Hattha Kaksekar Limited, one of the country’s largest microfinance institutions (MFIs), is in talks to become a commercial bank by 2014, an official at the micro-lender said yesterday. The move, if successful, will be in line with the Central Bank’s policy to support MFIs in diversifying ...

Domestic rubber prices are likely to stay below 120 baht a kilogramme over the next five years due to the sluggish world economic outlook that has sapped demand. The lingering euro-zone debt crisis, weak growth in rubber-using countries and rising production in Asean will continue to ...

Cambodia continues to rank among the most corrupt countries in the world and much needs to be done to enforce the Anti-Corruption Law and investigate allegations of corruption, Transparency International (T.I.) Cambodia said yesterday. According to T.I.’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Cambodia ranked 157th among ...

It’s no finalized yet as contracts still have to be signed, but it looks as if another bike maker from Taiwan is setting up shop in Cambodia. It will the 4th one which is to benefit from the duty and quota free status Cambodia made ...

Human rights groups yesterday decried the result of the government’s investigation into the murder of forestry activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, saying that there were many holes in the official finding. On Saturday, the government committee charged with investigating the killings in ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday thanked voters for the CPP’s overwhelming victory in Sunday’s commune election and told opposition parties that their plans for a coalition will not stop the ruling party’s dominance in the polls. Speaking for the first time since the elections, Mr. Hun ...

One and a half million children still toil as laborers in Cambodia’s fisheries, brick factories, agricultural plantations and construction sites, government officials said yesterday at an event held at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum ahead of World Day Against Child Labor on Tuesday. The government has set ...

Heavily subsidized prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas for vehicles (NGV) in Thailand draw dozens of cars daily from Cambodia to refill their tanks in this Thai border town. But complaints that too many Cambodians are getting a free ride, or rather a ...

The sugar palm is a national symbol for Cambodia. Harvested by the country’s poor for centuries, no part of the palm tree goes to waste in a process that fashions the tree into a range of products. The durable and strong leaves are weaved into ...

As the remains of the county’s forests fall to rapacious illegal loggers and to make way for the government-awarded economic land concessions, officials tasked with forestry protection are hoping newlywed couples can build a last line of defense. “Wedding gardens”- green spaces where newly-married couples are ...

The Japanese government has provided $118,996 for constructing a cassava propagation and distribution centre in Battambang province. The fund comes in response to the recent challenges facing farmers in the province who are facing a shortage of cassava trees to plant. Kumamaru Yuji, Japanese ambassador to ...

Cambodia observed the Forest Day on Tuesday, urging people to plant trees in order to ensure the sustainability of forest and environment. The celebration was presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni and attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen and senior officials of the government, the parliament, ...

Thailand’s PTT Cambodia, a subsidiary of the kingdom’s state-owned oil and gas conglomerate PTT Public Company Limited, expects to more than double the amount of petrol stations it manages in Cambodia by the end of 2017, a senior executive in the company said this week. ...

Phnom Penh municipal governor Pa Socheatvong maintained Wednesday that the city would partially demolish two buildings near the Royal Palace because they exceed the height limit stated in their contracts, though he did not specify when the demolition would occur. One building, owned by Vattanac ...

Cambodia’s health ministry today announced two more H5N1 avian flu cases, both in children, the hardest-hit group in that country so far. The patients are a 9-year-old boy from Battambang province and a 5-year-old girl from Kandal province, according to a joint statement today from Cambodia’s ...

Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Wednesday that information sector has played a very important role to further enhance ties and cooperation between Cambodia and China, saying that Cambodia is looking forward to broadening information cooperation with China. “Information sector is a potential and effective way ...

Banteay Chhmar Community-Based Tourism project is a group of local villagers from the Banteay Chhmar community dedicated to preserving and protecting the cultural heritage of their local temple site. Khiri Travel is aiming to create a responsible tourism industry in the town of Banteay Chhmar. The CBT ...

More than 1,500 villagers plan to march to the Anti-Corruption Unit and National Assembly in Phnom Penh on Thursday in defiance of a fresh ban issued by City Hall prohibiting them from doing so. The villagers form a group known as the Land Communities for Peace ...

Authorities say they have recovered a priceless gold urn believed to contain the ashes of the Buddha from a house in Takeo province’s Traing district. Kandal provincial police chief Eav Chamroeun said officers arrested two suspects yesterday, in the process seizing back the urn, along with ...

Two political activists were injured by district security guards outside the Daun Penh district office Monday morning after a protest to free 21 protesters beaten and imprisoned during a strike in January turned into an effort to reclaim a confiscated protest drum. The protesters, dressed in ...