Election monitoring groups are questioning the National Election Committee (NEC) recent decision to let a Phnom Penh casino fund its new multi-million dollar headquarters, a move they said would cast further doubt on the body’s independence. NagaCorp, the owner of Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino, NagaWorld, ...

The 44th economic ministers (AEM) meeting and related meetings will be held from 25 August-1 September, 2012 in Siem Reap province. The ministers will focus on the economic community in 2015 and boost economic council to move forward  because this community is going smoother than other two ...

THE Australian Federal Police will reopen corruption inquiries into major Australian companies OZ Minerals and Cochlear, after searing criticism that it was lax in its investigations. OZ Minerals will be targeted following discussions with the OECD about the AFP’s previous investigation of alleged foreign ...

With an average of 1,100 additions every day, a new user joins Facebook in Cambodia every two minutes, according to estimates from social media marketing and advertising agency Social Media Plus. Founder of Social Media Plus Anthony Galliano said more and more companies operating in Cambodia ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen encouraged the public to help the country by drinking beer during the inauguration of the new $60 million Khmer Brewery factory in Phnom Penh yesterday. “Don’t forget, [if you] drink one bottle or one can of beer, how much will the state ...

Villagers detained during a bloody crackdown in Kratie province last week in which a 14-year-old was shot dead have accused security forces of brutal acts of cruelty, including forcing pregnant women to stand naked in the sun for hours. The villagers from Pro Ma village in ...

Female union leaders in the garment industry – where women constitute 90 per cent of the work force – are effective at bargaining for better working conditions, but their voices aren’t being heard in a union landscape dominated by men, a labour expert said yesterday. Veasna ...

More than 100 villagers from Svay Rieng province’s Romeas Hek district protested yesterday on land they say was stolen from them in 2007 and recently cleared by a former community representative, whose uncle is a local commune chief Villagers said lang Hai, who acted as ...

At the M&V International Manufacturing Factory in Kompong Chhnang province last week, 5,000 workers filed through the gates, sat behind their neat rows of sewing machines and refused to work. A year earlier, hundreds of female workers had fainted at the factory after complaining of ...

Mam Sonando, beleaguered owner of the independent beehive Radio station, was arrested at his Phnom Penh home yesterday morning on a raft of charges relating to a so-called secessionist movement that authorities supposedly disbanded in Kratie earlier this year. More than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed ...

Local authorities, including a heavily armed police officer, broke up a training session on land rights in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district on Friday, claiming the two groups had no legal right to hold such a meeting. The move marks the second time in less than a ...

Of course the BRIC countries are far from being the only emerging market suppliers for the global apparel sector – and a knot of competitors such as Bangladesh and Vietnam have long been vying for business. But there are smaller players (in terms of the ...

The U.S. will address human rights abuses in Cambodia and urge Prime Minister Hun Sen to conduct free and fair elections and end a culture of land grabbing during President Barack Obama’s visit to Phnom Penh next week. Samantha Power, senior director for Multilateral Affairs and ...

Cambodia is considered “the most promising country” in the ASEAN community where Thai business entrepreneurs could set up trade and investment projects, according to a noted Thai academic and economist. Roongrote Benjamasuthin, director of the University of Thai ChamBer of Commerce’s ASEAN Business & Economic Center, ...

FARMERS’ crop yields are being undercut by unregistered middlemen selling fake fertiliser, and government efforts to combat this have proved ineffective, according to independent research from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). CDRI’s preliminary research, conducted as part of a larger program investigating agricultural policies for ...

High production costs and a lack of government assistance is keeping rice farmers near the poverty line despite unprecedented growth in the sector, according to a new study released by local microfinance institution Intean Poalroath Rongroeurng (IPR). The independent study, conducted by two Cambodian researchers ...

While the financial problems of Europe created a worried mood for the Group of 20 leaders at Los Cabos, Mexico, last week, a bright spot was Prime Minister Hun Sen’s representation of Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship, according to lawyer and government adviser Sok Siphana, who accompanied ...

Inside a nondescript villa in central Phnom Penh, men and women in white lab coats peer through lenses, carefully studying the magnified objects in front of them. But these aren’t biologists researching cell division or bacteria; these are gem testers concerned with inclusions and refractive indices on rubies, sapphires and other precious stones. They are working ...

Prak Thon says he will give up everything to stop a Chinese company from destroying his pagoda in Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district. “I’ll allow them to demolish my house, but I will not allow them to destroy the pagoda. I’m satisfied if I die, ...

CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat visited families embroiled in a long-standing land dispute with a Thai-owned sugar company on Monday in an attempt to convince them to drop their complaints against the firm at the court, villagers and officials said yesterday. The visit comes as pressure ...