The Minister of Labor yesterday defended his ministry’s much-criticized interpretation of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ban on sending maids to Malaysia, after it allowed about 3,000 young women to still be sent abroad despite the serious risk of abuse and exploitation. Minister of Labor Vong Sauth ...

Amnesty International yesterday called on authorities to immediately release the 30 women and children from the Borei Keila community being detained against their will at Phnom Penh’s Prey Speu Social Affairs Center. “Those people never should have been arrested in the first place,” said Amnesty’s Deputy ...

The Ministry of Environment has drafted a law that will hand out fines and prison terms for companies that fail to complete and submit Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) on the development projects they undertake. According to a copy of the EIA draft law, fines of 100 ...

Bus companies that are involved in crashes or break the law will receive two warnings before being summarily closed down by the government, a senior official said yesterday. Responding to a recent spate of serious tour bus crashes, Peou Maly, deputy director-general at the transport department ...

500 sq km of land from three conservation areas have been granted by the Cambodian government to agribusiness companies. Prime Minister Hun Sen has approved 50,750 hectares, through nine concessions, to be granted areas of land that were previously conservation areas. Reththy Kiri Sakor Co. ...

Businessmen Tuy Vanny and Seth Rin are embroiled in a land dispute with 50 families have had an objection filed against their allowing others to farm the land. The right to farm the land was only granted on July 7 to Mr. Vanny and Mr. ...

Cigarette promoters will have to stop work when a tobacco advertisement ban takes effect in late August, a health official said yesterday. A February sub-decree, which also bans advertising tobacco in the media and on billboards, states that the “promotion of tobacco products to customers ...

With ongoing floods causing an unprecedented $521 million in estimated damages, economists warn that poor farmers are being the hardest hit. The latest government estimate marks a roughly threefold increase from an earlier prediction of more than $161 million, which was the cost of the ...

Economic growth in Cambodia is being hampered by poor sanitation and hygiene, and rising food prices are leaving people struggling to afford basic produce for a balanced diet, according to a report released yesterday by the UN Development Program (UNDP). The UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Report ...

Representatives of 503 former railway workers protested outside the Ministry of Transportation in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the government pay them outstanding salaries ranging from US$2,500 to $5,000 per person. Railway workers from Battambang, Kampot, Pursat and Takeo who were formerly employed by the government, but ...

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An has told Iran’s ambassador to Cambodia that once an oil refinery in the country is operational, Cambodia would be able to import crude oil from Iran and export refined oil products to China, the Council of Ministers said on its ...

The Ministry of Health, with support from the United States, yesterday launched a national public outreach campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of counterfeit and substandard drugs, which officials said posed a “serious threat” to public health. The campaign features a poster with the slogan, ...

As Khmer New Year approaches, Phnom Penh Municipality has once again made its annual appeal to bus companies and taxi drivers not to raise fees during the holiday. But as usual, drivers and companies say they will be ignoring the request. Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema said ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday there would never be a foreign military base in his country, following a news report that China was lobbying for a naval base in southwest Koh Kong province. The Asia Times, citing unidentified diplomatic sources and analysts, reported ...

The Land Management Ministry has released a report which says the number of workers in the construction sector during the first nine months of this year has dropped by more than 30 percent when compared to the same period last year. However, its findings are being ...

The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) on Saturday criticised the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for a statement that said faintings caused by low levels of essential minerals in workers’ blood are to be classed as an accident and not put down to bad working ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued two sub-decrees reclassifying two communes in Phnom Penh as districts, as per a request made by Interior Minister Sar Kheng last week.​ In the separate sub-decrees, obtained by Khmer Times yesterday, Boeng Keng Kang I, Boeng Keng Kang II, Boeng Keng Kang ...

Speaking at the third Budapest Water Summit in Budapest, Hungary, Prime Minister Hun Sen said water security would be under threat due to poor management of water resources and chemical waste, global warming, and population growth. “Climate change, forest logging, insufficient public investment, lack of ...

The United States, Australia and Canada have expressed their “profound disappointment” in the Cambodian national elections. The US said it will consider “additional steps”. But the head of the National Election Committee (NEC) hit back, deeming such statements as analysis from those “wearing black-lensed glasses”. ...

Construction of an oil refinery straddling two provinces in the South is going ahead slower than expected, with the project now scheduled for completion in 2022, the Ministry of Mines and Energy said. The first phase of the oil refinery, located on 365 square metres ...