More than 130 people died and nearly 300 were injured in accidents caused by natural disasters across the country this year, according to a government official.Keo Vy, the cabinet chief and a spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management, told Khmer Times yesterday that ...

Brick prices in Cambodia have risen sharply in the last year, a trend that has accelerated over the first two months of this year due to growing demand from the rapidly developing coastal town of Sihanoukville. The price of 10,000 bricks hovered around $180 early ...

The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a letter to the National Election Committee (NEC), asking them to help Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand to register to vote in communes along the Thai border. The letter, signed by acting party president Kem Sokha yesterday and ...

Three people have drowned and more than 3,000 have been evacuated since flash flooding struck a trio of provinces late last week. Yesterday, the Cambodian Red Cross said it was mobilising aid and planned to have packages of rice, canned fish, noodles and other materials in ...

Citibank, one of the largest banks in the US, showed stronger interest in Cambodia yesterday when the Bangkok-based Thailand head of the big international bank met with Economy and Finance Minister Kheat Chhon. Mey Vann said Citibank recognized that Cambodia had a good investment climate and incentives ...

The Garment Manufacturer’s Association in Cambodia (GMAC) signed a $3.5 million loan agreement with French international development agency Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) yesterday to build Cambodia’s first garment sector training school. The school will train Cambodia’s unskilled garment workers and other Cambodians who wish to ...

Following a dam breach in Pursat province, ruling CPP lawmakers yesterday defended the government’s primary plan to tackle its energy crisis by contracting Chinese companies to build hydropower dams on the country’s rivers. A section of concrete tunnel at the Stung Atai dam in Pursat province ...

The planned theme of yesterday’s ASEAN defence ministers roundtable was military cooperation between countries, particularly in times of natural disaster, but it was a theme invariably pushed to the background by other regional developments. Among them was what appeared to be a cooling-off period in the ...

The 21st ASEAN Summit opened in Phnom Penh yesterday under the theme One Community, One Destiny, with meetings during the three-day event expected to tackle such issues as measures to build the ASEAN Community, regional peace and security, and strengthening co-operation between the bloc’s member ...

The southwestern areas along the Vietnam – Cambodia border are now in their usual busy time of the year, with smuggled goods entering the country with near impunity. Most of the markets in the Mekong Delta are flooded with various contraband products, mostly brought from China ...

More than 20 union members and workers at a factory in Kandal province rallied around a union leader yesterday, fearing that he would be arrested after police called him in for questioning. Lor Sopheak, national secretary-general of the Khmer Workers Power Co-operation Union [KWPCU] and an ...

In an effort to bolster bilateral trade, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh and his Thai counterpart, Boonsong Teriyapirom, agreed in Bangkok on Sunday to establish a special economic border zone, Thai media reported yesterday. Though it remained unclear when or where the zone would be set up, ...

The number of protests over land disputes increased in 2011 as forced resettlement, restrictions on freedom of assembly and the harassment of peaceful protesters continued to tarnish Cambodia’s human rights record, Amnesty International said in its annual report released yesterday. Noting the huge impact of economic ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has told villagers they should not to protest in land disputes but rather seek help from authorities following a spate of violent crackdowns on demonstrations. The premier said protests affect public order and claimed they sometimes become violent in a statement signed ...

A Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district yesterday agreed to pay $4,000 in compensation to an ethnic Jarai community whose traditional graveyard was bulldozed by the firm last week, local officials said. During a meeting at the Paknhai commune police station, representatives of the ...

Companies that invest in land and resources in emerging economies risk financial and public relations disasters if local inhabitants feel they are getting ripped off, consultants warned in a report last week. The report was released by a group known as the Munden Project The ...

Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to set up specialised agricultural export zones along the border inside Cambodia in a bid to curb any suspension of cross-border trade from Thailand, as well as to achieve a 30 per cent increase in bilateral trade year-on-year, commerce official ...

H&M workers in Cambodia are only paid 3 kronor ($0.45) an hour, forcing many into debt to feed their families, according to a report on the TV4 documentary Kalla Fakta (The Cold Facts) Many textile workers therefore borrow money for food, leading to considerable debts with ...

Lao officials and executives of a Thai construction company conducted a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday in Xayaburi to inaugurate the first dam to be built on the lower mainstream Mekong, putting to one side concerns that the dam could devastate fisheries in Cambodia and Vietnam. Prior to ...

The government-backed Rural Development Bank has handed a $4.5 million loan to a company planning to invest in Cambodia’s efforts to export more milled rice. Rural Development Bank chairman Son Kuon Thor said yesterday that the bank was giving the loan to a new company ...