Local rice millers and exporters have responded with alarm to the rice-export target set by the Lao government of 1 million tons this year, while Cambodian rice millers and traders have yet to overcome numerous barriers hindering their competitiveness at home and abroad. ...

Responding to criticism, Cambodia’s apex rice industry body announced yesterday that it would submit a plan to Prime Minister Hun Sen that addresses two of the major challenges facing the Kingdom’s rice sector – competition from rice imports and access to finance for millers. ...

Appeal hearings began on Thursday in the case of 11 opposition figures who were convicted in July for insurrection over a 2014 political protest, with a CNRP official blasting the municipal court over double standards for rejecting his request to get medical treatment outside prison. ...

State-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), one of three companies listed on the stock exchange, will pay out more than $3 million in dividends for 2015 on April 18, a 50 percent increase on 2014, reflecting its improved performance, company officials said. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet, arrived back in Phnom Penh on Monday after two weeks in the U.S. and Canada, deriding a lawsuit filed against him in Los Angeles for wrongful imprisonment that includes a count of “international terrorism.” ...

In 2010, more than 1,500 families in Kampong Speu’s Oral district were evicted from the land they had cultivated since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 to make way for a Phnom Penh Sugar Company mega-plantation.   ...

Garment manufacturer Gran d Twins International (GTI) will pay out a reduced cash dividend for 2015 as a result of net profits dropping by 70 per cent last year compared to 2014, the company said yesterday in a filing to the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX). ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that Cambodia will not join other Asean nations in supporting an upcoming verdict from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in a suit filed by the Philippines about continuing issues with China over the South China Sea. ...

China will provide Cambodia with more than half a billion dollars in aid, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday, less than a week after Cambodia again declined to support an Asean statement critical of Beijing’s claims to the hotly contested South China Sea. ...

Election officials toured the country during this week’s Water Festival holiday to investigate a recent sharp drop-off in the pace of voter registrations, but no glaring issues were found, a National Election Committee (NEC) spokesman said on Wednesday.   ...

With voter registration wrapping up last week, the National Election Committee over the weekend issued a call for the public to submit their evaluations of the rules that will govern the June 4 commune elections – the first popular ballot since the disputed 2013 national ...

Government officials reacted strongly yesterday to a recent statement by NGO Global Witness calling on Switzerland, the host of this year’s World Economic Forum, to turn away Prime Minister Hun Sen and not give him a platform to find new international business partners. ...

Cambodia’s economic growth remained strong last year though the Kingdom must now address major systemic challenges to build on its ascension into lower-middle income status in order to maintain healthy levels of development, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in its annual report yesterday. ...

Two men were provisionally charged on Sunday with trafficking and storing drugs after they were arrested last week during drug raids in Phnom Penh and Ratanakkiri province in which more than 60 kg of packaged heroin and crystal methamphetamine were confiscated by police, officials said.​ ...

The ministry yesterday used National Dengue Campaign Day to announce that there were 1,133 reported dengue cases in the first 24 weeks of this year and just one fatality, compared with 2,447 dengue cases and five deaths in the same period last year. ...

The Mondolkiri Provincial Court this morning sentenced Dutch man Stefan Struik, 53, to two years in prison for helping his Vietnamese boyfriend, Nguyen Thanh Dung, 34, flee the country after videos of Mr. Nguyen torturing a 2-year-old Cambodian boy were posted on Facebook. ...

Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy met with government officials in Australia and New Zealand this week, requesting that the two nations issue visa bans against Cambodian People’s Party officials and their families in response to the arrest of opposition head Kem Sokha for treason. ...

The UN’s special rapporteur on Cambodia yesterday slammed the Kingdom’s government at the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council, going so far as to express doubt as to whether next year’s crucial elections will be free and fair. ...

The industry body representing Cambodia’s garment sector issued a statement yesterday urging the government to help manufacturers reduce the cost of doing business in order to offset a higher minimum wage and workers benefit package due to come into effect on January 1. ...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng held a meeting with other top ministry officials yesterday to discuss introducing a legal amendment banning insults to the King, similar to so-called “lèse-majesté” laws in Thailand, which critics have characterised as a cudgel to suppress dissent. ...