Cambodia’s tourism sector has emerged from a “mystery disease” scare unscathed, industry insiders said yesterday, although some regional health authorities noted what the World Health Organisation called an outbreak of Enterovirus-71 (EV-71), which has killed at least 52 children in the Kingdom. “The disease has only href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/tourism-not-hurt-by-outbreak/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Families forced to move by the rehabilitation of the Phnom Penh stretch of the national railway petitioned the Asian Development Bank yesterday for help with their livelihoods. About 50 people gathered outside the ADB’s office to submit a petition representing more than 160 families relocated to href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/railway-evictees-seek-adb-aid/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The government has granted private companies the right to develop about 65,000 hectares of land in wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and on public reserves since January 1, data from a human rights group reveals. Ouch Leng, land reform project coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/new-year-ringing-in-myriad-concessions/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The temples of Angkor in Cambodia are known for their lost-world feel, thanks in part to trees and vegetation that have colonized the structures. While giant roots and trunks pouring over ancient blocks and carvings look cool, the trees are actually a destructive force acting on href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/when-trees-are-cut-down-angkors-temples-begin-to-crumble/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Cambodian maid in Malaysia has committed suicide, another was allegedly raped by her employer and a third tortured, according to rights groups and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is investigating the cases. An 18-year-girl is being sheltered at the Cambodian embassy after she was href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/more-cambodian-maid-abuse-revelations/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

All but a handful of foreign journalists on staff at The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s last remaining independent daily newspaper, resigned on Wednesday. Citing differences over the meaning of “editorial independence,” they quit within days after new owners fired its editor-in-chief who refused to remove a published href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/at-cambodias-last-independent-newspaper-top-editor-fired-foreign-journalists-quit/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

As the latest UN climate change conference begins today in Doha, Qatar, a coalition of Cambodian NGOs is joining calls for developed countries to bear more of the burden of combating climate change. Cambodia and other poor countries are unprepared to deal with rapid climate change href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/coalition-of-cambodian-ngos-calls-for-help-with-climate-change/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The number of Cambodia’s outbound travelers increased by 10 percent year-on-year to 871,000 last year, a report of the Ministry of Tourism showed Tuesday. Ang Kim Eang, president of Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, which represents about 220 tour and travel companies, said most of Cambodian href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/about-871000-cambodians-travel-abroad-in-2013-up-10-pct/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Nasdaq-listed Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc, a company linked to Macau casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd, is selling its assets in Cambodia. The sale includes all assets of Dreamworld Leisure with the exception of all electronic gaming machines, and prohibits any use of the Dreamworld href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/melcos-unit-disposes-of-cambodia-assets/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia welcomed 3.6 million overseas tourists in the first 10 months of 2014, up 6 percent compared to the same period last year, a tourism official said on Wednesday. Kong Sopheareak, chief of the statistics and planning department at the Ministry of Tourism, said the top href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-receives-3-6-mln-overseas-tourists-in-10-months/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

According to a new survey, land disputes in Cambodia lead to employment insecurity, causing poverty, food insecurity, and increasing physical and psychological insecurity. The survey found that most expressed a desire for the government to eliminate land disputes and set a clear policy to address href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/survey-finds-deep-discontent-as-cambodian-land-disputes-continue/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

After more than a year of speculation on Cambodian rice exports to China, a rice exporter this week said China has granted the Kingdom permission to ship milled rice northward. Despite a growing stack of quasi-agreements for exports, regulatory issues have plagued the prospects of tapping href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/china-oks-kingdom-rice/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s ASEAN Economic Minister yesterday urged small and medium-size enterprises to focus on countries in Southeast Asia, rather than Europe and the United States, for export destinations. Cham Prasidh, also the minister of commerce, said yesterday that regional markets have traditionally held a second place to href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/smes-look-to-regional-buyers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Loans and deposits at Cambodia’s 31 commercial banks grew 35 per cent and 25 per cent respectively during the first quarter of the year on what insiders called increased soundness in the Kingdom’s financial sector. Outstanding loans at the end of March hit US$4.6 billion, according href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/banks-see-growth-in-q1/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

An ASEAN-first Interpol database tracking transnational crime between Cambodia and Vietnam was launched in Phnom Penh yesterday. Keo Vannthan, head of Cambodia’s Interpol Bureau at the Ministry of Interior, said the European Union had pledged almost US$800,000 to the pilot EU-ASEAN Migration Border Management Program project href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/border-crime-in-interpols-sights/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Questions remained yesterday about the fate of mobile operator Beeline Cambodia following the sale of parent company Vimpelcom’s Vietnamese assets earlier in the week. Despite a report on Tuesday in the Russian newspaper Kommersant that sources close to Vimpelcom’s shareholders had said the sale of Cambodian operations was under consideration, company officials href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/beeline-officials-mum-on-sales-buzz/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Amid a spate of garment factory strikes – including one at Tai Yang Enterprises that has lasted more than a month – Cambodia’s Arbitration Council yesterday said it wanted the industry to renew a memorandum of understanding on industrial action that has been in limbo href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/mou-the-key-to-compliance/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

In the space of only about two months, the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia had helped eight Cambodian maids whose employers abused them, the government said yesterday. “The maids have been mistreated by their employers and some have finished their contracts and want to come back home,” Ministry href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/more-maids-head-home/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Global sportswear giant Nike has asked the International Labour Organisation’s industry monitoring body to investigate the two mass fainting incidents at its supplier Sabrina (Cambodia) Manufacturing last week and report its finding to it, Nike said yesterday. “Nike has requested ILO Better [Factories] Cambodia, the industry href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/nike-seeks-investigation-of-mass-fainting-incidents/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodian prosecutors have received a new request from Russia to extradite Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky, TASS reported on Tuesday. The news agency’s source at the Cambodian Prosecutor General’s Office said the request was based on civil claims filed against Polonsky. He said that those who lost href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-receives-new-russian-request-to-extradite-fugitive-tycoon-polonsky/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...