Prime Minister Hun Sen and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith met yesterday at the inauguration of a checkpoint on the border between both countries, subsequently reaching an agreement to allow residents on both sides to cross freely with only a special border pass. ...

Government revenue collected on property transfers and construction services dropped off by 25 percent last year, reflecting a slowdown of the Kingdom’s construction sector despite a surge in the reported value of investment in real estate development projects, according to analysts. ...

In the latest flare up in tensions between the two countries, Lao authorities temporarily shut a border crossing with Cambodia and dispatched more troops to an undemarcated area on the northern border after Cambodian authorities began renovating an old French border outpost. ...

A little-known Vietnamese investment firm plans to build a massive $200 million mixed-use development that includes a hotel, casino and water park in the dusty Cambodian border town of Bavet through its fully-owned Malaysian subsidiary, a government official confirmed yesterday. ...

Ground was officially broken yesterday on a new facility at Prey Sar prison that will soon enable the upper crust of the Kingdom’s underworld to buy their way out of overcrowded jails and into the relative luxury of a privately run institution. ...

Two Cambodia Daily journalists accused of incitement and violating voters’ rights for asking questions in advance of Sunday’s commune elections in Ratanakkiri province will likely be summoned for questioning after Election Day, a provincial court prosecutor said. ...

In a surprise move, four human rights workers and an election official, collectively known as the “Adhoc 5”, were released from pretrial detention yesterday evening, 427 days after they were taken into custody on bribery charges relating to an opposition sex scandal. ...

A meeting yesterday between Interior Ministry officials and the acting leader of jailed government critic Sourn Serey Ratha’s Khmer Power Party ended with the party being asked to file missing annual reports to bring it in line with the Political Parties Law. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) has approved new candidates to fill National Assembly seats left vacant by the dissolution of the opposition, drastically changing the composition of Cambodia’s parliament and providing a shot in the arm for the ailing royalist Funcinpec party. ...

Taking place on the 21 and 22 on this month, the JTC meeting will focus on bilateral trade promotion. On the sidelines of the meeting, investors from both countries will participate in business matching events to enhance trade ties between the two countries.​ ...

UN Special Rapporteur Rhona Smith raised the forced dissolution of the CNRP and the redistribution of its legislative seats, as well as the government’s frequent legal action against sitting parliamentarians, during her visit on Tuesday with National Assembly President Heng Samrin. ...

The National Defense Ministry’s annual draft report showed that Cambodia’s borders are still at risk of abuse from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, despite the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) cracking down on nearly 6,000 border crimes over the past year. ...

Cambodia and Laos, in a bid to promote bilateral tourism, will create joint tour packages to facilitate the visit of tourists to both countries. The tour packages will focus on provinces, in both countries, that lie on either side of the Mekong river. ...

The silo is expected to be finished by the end of the year and the warehouse will be fully operational for the 2018 harvest season, according to the CEO of the Cambodia Rice Bank.   ...

An environmental activist branded an “anarchist” by a government spokesman said he fled to the U.N. human rights office in Phnom Penh on Monday after police harassed him for becoming involved in a dispute between sand dredgers and villagers in Kandal province. ...

The cabinet will hold a debate on Friday and is expected to approve the 2018 budget of $5.86 billion, an increase of 16.2 percent from last year’s $5.04 billion, according to a government document seen by Khmer Times yesterday. ...

The number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia and Cambodians visiting Vietnam has increased recently, according to new data released by the Cambodian tourism ministry. Vietnam has the largest number of tourists visiting Cambodia at 600,000, or 21 per cent, of all international visitors. ...

Union leaders yesterday rejected a proposal from Cambodian garment makers to provide US$9 a month for a worker’s housing and transport fees, demanding an additional $1. The benefits were announced last week after unions said they would lead a large-scale protest ...

Cambodian environmental groups yesterday stepped up their calls for the Don Sahong dam in Laos to be cancelled, after a visit to the site failed to convince them the hydropower project would not harm the Mekong River and the people who depend on it. ...

Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the newly elected president of the royalist Funcinpec party, and Nhiek Bun Chhay, its new second vice president, continued to spar Tuesday over the validity of former Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Say Hak’s appointment as the party’s secretary-general. ...