News

Human rights groups in Cambodia fear a new south-east Asian declaration of human rights could conversely offer the government in Phnom Penh a figleaf to clamp down on dissent. Cambodia signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights declaration on Sunday, two days ...

Only about 5 percent of the roughly 2,000 major development projects, such as dams, roads and bridges, approved by the government between 2004 and 2011 carried out environmental impact assessments, an official at the ministry of Environment said yesterday. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh ...

More studies should be conducted on the controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province in order to understand its potential social and environmental effects, Conservation International (C.I.) said in a statement. The Lower Sesan 2-as well as other dams planned for the Sesan, Srepok ...

Prudential Plc, the U.K.’s biggest insurer by market value, plans to begin selling insurance in Cambodia in the first quarter of next year to extend its presence in Asia across 13 markets. The firm is hiring sales agents and expects to gain a license to operate ...

Government and U.N. officials yesterday completed the draft of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) that is designed to guarantee the fair treatment and safety of Cambodian domestic workers in Malaysia. The new draft MoU is an amendment to an earlier, much-criticized version create by Malaysia, ...

They’re known as the BK13 and they’re not prepared to let greedy developers take the very, very little they have. They’re 13 women – mothers, grandmothers – who live around what used to be Boeung Kak Lake – not far from the centre of Cambodia’s ...

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 ...

In his first public speech following this week’s ASEAN summit, Prime Minister Hun Sen offered lavish praise for China’s financial largesse and congratulations for its newly appointed Communist Party heads. Speaking to thousands of villagers during a ceremony to inaugurate National Road 8 in Prey ...

Factory workers should get a reduction or exemption from paying income tax as the deductions are forcing them into poverty, the Free Trade Union (FTU) wrote in a letter to Finance Minister Keat Chon. ...

Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Vietnam Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises, and the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Association for Economic Cooperation Development jointly held the Mekong Sub-region Investment Cooperation Forum with the theme of Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle before the New Challenges and Opportunities in Buon Ma Thuot ...

Siam Commercial Bank will begin expanding its footprint across the region in anticipation of greater business opportunities and competitive pressures with the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2016. SCB, Thailand’s third-largest bank in terms of assets, operates branches in Laos, Singapore and Hong ...

Microfinance institution Sathapana has increased its maximum loan size to US$200,000, a 300 per cent increase from the previous level of $50,000. The upgrade in loan size is a result of Cambodia’s good economic climate and the expectation that there will be demand among customers for ...

Forestry police let a vehicle with a half cubic meter of rosewood go Wednesday after border soldiers stopped it in Ou Svay commune in Tropang Prosat district. The vehicle belonged to Rath Sambo, a police officer at the Ministry of Interior who fled the scene, sources ...

Cambodia on Thursday inaugurated a 133-km China-funded national road No. 8 in Prey Veng province, hoping that the road will contribute to promoting social and economic development in the country’s eastern part. The road, which connects from Prek Tamak Mekong River Bridge to Vietnam border, cost ...

Despite the fact that the Chairman’s Statement of the recently wrapped 21st ASEAN Summit welcomed progress on regional “connectivity”, a long-awaited joint visa for Thailand and Cambodia remains stalled. Koy Kuong, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that there is still no progress ...

An official at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy expressed concern that if the quality of Cambodian produced goods does not improve, Cambodia is likely to become largely a retailer of foreign goods when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is realised in 2015. Meng Saktheara, ...

He came, he said nothing, he left. Publicly at least, President Barack Obama, the first US head of state to visit the Kingdom, uttered not a single word to the Cambodian people, although many have noted that he was extremely pressed for time. Cambodians, from the ...

It was a major event for Cambodia. Some 35 years after flying for the last time with a Boeing 707 from Phnom Penh to Paris, French national carrier Air France-KLM was back to the Cambodian capital. The flight was first operated with an Airbus A340-300, ...

The United Nations‘ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicts the paddy output in Cambodia this year will decline, according to its Rice Market Monitor (RMM) issued on Monday. Paddy output in Asia is forecast at 661 million tonnes, or 441 million tonnes on a milled basis, ...

Troubled Cambodian telecoms operator Mfone will be disposed of by its parent company, Thaicom, in the coming weeks for $100 to INT Management Service Company Limited (INT), according to a filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Shenington Investment, a subsidiary of Thaicom and the ...

Land prices along National Road 4 still have the potential to rise, despite the relocation of a number of factories to National Road 3, property experts say. The price of land goes from $100 to $300 per square metre from Chaom Chao cycle to the ...

Cambodia’s ASEAN economic minister said the official launch of the negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will lead to potentially forming the biggest single market in the region and is much bigger than the traditional markets of the US and the EU. An economist ...

A plan to create a free trade area covering roughly half the world’s population by 2015 was initiated yesterday by regional and world leaders meeting in Phnom Penh. During the Asean and related meetings at his office, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that the group of ...

Further comprehensive economic co-operation and expansion among ASEAN’s member states, East Asia and its development partners was imperative for managing risks and impacts from the fragile global economy, Prime Minister and ASEAN chairman Hun Sen said during the ASEAN Global Dialogue yesterday. The dialogue brought together ...