The government has broadly adopted a policy to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teaching in a bid to turn around the Kingdom’s dismal pass rates for the subjects in the 12th grade national examinations, according to a government official.   href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/government-policy-to-boost-stem-learning/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Royal Railways, the company that holds a 30-year concession to operate the Kingdom’s railway network, is conducting a feasibility study on establishing a commuter rail service to run between the capital’s airport and its central district, the company’s chief executive said yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/commuter-rail-link-from-city-to-airport-considered/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The government has announced a new action plan to deal with the drug problem in Trapaing Chhouk, a slum in the capital’s Sen Sok district that has been an open market for drug use and distribution for over a decade.    href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/new-five-point-plan-to-tackle-drug-slum/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodian officials and Japanese airline All Nippon Airways discussed on Friday the possibility of starting a direct flight between the Kingdom and Japan next year, in a bid to facilitate the increase in bilateral business and investment transactions, according to a State Secretariat of Civil href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/all-nippon-airways-mulls-direct-flight-to-kingdom/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s military police said yesterday that they have sealed the Vietnam border against wood transport following a major crackdown on two tycoons’ logging warehouses on Sunday. Local observers and experts, however, suggested the actions were little more than a hiccup for a long-tolerated illicit trade. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/vietnam-border-sealed-against-loggers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Consular officials yesterday were working to repatriate a Cambodian maid fleeing what she described as unfair working conditions in Saudi Arabia, even as Cambodia’s minister of labour was en route to seal a long-awaited deal to open a pipeline of workers to the Gulf nation. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/maid-to-return-from-saudi-arabia-as-deal-nears/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A high-speed collision in Preah Sihanouk province involving two container trucks, a beer truck and a van crammed with garment workers resulted in one death and 34 injuries on Tuesday evening, according to police, who reported that three drivers fled the scene and remain at href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/van-driver-dead-garment-workers-injured-in-highway-crash/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A working group within Phnom Penh City Hall is continuing its effort to help get compensation to Borei Keila families who have yet to accept the government’s offer, according to a Facebook post from Governor Pa Socheatevong, who led a discussion with community members on href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/governor-promises-solution-for-remaining-borei-keila-families/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A leading Indian conservationist and tiger expert is warning that a multimillion-dollar scheme to reintroduce the big cat to Cambodia will be a “tragic failure” that could cost lives, and that its advocates will come to rue the attempt.    href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/expert-says-tiger-reintroduction-plan-sure-to-fail/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Beginning on May 1, traffic police will ramp up enforcement of the new Traffic Law after a month and a half delay, according to a police statement yesterday. Police officials said enough drivers throughout the country now understood the law, paving the way for stricter href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/full-traffic-law-to-be-enforced-next-month/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

With a $148 million injection of capital through a Share Purchase Agreement, National Bank of Canada (NBC) now holds a 90 percent stake in ABA Bank, according to ABA and NBC executives, who ensured that the agreement will not alter ABA Bank’s strategy but enhance href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/aba-bank-gets-capital-boost/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Indigenous villagers in eastern Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province have filed a complaint in local court against military officers and a land speculator who forcibly confiscated more than 80 hectares (198 acres) of their land, an official from a rights group said Thursday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ethnic-ninority-villagers-in-eastern-cambodia-file-court-case-over-land-grab/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Most years the rice fields outside Battambang are an unbroken sea of electric green, but this year they look more like a patchwork quilt. Some paddies are a healthy green, but others are a sickly yellow, while others are little more than empty, muddy fields href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/with-little-support-farmers-at-the-mercy-of-the-weather/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A year-long crackdown on illegal immigration equated to a threefold increase in deportations in the first 11 months of 2015, with 4,312 foreigners sent home versus just 1,307 in the same period last year, according to a Department of Immigration report obtained yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/deportation-figures-triple/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

An official at the Ministry of Mines and Energy has confirmed that a Chinese company is applying for a license to extract gold from a 100-hectare plot in Mondolkiri province, but insisted that the project would only go forward with the consent of local, small-scale href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/govt-says-chinese-gold-mine-in-mondolkiri-needs-local-consent/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The European Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution accusing the Cambodian government of laying politically motivated charges against the opposition and calling for aid cuts if its respect for human rights fails to improve—a loud echo of a resolution it passed just six months ago. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/amid-turmoil-eu-calls-for-review-of-aid-to-cambodia/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Two rare gaurs, a mother and calf, have died after being found trapped in a snare in the Cardamom Mountains’ Samlot Protected Area, according to the sanctuary’s chief and an official from the Maddox Jolie-Pitt (MJP) Foundation, a wildlife NGO founded by Angelina Jolie. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/two-trapped-gaurs-die-in-sanctuary/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A new paper from the International Criminal Court laying out a shift in focus to crimes linked to environmental destruction and the unlawful dispossession of land has rekindled the debate over whether the court will launch an investigation into a case highlighting land-grabbing in Cambodia. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/icc-move-fuels-debate-on-cambodian-case/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Cambodian subsidiary of Thai electronics manufacturing services company SVI Plc is moving closer to commencing construction on a factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh that will manufacture electronics equipment for export to the US and Europe, a company representative said yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/svi-to-lay-groundwork-on-electronics-plant/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A proposed power transmission line to be constructed at the edge of the Tonle Sap Floodplain Protected Landscape as early as next year will pose a new threat to a critically endangered bird species known as the Bengal Florican, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/power-line-project-threatens-highly-endangered-bird-org/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...