In a rare acknowledgement of deforestation concerns, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO, said the widespread clearing of forests around Angkor Wat was harming views of the historic temple complex. Sok An made the remarks in Siem Reap at a lass='cambodia-color'>...

The government, this year, intends to transfer it’s budget to individual town district authorities, and to vouchsafe into their hands from 2013 onward, aiming to push forward decentralization, said an interior ministry official. The budget, of on average US$ 35,000 per year, is in process of being transferred to the individual 193 town-district authorities across lass='cambodia-color'>...

The president of the Philippines, a major Asean claimant to portions of the South China Sea, says the country wants the right to solve its problems on the world stage. But Asean leaders on Tuesday sought to downplay his remarks and said they did not lass='cambodia-color'>...

Over 70 judges and justice ministry officials from throughout ASEAN gathered at a U.S.-supported ASEAN legal and judicial cooperation workshop in Cambodia this week for an unprecedented exchange of ideas on the rule of law in the ASEAN region. Representatives from the ASEAN Senior law Officials Meeting (ASlOM), ASEAN Member State judicial bodies, and the ASEAN lass='cambodia-color'>...

The Institute of Bankers Malaysia (IBBM) has launched the Chartered Banker qualification for the Cambodian banking industry to develop talents in the banking industry in that country. The launch of the Chartered Banker qualifications was officiated today by the National Bank of Cambodia Deputy General lass='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s opposition has been in talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen to find a deal to end the political crisis caused by last year’s disputed general election and a compromise may be near, two analysts briefed on the matter said. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and his lass='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s national election in July ranked 69th out of 73 elections held worldwide between mid-2012 and the end of 2013 for electoral integrity, an election research group based at the University of Sydney and Harvard University has found. The Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) collected assessments from lass='cambodia-color'>...

The International labor Organization said it would launch on Wednesday two reports outlining ways to improve the investment climate in Cambodia. The first report, by the IlO, analyses Cambodia’s performance in 17 areas and contains a national survey of workers and employers. Key areas include lass='cambodia-color'>...

The Kingdom’s fifth National Assembly is to open its second session today, more than six months after the opposition party boycotted the inauguration of parliament on September 23 and left 68 Cambodian People’s Party lawmakers to swear-in at the Royal Palace on their own. According to lass='cambodia-color'>...

Laos wiLL push ahead with its ambition to become the &Ldquo;battery of Southeast Asia,” pLanning a Mekong River dam that has drawn opposition from neighbors and threatens to invoLve China and the U.S. Four Mekong River nations are scheduLed to meet June 26-27 in ThaiLand to Lass='cambodia-coLor'>...

Villagers who will be displaced if the controversial lower Sesan II dam is built called on the developers yesterday to postpone construction for five years, allowing time for a comprehensive resettlement scheme to be devised. But a government official dismissed their request as “beyond the pale”, lass='cambodia-color'>...

The main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has suspended its participation in election reform talks with the ruling party at the senior officials level, calling instead for a meeting between opposition chief Sam Rainsy and Prime Minister Hun Sen to break an eight-month stalemate. The lass='cambodia-color'>...

Democracy is in retreat since July’s national election as the ruling CPP has increasingly used armed forces to protect its grip on power and stubbornly refused to reform state institutions, the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) said in a new report lass='cambodia-color'>...

A journalist has filed a complaint with the Pursat provincial court alleging that a soldier threatened to kill him on Sunday after he wrote a series of damning articles linking the soldier to illegal rosewood trafficking, court officials confirmed Tuesday. Both the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces lass='cambodia-color'>...

Senior CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun on Friday denounced eight arrested CNRP officials as anarchists and said that Tuesday’s violent clash at Freedom Park was worse than riots in January in which military police shot dead at least five protesting garment factory workers. Speaking at a press lass='cambodia-color'>...

Sam Rainsy is preparing a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen to seek negotiation between the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), an opposition official told The Cambodia Herald on Wednesday. The political deadlock in Cambodia has been lasting for lass='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s main opposition party plans to resume mass demonstrations against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government by holding a “people’s congress” in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday to gauge public feedback on stalled election reform negotiations. Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) President Sam Rainsy said his lass='cambodia-color'>...

Two union leaders were summonsed and questioned by a municipal court prosecutor yesterday over allegations they illegally detained the boss of a packaging factory in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune during a strike. According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Ek Chheng Huoth, lass='cambodia-color'>...

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen swept 2,543 out of the country’s 3,333 seats in the 2nd elections for municipal, provincial, and district councilors on Sunday, according to the preliminary results issued by the CPP. The main opposition Cambodia National Rescue lass='cambodia-color'>...

Officials backed by a small detachment of gendarmerie seconded from the National Military Police are preparing for potentially violent confrontations with security forces employed by illegal mining companies, an official said yesterday. Meng Saktheara, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, yesterday lass='cambodia-color'>...