Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate.The Cambodian government awarded between 30 and 40 logging concessions to private companies during ...

Vendors in Phnom Penh’s Ngin An market are protesting a government-backed bid by the market’s new owner to push them out by tomorrow. More than 40 representatives of 223 vendors waved a banner at the market yesterday to protest a letter from Russey Keo District Hall ...

The recruitment firm HRD Company had allegedly threatened the mother of two sisters working as maids in Malaysia, pressuring her to withdraw her NGO complaint seeking help in repatriating her daughters or risk having all communication with them cut, a rights group said yesterday. Pov Chhan, ...

Cambodia’s total trade volume grew 15.41 percent to reach$7.46 billion in the first seven months compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. Revenues earned through exports reached $2.9 billion, an increase of 11.82 percent compared to ...

Scientists in Bangkok are about to start work on a new flush toilet especially designed for the urban poor in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Their aim is to create a toilet that will process wastewater in family homes and convert it into gas or electricity, ...

A Commerce Ministry official yesterday denied that Cambodia was exporting luxury wood logs to China, insisting that any wood leaving the country was in a “processed” form. The China Customs data also states that each year, just under 10,000 cubic meters of “logs” and about ...

The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court delayed the destruction of the homes and subsequent eviction of 14 families embroiled in a land dispute with a company owned by tycoon Kong Treav in Village 4 of Sihanoukville’s Commune 4, local authorities said yesterday. Though many of the families ...

Activists are welcoming Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public vow to prevent logging and rosewood trafficking, but they also say it’s too little too late to have any serious impact on protecting Cambodia’s already decimated forests. In a speech on Friday at the Ministry of Interior, Hun ...

The price increase for Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares maxed out after an hour of trading yesterday morning, the second day of operations on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. PPWSA closed up 4.84 per cent yesterday at 9,750 riel (US$2.44), climbing from 9,300 the day before, ...

Mobile money transfer service WING is preparing to launch a mobile wallet service later this year, and ACLEDA Unity is preparing to expand its own mobile services, enabling people to quickly pay for things just by touching their phone to a point-of-sale terminal. Near-field communications (NFC) ...

Nearly 100 Prey Lang villagers in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district will today embark on a three-day “forest watch” mission to monitor what community representatives say are increased illegal logging activities in the jungle. This is the fourth time the community has conducted monitoring in the ...

Fisheries Administration patrols increased on the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces to prevent fishermen from using dai fishing methods as the seasonal fish migration period begins. However, the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), an umbrella group of national and international organizations, said the ...

Tens of thousands of garment workers will enjoy an early start to the Pchum Ben holiday today as they trek back to their homeland. Their excitement, however, is not shared by their bosses, who will be left to rue a week-long halt in production. Enterprise and establishment ...

After years of poor yields, the cricket farmers of Kompong Thom province have more than tripled their average catch compared with the same time last year due to early rains, an agriculture official said yesterday. Ou Bunsophoan, director of the Kompong Thom provincial agriculture department, said ...

Government officials met with more than 200 Phnom Penh families on Friday to lay out the state’s case for ownership of their land and the compensation they can expect when they are evicted from their homes situated along the city’s railway tracks. The $142 million project ...

Local company VLK Royal Tourism Group has embarked on a joint venture with a Thai partner to build OC Hotel, a four-star boutique hotel in Sihanoukville. The venture was prompted by rising demand as well as increasing tourist numbers to the coastal area off the ...

Just two weeks after a journalist’s bludgeoned corpse was discovered in Ratanakkiri province, a human rights group yesterday identified two more recent cases of violence or intimidation against reporters in the northeastern province. The report from Adhoc said the pressure from local journalists has occurred alongside an increase ...

Although costs can be high for borrowing and it can be difficult to pay regularly every month, the trend of borrowing from banks by Cambodian people to buy property is still steadily increasing, according to experts. Keuk Narin, vice president of Asia Real Estate Cambodia, said ...

Cambodia recorded a 17 percent rise in rubber latex exports in 2012; however, the revenues from the exports went down by 21 percent due to declining rubber prices in the international market, the government’s statistics showed Friday. The country had exported 54,530 tons of rubber latex ...

A CPP lawmaker said yesterday the government has signed 13 payment guarantees to companies constructing coal-fired power plants and hydropower dams in the country, a move that an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official reiterated was risky for the country’s fiscal future. CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said ...