unity on Sunday against China’s sweeping maritime claims, calling for the first formal talks with Beijing over a sea dispute that has raised tensions and exposed deep divisions in the region. As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in ...

Farmers in provinces across the Kingdom are feeling the effects of drought after a month of dry weather in which an estimated 10,000 hectares of rice seedlings were destroyed and 135,000 hectares left at risk, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. A report from ...

The Cambodian government has approved 53 new garment and footwear factories, worth an estimated US$338 million, during the first half of this year, compared with 38 last year valued at $180 million, despite the increase in the number of strikes affecting the industry. Officials and industry ...

Telecoms operator Metfone, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Viettel Group, has deployed a digital education system in Siem Reap, approaching a total of 3,000 schools nationwide. In a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony yesterday, Siem Reap’s 10 Makara 1979 High School became the latest education ...

The private sector has expressed interest in developing 40 eco-tourism projects in Mondulkiri province. Speaking during a press conference at the Council of Ministers yesterday, provincial governor Svay Sam Eang said investors have asked permission to develop 10 projects in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, two ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has given the nod to two companies to continue their exploration licence approval processes for some 207sq km of gold-polymetallic mining areas in Tbong Khmum and Ratanakkiri provinces. The areas are 107.10sq km in the Memot area in Tbong ...

The Japanese government has agreed to provide eight billion yen (about $50 million) in financing the Phnom Penh City Electricity Transmission and Distribution System Expansion Project. ...

Authorities are planning upgrades to effectively double the capacity of boats travelling from Phnom Penh Autonomous Port to Vietnam, according to port Director General Hei Bavy. A 2009 agreement with Vietnam authorities allows ships travelling down the Mekong from Cambodia to offload at Cai Mep ...

A 10 per cent rise in the number of garment and footwear factories this year showed the government’s commitment to solving labour disputes, and that its mechanisms to do this were working, a senior official at the labour ministry said yesterday, while admitting that a ...

Cambodia’s biggest solar power initiative to date – expected to provide electricity to 12,000 households in off-grid areas – will be completed on January 31, according to officials involved with the project. Yiang Tal, chief of administration at the Rural Electrification Fund, said more than 10,000 ...