Aid and development

Australia-based energy company Star8 officially launched operations on Friday at its solar-powered factory just outside of Phnom Penh. The ceremony marked the commencement of production on solar-powered tuk-tuks, the mainstay of the company. Hun Many, the youngest son of Premier Hun Sen, and Alison Burrows, the Australian ...

Cambodia on Saturday began a one-month intercensal economic survey, aiming to update basic statistics on establishments and enterprises in the country.     Planning Minister Chhay Than announced the survey launching and called for cooperation among the public, particularly enterprise owners and local authorities in order to lead ...

Cambodia on Thursday began to send its first batch of 309 troops to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the conflict-torn West African nation of Mali. “This is the first time that Cambodia sends peacekeepers to Mali. Up to 309 troops are in the 1st ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said that Cambodia’s economy remains strong with an expected growth of 7 percent this year. Hun Sen made the comments during the 2014 Cambodia Outlook Conference on “Cambodia the next five years – Reforms and Competitiveness in Integration Region. ...

The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems ...

Representatives for the hundreds of families facing eviction from homes around Phnom Penh International Airport have agreed to let the compliance ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank, mediate a solution to the land dispute with the ...

Cambodia’s stock exchange will receive a $2.5 million funding injection from the South Korean government in an attempt to draw more corporate interest from companies who may want to go public, according to a recent report on state media site AKP. The funds will go towards ...

The Cambodian Red Cross ( CRC) on Saturday distributed China-donated relief items to victims of last year’s flood, HIV/AIDS patients and disabled people. Bun Rany, CRC President and wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo handed out the relief items ...

Transparency International (T.I.) Cambodia and education NGOs on Friday held a conference titled “Promoting Integrity to Strengthen the Quality of Education in Cambodia,” where ideas were put forward on stamping out corruption in schools. “We need to mobilize the students themselves in tracking the delivery ...

Representatives from the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations on Friday met with senior leaders from the opposition CNRP to discuss the political situation in Cambodia since last year’s disputed national election. In the hourlong meeting at CNRP headquarters, which U.S. delegate Paul Grove declined to comment ...

Cambodia’s poverty rate fell dramatically between 2004 and 2011 – from more than 50 per cent to roughly 20 – but those gains are so precarious that a slight economic shock could send millions plunging back below the poverty line, according to a World Bank ...

The bodies of a 39-year-old woman and her 18-month-old nephew were recovered Thursday two days after a riverbank collapse caused their home in Kandal Province’s Khsach Kandal district to plunge into the Mekong River while they slept, but the woman’s 3-year-old son has not yet ...

During the 10th annual Japan-Cambodia Kizuna Festival, the focus will be on the “kizuna,” or bond in Japanese, between the two countries. The opening ceremony begins at 6 p.m. tonight, and the festival runs until Sunday evening. Admission is free, and more than 10,000 people are ...

A 39-year-old woman and two young children are missing and presumed dead after their home in Preah Prasap commune collapsed into the Mekong River on Tuesday night, a tragedy villagers are blaming on illegal sand dredging of the riverbed. Four other people were injured as a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said that the foreign direct investments in Cambodia would increase in 2014, thanks to the country’s favorable and open policies. Hun Sen made the comments during a ceremony to launch Cambodia Trade Integration Strategy at the Peace Palace. ...

About 20,000 passengers have traveled on Phnom Penh’s limited city bus service since a month-long public transport experiment began two weeks ago, which bodes well for a citywide expansion of the service once the trial ends on March 4, City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said ...

The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) announced the construction of a fifth water treatment station yesterday, saying that without an additional plant, the capital could face a severe clean-water shortage as soon as 2017. Speaking at a press conference organised by the Japanese International Cooperation ...

The World Bank says it will investigate reports from indigenous groups in Cambodia that a company funded by the bank’s International Finance Corporation is involved in deforestation and land grabs. The bank’s Office of the Compliance Adviser Ombudsman, or CAO, will first examine the credibility of ...

UN special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly Maina Kiai, who visited Cambodia two weeks ago, has called on the Kingdom to embrace regular changes in leadership and to take lessons from Africa’s strongman-riddled history, in a column published in Kenya’s Daily Union newspaper on ...

Stringent rules to prove that rice exported from Cambodia is actually from Cambodia will be detailed today, according to a copy of a joint agreement between the Ministry of Commerce and industry associations. The Code of Conduct seeks to reassure the European Union that rice is ...

Ministry of Finance said that Asian Development Bank (ADB) would provide USD773 million in loan for implementation of economic development projects from 2014-2016 in Cambodia. Of the loan, USD573 million would be provided by ADB, while another USD200 million would be lended by another partner through ...

In 2009, a railway project official arrived at 45-year-old Ry Preng’s home in Por Sen Chey district and spray-painted “1.042” in red on the side of his house. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but was told that at some point he would need to ...

The government on Monday agreed to a comprehensive solution for rural families who have lost their land to well-connected agricultural plantations exporting sugar to the European Union (E.U.) duty free and will meet again early next month to discuss details. The decision was made at a ...

Cambodia suffers from severe annual flooding, and many people who can’t swim die every year as a result. An innovative solution to the generations-old problem may have been found, not by policy hacks or scientists, but by children. A group of 11-year-olds from Cambodia’s one-of-a-kind Liger ...