Aid and development

Officials said two people were killed on Tuesday by separate lightning strikes in Pailin and Kompong Cham provinces as the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a warning about seasonal storms spreading across the country. Searing temperatures and the approach of wet season ignited the ...

In the wake of two deaths from separate lightning strikes this week, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a notice yesterday warning against potentially devastating storms lasting from today until Sunday. ...

The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday said it expects Cambodia’s economic growth to slow slightly in 2014. In its annual “Asian Development Outlook,” the bank said it expects to see a drop in the rate from about 7.2 percent last year to 7 percent this year ...

Following a scathing report from its internal watchdog about the resettlement of thousands of Cambodian families affected by a national railway rehabilitation project that it is funding, the Asian Development Bank has agreed with the government on an action plan for further compensation, it said ...

European mega-brands are not doing enough to ensure that the Cambodian workers who make their products receive a basic living wage, according to a report released today. Tailored Wages, an analysis of 50 of Europe’s biggest clothing brands, found that many major high-street chains are doing ...

Residents along Cambodia’s coastline may want to relocate to higher ground in the wake of a climate-change assessment that predicts much of the Kingdom’s coast could be submerged by rising sea levels. Based on predictive models that take into account global temperature trends and melting ice ...

The European Union has launched a call for proposals under the EU thematic programme “Non-State Actors (NSA) and Local Authorities (LA) in Development” for a total of 2.9 Million euros (over 3.9 million USD) in grants to strengthen civil society and to enhance the participation ...

The Cambodian Fisheries Administration has begun a one-year study of a mollusc fishery in Kampong Chhnang province, the Mekong River Commission says. Launched in February and financed by the MRC Fisheries Programme, the pilot study aims to assess the status of the snail and clam fishery ...

The opposition CNRP made another pitch for an end to free trade benefits for Cambodian sugar exports to the European Union at a meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday with visiting European Parliament members, blaming the benefits for effectively subsidizing companies that are evicting poor ...

Cambodia has seen significant improvements in logistics performance in the last four years, a World Bank’s senior official said Wednesday. “According to the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), Cambodia’s LPI ranking has risen spectacularly by 46 places, to 83rd out of 160 countries in 2014, ...

Many maternal fatalities in Cambodia are not being officially recorded, experts have warned. According to Unicef Cambodia, government figures indicate that the country’s maternal death rate is falling, the Phnom Penh Post reports. ...

In 2013, Cambodia welcomed 4.2 million tourists, an increase of 17% from the previous year. This rapid growth of tourist arrivals is expected to continue year on year, raising concerns about how to ensure that local children are only positively impacted by tourism. Tourism destinations attract ...

Japan provides US$11.5 million in grand aids to Cambodia for the implementation of the Project for Expansion of National Maternal and Child Health Center. ...

An official with the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Tuesday that staff there were specifically instructed not to investigate allegations of large-scale bribery inside the Health Ministry so that the unit could settle the case out of court. On Sunday, ACU chief Om Yentieng told reporters ...

Cambodia’s European aid donors said Tuesday they are working on a new five-year “cooperation strategy” designed to increase the impact of the millions of dollars in loans and grants they give the country each year. With a combined $209 million in aid to Cambodia in 2012, ...

It is almost four years since the UN General Assembly declared that water was a human right, meaning every person should have access to safe water and basic sanitation, yet 6.3 million Cambodians do not have this basic necessity, UNICEF said to mark World Water ...

A group of European Union parliamentarians will arrive in the Kingdom today to “study and research” the organisation of elections, the resolution of land disputes, democratic development and EU development projects, according to a statement issued by the National Assembly yesterday. ...

The European Commission (E.C.) will today ban all fish imports from Cambodia, carrying through on its threat made in November to punish the country for failing to show genuine commitment to tackling the global problem of illegal fishing, according to a memo released Friday. The ban, ...

Cambodia continues to shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the world’s tuberculosis victims, with a higher prevalence rate of the extremely contagious respiratory disease than anywhere outside of South Africa, according to the World Health Organization. With the assistance of free screenings and free treatment, the Kingdom ...

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said he has no plans to launch an investigation into Cambodia’s much-criticized sugarcane plantations after a meeting with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Bottom line: Cambodia’s free trade benefits to Europe are safe for ...

The European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht started his visit to Cambodia on Tuesday to bolster bilateral trade link. De Gucht held talks with his Cambodian counterpart Sun Chanthol and both sides agreed to further promote bilateral trade relations for mutual benefits, Ken Ratha, ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy will meet Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at the Australian Parliament on Wednesday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party announced yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s bicycle exports to the European Union are expected to decline this year after changes to EU trade preferences in early January excluded Malaysian and Singaporean parts from the scheme. Under EU preferences, a bicycle is considered a Cambodian product when at least 30 per cent ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday encouraged Cambodia to pick up the slack on its higher-education system in order to bolster the country’s economic competitiveness. “Training human resources is necessary to developing the labour market and encouraging investments,” the premier said during the Royal University of Law ...