Government spending next year will total more than $3 billion, a 16.2 percent increase from the $2.6 billion set aside for 2012, according to a draft of the national budget obtained Friday. The budget states that the government will allocate some $400 million, or 13.32 ss='cambodia-color'>...

Maruhan Japan Bank yesterday became the first commercial bank in Cambodia to make a direct equity investment into a microfinance institution by becoming sathapana’s majority shareholder, with a 95.1 per cent stake. Financial details were not disclosed. The shareholders who sold out to Maruhan were FMO, ss='cambodia-color'>...

The Kingdom’s consumer price index declined by 0.1 per cent in October for the first time in 2012 due to a decline in food and gasoline prices and a stable Us dollar exchange rate, according to official data released by the National Institute of statistics ss='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun sen mocked a group of ethnic minority villagers who tried to petition him on Friday about their land dispute in northern Cambodia’s Rattanakiri province, after they were stopped from presenting their complaint during his visit on a land-titling campaign. Hun sen was ss='cambodia-color'>...

Hun Sen announced that 1.5 mln hectareS of Economic Land ConceSSionS were granted to private companieS. 1.2 mln hectareS, 80 percent, of the conceSSionS are uSed for rubber plantation Sector. He Said, that Cambodia Still maintain[S] 9.2 mln hectareS of foreSt land even though 1.5 mln SS='cambodia-color'>...

The Pursat Provincial court on Friday charged Krakor district’s judicial police bureau chief for taking bribes in order to allow illegal fishing in the Tonle sap Lake, officials said yesterday. [Hong Bunthoeun] stands accused of accepting bribes to allow illicit fishing in parts of the Tonle ss='cambodia-color'>...

Wholesalers and retailers of bankrupt Cambodian telecommunications company Mfone are seeking compensation for their stock of the mobile provider’s obsolete scratch recharge cards. Wholesalers say the issue is also affecting retailers’ confidence in purchasing recharge cards of other providers, and is slowing sales. Pann Chesda, general manger ss='cambodia-color'>...

The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has issued letters to 11 ethnic Tampuon villagers from the province’s Lumphat district, instructing them to prepare for a hearing over accusations of using violence on the property of rubber company DM Group. DM Group first began setting up rubber plantations in ss='cambodia-color'>...

Officials in Ratanakkiri province are investigating the provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc for incitement after he helped villagers organize a demonstration, ultimately canceled, against a Vietnamese rubber company in O’Yadaw district. Mr. [Chhay] Thy, [Adhoc’s Provincial Investigator] said yesterday that he met with about ss='cambodia-color'>...

Growing cyber attacks on government institutions and infrastructure could pose a threat to Cambodia’s vulnerable banking sector, officials with the National Cambodia Computer Emergency Response Team (CamCert) said yesterday. speaking at the fifth annual Banking and Microfinance Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh yesterday, ss='cambodia-color'>...

In meetings with Interior Minister sar Kheng held on sunday, both the EU and British ambassadors said they did not want opposition demonstrations “which would frighten [the] Cambodian people,” state news agency AKP reported. While the Us government has issued a strongly worded statement since ss='cambodia-color'>...

CAMBODIA needs greater diversification of its exports – especially in the agricultural sector – in order to achieve sustainable economic growth, a senior official said yesterday. Economy and Finance Minister Keat Chhon raised the issue during the annual meeting of the Ministry of Commerce. Commerce Minister ss='cambodia-color'>...

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has committed to provide another $10 mln U.s. in grants to address the environmental crisis engulfing mainland southeast Asia. The ground-breaking biodiversity fund was launched in 2008. During the first phase, $10 mln was invested in efforts to conserve the critical ss='cambodia-color'>...

A U.K. firm being sued by 200 Cambodian farmers over the loss of their land to two sugar plantations has defended its business dealings, claiming that the affected families were dealt with legally and were properly compensated for the loss of their properties. Local farmers ss='cambodia-color'>...

As trade activity between Cambodia and China intensifies, banks are seeing an increase in deals transacted in yuan, the Chinese currency. Operating in Cambodia since 2010, Bank of China’s Phnom Penh Branch has been trying to promote business transactions in yuan, and has seen a significant ss='cambodia-color'>...

A new Malaysian player in Cambodia’s expanding banking sector aims to capture the “emerging affluent” with its mobile and online services. Malaysian-based Hong Leong Bank will begin operating in Phnom Penh today, with a branch on street 214. Joe Farrugia, CEO of Hong Leong Bank Cambodia, ss='cambodia-color'>...

F1soft Company, a software service provider that makes banking transactions available via phone, had commenced operations in Cambodia, company officials said yesterday during a workshop. sean Thorninn, a lecturer in economics at the Limkokwing University and expert in Cambodia’s landscape of microfinance institutions (MFI), told ss='cambodia-color'>...

Human rights workers and other civil society groups on Wednesday urged the competing political parties for July’s election to address the ongoing land crises and illegal deforestation that are hurting indigenous populations. About 100 people from various ethnic minority groups from five provinces attended a forum ss='cambodia-color'>...

Families who claim a foreigner fabricated documents to sell their land to port officials and a military commander more than seven years ago have desperately appealed to government bodies to intervene. The 104 families who have exhausted legal avenues after both the provincial and supreme Court ss='cambodia-color'>...

A 3-year-old boy from Prey Veng province’s Kompong Trabek district has contracted avian influenza, a deadly disease that has killed seven children and two men so far this year in the largest outbreak the country has seen, the Ministry of Health said in a statement ss='cambodia-color'>...