Prince Norodom Ranariddh is officially back in the political game. The Ministry of Interior has approved the former prime minister’s Community of Royalist People’s Party (CRPP), Ranariddh’s cabinet chief, Noranarith Anandayath, said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Education has vowed to shift its focus from the quantity of the country’s universities to their quality by instituting a moratorium on the approval of new institutions, officials said yesterday. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said that with more than 100 universities already ...

The minister of labour has sent a stern warning to garment factories to take measures to end mass faintings or face the consequences. Speaking after a safety workshop yesterday, Ith Sam Heng said the government will get tougher on factories, fining those that didn’t provide safe ...

Despite Cambodia’s unofficial freeze on inter-country adoptions, the Ministry of Social Affairs recently urged partner countries to reforge, in principle, their adoption partnerships with the Kingdom. In a statement issued on Monday, the ministry opened the application process for international adoption agencies, as only adoption agencies ...

Political analyst Kem Ley plans to create a diverse set of independent political parties in the new year, tackling what he says is an autocratic “disease” infecting both the ruling party and the opposition. Using his newly founded “social network” Khmer for Khmer as a springboard, ...

As part of a new safety initiative, the Ministry of Mines and Energy will require all petrol station owners to present a certificate acknowledging that their businesses follow risk-prevention protocols. The directive came in response to a series of petrol fires and explosions that damaged property ...

The Environment Ministry in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) yesterday launched a $5 million, five-year plan to mitigate the effects of climate change on rural communities in four Cambodian provinces. ...

A new collective of transportation workers unions was announced on Sunday by the Cambodia Labour Confederation, Cambodia’s largest association of independent unions.The Cambodian Transport Workers Federation (CTWF) is composed of seven transportation workers unions and currently represents about 2,000 workers, according to Ath Thorn, president ...

More than 600 cadets will be recruited to become military officers, the Ministry of Defence announced yesterday.Recruits for the 2015-2016 class will be selected from candidates of both sexes, aged 18-25, in good health and with clean criminal records. ...

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Two new witnesses have been summonsed in the case against former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith, as the victims’ lawyer tries to prove he intentionally shot three female protesters outside a shoe factory in February. Nouth Bopinnaroath, Svay Rieng provincial co-ordinator for the rights group Licadho, ...

The Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies will consider kicking its most notorious member, T&P Co Ltd, out of the association if the company is found to have falsified documents to conceal the age of a 15-year-old girl rescued from its training centre last week. ACRA ...

At 9 a.m. yesterday, more than 200 soldiers, police and military police officers were gathered outside a large mansion on Street 55 in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district. All were waiting for their promised “ang pao” – red envelopes containing cash usually handed out during ...

Cambodia’s ASEAN economic minister said the official launch of the negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will lead to potentially forming the biggest single market in the region and is much bigger than the traditional markets of the US and the EU. An economist ...

A Ying Dong Shoes representative yesterday denied claims his factory employs workers as young as 13 and shares an owner with Wing Star Shoes, where two died in a ceiling collapse on May 16. Chan Kosal, a representative of Ying Dong, a supplier to Asics, said ...

Calls for big-name apparel brands to take more responsibility for working conditions in Cambodian garment factories are growing louder as representatives of retail companies ranging from H&M to Wal-Mart arrive in Phnom Penh for a semi-annual buyers’ forum this week. Since it began three years ...

Textile workers at the Supertex factory are considering holding another strike because their compensation demands have not been met during an Arbitration Council hearing. Previously Supertex announced it was closing its factory without having given prior notice, prompting the 1,600 works to seek arbitration. With ...

Puma, the sportswear company, has said that it is taking the outbreak of fainting spells at its suppliers “very seriously.” The company is taking measures after a report by the Fair Labour Association found that breaches in labour laws had contributed to some 300 workers ...

Villagers in Svay Rieng province from 10 villages have taken part in an armed protest against the granting of a land concession in the forest that will turn it into a rubber plantation. The villagers claim to have been on the land since 1979 and ...

The PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Joint Stock Company (PVFCCo) officially inaugurated its branch in Cambodia on July 29 with an aim to sell products directly to local farmers. Since the establishment of its representative office in Phnom Penh in May 2010, PVFCCo, an affiliate of ...