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 ...

Municipal police are considering implementing high-tech security cameras from China to help solve traffic accidents and crack down on crimes in the capital. Lieutenant General Sar Thet, chief of Phnom Penh police, said on Facebook that he led a delegation in China yesterday to observe ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng told provincial security forces in Kratie on Thursday to remain vigilant for any opposition activity in the run-up to July’s national elections, while also warning that a popular opposition movement would only come about from the government’s failure to cater to ...

Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) director-general Keo Rattanak said on Thursday that during the first seven months of this year, the company had received 237 complaints on Facebook regarding electricity meters.   ...

During a meeting on the revision of the Law on Non-Governmental Organisations yesterday, the Interior Ministry said it will address concerns raised by civil society groups, but it remains unclear how many articles will be revised. ...

Following a mass cull of more than 1,000 pigs over the last two weeks, authorities yesterday played down any threat to the local pork supply, but financial concerns among farmers and market vendors are mounting.Some 1,200 pigs have been culled in Siem Reap, having recently ...

While meeting locals and officials in Preah Vihear province yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen decided to allocate more than 80 hectares of airport land in Preah Vihear town’s Palhal commune to 127 families. In a meeting with officials and armed forces that was announced on Mr. Hun Sen’s official ...

Following a Monday announcement from the Agriculture Ministry that provincial officials must ensure that the country’s rice millers pay adequate prices for rice paddy, the ministry followed up yesterday, saying that working groups had started discussing the situation with rice millers and rice farmers. In a ...