Bred Banque Populaire – part of the second-largest banking group in France – officially launched operations in Cambodia yesterday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its headquarters, marking the first venture of a European bank in the Kingdom since the late 1990s. ...

Opposition lawmakers yesterday left a meeting at the Interior Ministry exasperated, as officials from the latter continued to deem the presidency of their leader, Kem Sokha, and the vice presidency of three senior lawmakers, illegitimate, but offered no clear path to a resolution. ...

The Thai government has agreed to set up stations across Thailand where Cambodian illegal migrant workers can register for documents that will allow them to stay and work in the country, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said at a news conference on Thursday. ...

While highly contentious new rules were being passed in the National Assembly on Monday banning the CNRP from collaborating with its former leader Sam Rainsy, photographs were posted to Facebook of senior opposition lawmakers dining at a riverside hotel in Kampot province. ...

NGOs in Cambodia and Malaysia are working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to repatriate six of the 30 Cambodians who sought shelter at the country’s embassy after the Malaysian government started mass arrests of undocumented migrant workers on July 1. ...

The Ministry of Commerce yesterday launched a petroleum mobile lab to detect fraud and cheating at petrol stations and ensure fair competition. The lab, under the authority of CamControl, will drive across the country, starting from Phnom Penh. ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) maintained its economic growth forecast for Cambodia at 7.1 percent for 2017 and 2018 buoyed by the strong performance of developing economies across Asia and the ongoing recovery of large industrial countries, according to a release yesterday. ...

Vietnam, a major buyer of the Cambodian cashew nut, has unveiled a plan to purchase cashews in even greater volumes during next year’s harvest season, giving hope to farmers who rely on selling their crops at good prices from February through May. ...

Amid accusations of bias in favour of the ruling party – and following the removal of the main opposition party from the electoral field – the National Election Committee has announced the creation of a new press reaction team to “attack back at negative points”. ...

Illegal forest clearing is taking place at about three times the rate it did last year, but fines for forestry and wildlife crimes have fallen dramatically, according to a progress report released last week by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries (MAFF). ...

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. ...

One home collapsed into the Tonle Bassac river on Saturday in Kandal’s Sa’ang district, while two others are at risk of collapse and eight others had to be dismantled and moved across the road, away from the riverbank, officials said 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. ...

Earlier this month, Makro, a well-known wholesale supermart based in Bangkok, Thailand, began putting up signs on the zinc walls surrounding its sales office in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, advertising its imminent opening at the end of the year. ...

A European Union election expert mission yesterday met with the government’s Cambodia Human Rights Committee in a closed-door meeting as part of its visit to the Kingdom, at the end of which it will submit recommendations to the Cambodian authorities. ...

At least 2 hectares of flooded mangrove forest in Koh Kong’s Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary have been filled in with sand from illegal dredging nearby, with local authorities and an NGO yesterday claiming an unidentified “powerful” tycoon was behind the environmental crimes. ...

The Council of Ministers released a no-holds-barred book about its efforts to root out a purported foreign-backed “colour revolution” in Cambodia yesterday, lashing out at superpowers like the United States for supposedly trying to cause “immeasurable catastrophe” in the country.​ ...

Minister for Mines and Energy Suy Sem will appear at the National Assembly on Thursday to answer questions about a more than $700 million discrepancy in data on sand exports to Singapore, according to a letter signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...

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. ...

Two election monitoring groups have conducted an audit of National Election Committe-issued NEC voter lists in 252 communes and found them to be 98 percent accurate, potentially quelling, at least in part, past anxieties over the quality and veracity of these lists.​ ...