Conservationists remain wary of the government’s recent pledge to sideline construction of the controversial Chhay Areng hydropower dam after finding the project on the Mines and Energy Ministry’s new to-do list.After a February 17 Council of Ministers meeting, the government announced that plans to build ...

Kampot pepper sales both locally and internationally have continued to be strong since gaining coveted geographical indication (GI) status from the European Union in February, while domestic pepper competitors have complained of falling prices, industry figures said yesterday. Kampot Pepper Promotion Association president, Nguon Lay, told ...

The government is working on a policy to encourage imports of high-quality electric buses. Chhoun Voun, director-general of the Department of Land Transport at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, told Khmer Times yesterday they are drafting a “land transport policy” that will include ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday dropped a complaint against five union representatives at the Ocean Garment factory in Pur Senchey district who were accused by management at the firm of inciting weeks of protests. Workers have been demonstrating since Aug. 11, demanding the factory fire a manager ...

With a court date hanging over his head for his involvement in the Tai Yang factories strike in Kandal province, Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun yesterday intervened in another garment dispute, this time in Kampong Speu province. About 1,000 workers entered day five of ...

Bloggers from across Asia came together in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap this weekend to discuss blogging, technology and Internet freedom at 2012’s Blogfest Asia festival, a gathering of over 160 opinionated and distinctly geeky participants. Tops on the agenda? Internet freedom.  The Cambodian contingent ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme announced in June originally included a directive for granting collective property titles to indigenous communities, but this part of the program was scrapped weeks later as it was deemed too costly and time-consuming, documents obtained yesterday show. For “indigenous ...

More than 16,000 hectares of rice paddies are currently being affected by drought across the country, officials said yesterday. “There wasn’t enough rain for the rice this year, ” said Nhep Srorn, director of Takeo province’s agriculture department. Pich Sokhin, governor of Oddar Meanchey province, said ...

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 ...

A Cambodian court has jailed a 71-year-old broadcaster and land rights campaigner for 20 years after finding him guilty of leading an anti-state rebellion, a verdict condemned by activists as the latest crackdown on human rights. Three judges at the Phnom Penh court convicted Sonando, who ...

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 ...

Better communication from authorities in Cambodia and Vietnam might have prevented the deaths of villagers and the destruction of homes in Ratanakkiri at times when water has been released from Vietnam’s Yali Falls dam, researchers said yesterday. Speaking at a national workshop about the Yali Falls ...

A majority of small and medium enterprises in Cambodia were not registered, despite the advantages it offered to businesses, participants at a workshop on business registration procedure, intellectual property and business etiquette for women heard yesterday. Referring to 2011 statistics, Chan Sorey, vice-minister of the Ministry ...

For the second time, an investigating judge at Ratanakirri Provincial Court has closed the investigation into the murder of Virakchun Khmer newspaper journalist Hang Serei Oudom. Odom was found dead in the trunk of his car. The murder happened only days after an article about ...

Some 200 Koh Kong farmers locked in a long-running land dispute with two sugar plantations met Tuesday with a representative of the Thailand-based owners for the first time since the land dis­pute began in 2006. Khamrom Phochai, a Thai national and representative of Thai­land’s Khon Kaen ...

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 ...

After a two-year hiatus, the CamBuild, CamFood and CamHotel exhibitions are back at Diamond Island this week, starting on Wednesday and going through to Friday. Andrew Siow, director of the Kuala Lumpur-headquartered AMB Exhibitions, says the three industry shows at the same time should attract more ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged one of its own clerks [Kruoch Borath] with breach of trust for taking $250,000 dollars that was paid to the clerk to facilitate a speedy trial without “problems,” officials said. [Another clerk for Judge Lim Meng] Mr. Khen ...

Kampong Chhnang villagers who have been hit with a new lawsuit over property that they and the wife of a senior government official both claim said yesterday that coming to court would be impossible, as they did not have a defense lawyer and needed time to locate ...

Cambodia imported almost 10 times as many used clothes as new ones in the first 11 months of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Some 79,217 tonnes of used garments worth $61.5 million were brought in during that period, compared ...