The prime minister yesterday praised three women as national heroines for their inspiring international achievements in the arenas of education and sports. During an awards ceremony for scholars at the National Institute of Education, Prime Minister Hun Sen congratulated local teacher Neang Phalla for her abilities ...

A survey has found that while only 12 per cent of young Cambodians smoke cigarettes, more than four times that number are exposed to passive smoke every day, and a broad majority back tougher regulation of tobacco products. Mom Kong, executive director at the Cambodian Movement ...

Cambodia has launched its first large-scale paddy rice bank to ensure uninterrupted supplies to millers and exporters, according to local sources. Thaneakea Srov (Kampuchea) Plc is the rice bank that aims at supporting the local rice industry by way of purchasing, storing and drying rice, as well as ...

A new wetland protected area may be implemented in Battambang province following talks between scientists, Asian governments and conservation groups held in Siem Reap this week. The message seems to have been heard, at least by the Ministry of Environment, which yesterday said it would ...

The 3rd edition of the National Book Fair kicked off here on Friday with an aim of encouraging the habit of book reading, officials said. The 3-day event, held at the National Library of Cambodia, exhibited tens of thousands of books from about 30 libraries, ...

Approximately 1,500 young Cambodian people on Saturday performed the “Madison,” a popular dance during Khmer wedding receptions and New Year celebrations, here in order to call for an end of violence against women and girls, an organizer said. Inala Fathimath, a gender program specialist at the ...

Three months after it began buying up rice stock, the Cambodia Rice Bank (CRB) has acquired about 20,000 tonnes of paddy and 7,000 tonnes of milled rice, a representative from the bank said on Friday. According to Phou Puy, chairman and CEO of the CRB, the ...

Public and private sector representatives have urged the Cambodian government to fast-track policies to foster a more “formalised”, compliant and productive small- to medium-size enterprise (SME) sector. Chea Serey, director general at the National Bank of Cambodia said the high cost of regulatory compliance, a ...

Conservation groups have called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to address “the elephant in the room” and lobby Laos’ president to postpone his country’s controversial Don Sahong dam project when the leaders meet later this week. Arriving on Thursday, Laotian Head of State Choummaly Sayasone will ...

Feasibility studies on achieving Geographical Indication status for Thma Koul rice, Kampot durian and Cambodian golden silk have been completed, officials said yesterday. Ouk Prachea, secretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce, said the ministry was waiting for the results of the studies done by ...

Working with Unicef, Cambodia will develop a 10-year national strategy to boost birth-registration rates and build an integrated database encompassing identity records for the entire population, recently released tender documents reveal. Among the challenges to improving the birth-registration system, according to Kosalvathanak, is a lack ...

Phnom Penh residents are spending big bucks eating at restaurants, thanks to rising demand for high-quality meals among office workers and other members of the middle class, a new study by Park Cafe Food and Beverage revealed yesterday. The study estimated that about $1.53 million was ...

A decorative gate erected in Siem Reap province’s Angkor Archaeological Park for the upcoming Khmer New Year festivities was burned down in the early hours of yesterday morning, following a backlash against its so-called Vietnamese design. Siem Reap Deputy Governor Bun Tharith said the gate – ...

As ASEAN heads toward greater economic integration at the end of the year, a Cambodian advocate says more needs to be done in the region for women’s rights. Asean has a working group for women’s issues, but the region faces challenges in social and economic equality, ...

Two weeks of strikes by Cambodian garment workers of a Phnom Penh factory could have “negatively impacted” the country’s industry, The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has said.  Figures published last week by GMAC showed the number of strikes at Cambodia’s garment factories during ...

As the ruling party prepares this week to elect a president and deputy president following Chea Sim’s death on June 8, the Ministry of Interior has lashed out at an international rights group that last week linked Sim to Khmer Rouge abuses. Though he was lauded ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance is urging ministries to avoid overlapping each other’s programs when it comes to tackling the Kingdom’s long-lamented human resource skills gap. A workshop was held yesterday between the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour, the private ...

More than 100 men, women and children rounded up from Phnom Penh’s streets last week remained in detention yesterday at the notorious Prey Speu Social Affairs Centre, with orders from City Hall to keep them there indefinitely. The detainees – who authorities say are either homeless, ...

In a new study of Cambodia’s garment and footwear industry, the independent conflict resolution Arbitration Council has found that labour strikes are often triggered by factors that could be avoided through better communication between workers and management. Data from the study – which will be published ...

Cambodia was ranked higher than other CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam) for the readiness of private and state-owned organisations to deal with external economic changes, according to the Change 2015 Readiness Index released by KPMG. The international auditing firm’s report shows that Cambodia was the ...