Government services

Cambodia has undergone some reform to improve its institutions, but analysts say a lack of leadership is preventing deeper change. Strong political institutions are required for continued economic growth, but the capacity of Cambodia’s state institutions remains weak. ...

As the only finalist in its category at Thursday’s Cambodia Information and Communications Technology awards, the Commerce Ministry looks likely to take home first prize for its newly overhauled website. ...

Judicial police ignored an arrest warrant for former Khmer Rouge navy commander and accused war criminal Meas Muth, putting the government in breach of the rules of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, declassified documents released by the tribunal Wednesday show. ...

Cambodia slid five places down the annual Global Peace Index released Tuesday, ranking 111th out of 162 countries surveyed. But despite ceding five of the seven spots it gained in last year’s index—which measures safety, security, conflict and militarization—the country received a slightly higher score ...

Late CPP President Chea Sim’s personal bodyguard unit will be disbanded following the cremation of his body on Friday and its members returned to their former police departments and military brigades, officials said Monday. ...

Seven newly appointed Cambodian ambassadors have been officially charged with leading membership drives for the ruling CPP in the countries to which they have been assigned, a party spokesman said Friday. ...

The Labor Ministry on Friday announced that formal negotiations to set a new minimum wage for the country’s all-important garment sector—now at $128 a month—will begin in July, reviving the same schedule for talks it used with unions and employers for the first time last ...

The Interior Ministry is developing the curriculum for a “School of Good Governance,” which from 2016 will bring officials from the provinces to Phnom Penh for a crash course in acting with integrity, a ministry official and an NGO partner said Monday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen reacted to the Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers’ accusations of irregularities in the determination of the Cambodian-Vietnamese boundaries. ...

A cabinet secretary for Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday refused to accept a petition from a Khmer Krom activist group because, he said, it was “not my job.” ...

More than 30,000 people are expected to turn out for CPP President Chea Sim’s funeral procession in Phnom Penh on Friday, with security around the city to be ramped up accordingly, a festival official said Wednesday. ...

Tuy Thida, a 28-year-old traffic police officer, says she doesn’t take bribes. Surveying traffic at the intersection of Sihanouk Boulevard and Street 63 in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, Ms. Thida could be the face of the Interior Ministry’s push to increase female representation among the nation’s ...

The son of a wealthy developer who was charged last week with assaulting the son of timber magnate Try Pheap in Phnom Penh was transferred on Tuesday from the minimum-security PJ prison to the maximum-security Prey Sar, officials said Wednesday. ...

A military police officer was arrested Monday night at a border checkpoint in Kampot province as he attempted to cross into Vietnam with almost 700 kg of illegally logged wood, police said Wednesday. ...

Following the seizure of a massive trove of Asian artifacts smuggled into the U.S. by a New York-based art dealer, the Cambodian Embassy in Washington has started working with U.S. authorities to repatriate more than $3 million worth of Cambodian antiquities, an embassy official said ...

The governor of Preah Sihanouk province said Tuesday that he will delay the removal of 32 food vendors from O’Chheuteal Beach after reading—on Facebook—a letter purportedly issued to him by the National Assembly’s human rights commission asking him to hold off. ...

Some 100,000 prospective patients could lose opportunity for eye care due to Australia scaling back its foreign aid budget. But as Fred Hollows and other Australian NGOs brace themselves for the cuts, the Australian government is forging ahead with a $40 million scheme to relocate ...

Nearly three weeks after releasing an official price list for basic public services such as the production of passports and ID cards aimed at combating corruption, Interior Ministry officials Monday admitted that the new prices were not yet being applied. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated government policy to increase wage to $160 a month for factory workers and at least $250 a month for civil servants by 2018. His comment was made during a meeting yesterday with around 3,000 factory workers at the Koh Pich ...

Government authorities in a southwest Cambodian province are planning a coordinated campaign to round up residents suffering from mental illness and take them to Buddhist temples where they will be cared for by monks, a provincial official said. ...

Cambodian Labor Minister Ith Samheng said on Sunday that the country’s garment and footwear industries, the kingdom’s largest foreign currency earner, are comprised of 1,087 factories with 700,000 direct jobs. ...

An education campaign launched by Cambodia’s National Immunization Program (NIP) in the aftermath of last year’s HIV outbreak in Battambang has been effective in dispelling the concerns of parents hesitant to get their children vaccinated, government health bodies and the World Health Organization have said. ...

According to a new survey, land disputes in Cambodia lead to employment insecurity, causing poverty, food insecurity, and increasing physical and psychological insecurity. The survey found that most expressed a desire for the government to eliminate land disputes and set a clear policy to address ...

For Cambodia to provide quality public services will require reform of its financial management system, an economist says. “Public financial management” is the balance of government revenue and expenditures, and it requires strong institutions to build public services like education, health and infrastructure, Heng Dyna, an ...