About 500 villagers from six districts in Kratie’s Snoul district protested on National Road 7 yesterday, in a bid to find a solution to their land dispute with two Vietnamese rubber companies. Cars, trucks and buses were gridlocked from 8:00am to 12:00pm along National Road 7 ...

Police and military police stopped about 200 villagers from entering rice fields in Battambang province yesterday, saying they had no right to harvest in the 100-hectare area because it belonged to well-known businessman Song Thon, villagers said. Chhut Mao, a 64-year-old village representative of Lvea commune, ...

The National Assembly yesterday passed Cambodia’s first law on pesticide and chemical fertiliser control, which the government hopes will regulate the use and sale of dangerous chemicals on agricultural products. Currently, hazardous pesticides are sold with little regulation and often without proper labeling that instructs farmers ...

The government has granted China’s Xinwei Telecom a license to become the country’s tenth mobile phone operator and the second firm to roll out so-called 4G technology, the fastest and most advanced network currently available on the market. Those in the telecommunications industry said that the ...

Carlsberg has said it is investigating a strike by Angkor beer promoters, who yesterday vowed to continue in their bid for fair treatment.  More than 30 beer promoters have been striking since last Monday, accusing Angkor brewer Cambrew of refusing to pay overtime despite a ...

More than 300 villagers from Kampong Cham province’s Chamkar Leu, Memot, and Stung Trang districts gathered in Phnom Penh on Friday to protest against a plan to relocate them from their land in order to make way for rubber plantations. The villagers contend they have ...

A new US commitment to oil and mining transparency may push the Kingdom closer to a similar agreement, Cambodian experts have said. US President Barack Obama announced earlier this week that the US would join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as an implementing country, according to ...

Hours after downgrading Cambodia’s long-term sovereign credit rating, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said it had also decided to lower the credit rating for Acleda Bank to B from B+, though it maintained its outlook for the bank as stable. The decision follows a similar decision ...

As part of a continuing push to bolster rice exports, the government has agreed to waive all export tariffs on milled rice and will also eliminate value-added tax (VAT) on paddy rice purchased domestically. According to a promulgation signed last month by Finance Minister Keat Chhon, ...

Thailand will not object to the proposed Xayaburi hydropower dam in Laos, but Vientiane must shoulder responsibility for potential environmental damage caused by the US$3.8 billion project, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. “Laos has the right to construct the dam as it is located inside Lao ...

Less than two weeks after the Tonle Sap Authority reportedly installed a ban on large-scale fish exports, Prime Minister Hun Sen declined to endorse the order and re-opened exports, officials said yesterday. Chan Youttha, secretary-general of the Tonle Sap Authority, said it had prepared a report ...

Low wages and a lack of occupational health and safety measures led to a mass fainting on Tuesday at a Phnom Penh garment factory that produces clothes for well-known brands Wal-Mart, Target and Reebok, according to a statement released by the Community Legal Education Center ...

Kampong Thom province Villagers patrolling Prey Lang forest claimed yesterday that about 600 resin trees they found inside a sawmill in the Kampong Thom province had been cut down illegally – an allegation government officials quickly denied. After resistance from police and soldiers monitoring their actions this ...

Cambodian tycoon Ly Yong Phat has signed a US$3 billion joint-venture agreement with Thai energy firm Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Plc on what would be the Kingdom’s largest power station. Just under 90 per cent of the power, however, would be sold to Thailand. The 1,800 megawatt ...

An across-the-board trade and investment deal signed with China’s Yunnan province on Friday was a jump-start to Chinese President Hu Jintao’s pledge a week earlier to double bilateral trade with the Kingdom to US$5 billion by 2017. The package signing, which brought a delegation of 45 ...

National Military Police commander Sao Sokha on Wednesday ordered the destruction of more than 20 vehicles involved in forestry crimes in Mondulkiri province’s Koh Nhek district. Sokha, who also heads the National Committee for Prevention and Crackdown on Natural Resource Crimes, gave the order after ...

In August, two local Cambodian organizations, Licadho and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) published Collateral Damage: Land Loss and Abuses in Cambodia’s Microfinance Sector, a report about the dangerous growth of the country’s microfinance sector. It spotlighted an issue that researchers have been warning about for years. A report ...

Japan today will provide more than $1 million in grant aid to two NGO’s for demining work, community healthcare projects and children support networks. The signing ceremony for the grant assistance totalling $1,052,298 will be held in the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh. An embassy statement ...

The Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) has alleged that Korean-owned Think Biotech (Cambodia) Co Ltd is illegally harvesting timber from resin trees in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. But a company representative refuted the claim and accused the community of making up rumours to defame ...

Last week, Myanmar’s de facto leader and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi paid her first visit to Cambodia in her current capacity. The trip spotlighted the ongoing state of ties between the two fellow Southeast Asian states amid wider domestic and foreign policy developments. Cambodia ...