Ministries and other national bodies

Construction began yesterday on a $10 million factory in Kampong Speu province to process fresh fruit for international export, a first for Cambodia, though Agriculture Ministry officials could not confirm it would meet international standards yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Labour hopes to use a new $20 million loan from Saudi Arabia to develop the country’s workforce. Yousef Ibrahim Al-Bassam, vice president and managing director of the Saudi Fund for Development, led a delegation to Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss plans for ...

A UN agricultural development body presented a report evaluating their commitment of over 20 years and $189.5 million to Cambodia’s rural farmers yesterday, finding both positives and negatives in their partnership with the government. ...

A Better Factories Cambodia report shows little improvement in the continued use of short-term contracts and safety and health conditions for workers at surveyed factories, with total compliance of all exporting factories still stuck at less than 50 percent. The International Labour Organisation’s compliance program conducts ...

Tbong Khmum provincial officials have announced a crackdown on illegal checkpoints along the Vietnamese border, possibly in response to a purported warning issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen to provincial Governor Ly Leng to monitor the transport of timber in the province. Local media reports contend ...

The government subsidised $51 million worth of electricity across the country in 2017 in a bid to bring down the price of electricity for low-income households, according to the Minister of Mines and Energy. Speaking at the annual conference of the Electricity Authority Cambodia yesterday, Suy ...

As the country enters its second fishing season, fish catches are widely expected to decline due to adverse weather conditions. The second phase of the fishing season started on January 21 and will end on the 26, according to the Fisheries Administration, who issued a public ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Monday said the Cambodian government could not afford more passport printing machines to speed up the process of documenting the hundreds of thousands of citizens working abroad, predominantly in Thailand. ...

New proposed rules from the European Union restricting the import of palm oil would likely affect Cambodia’s nascent palm oil sector, but the country’s main exporter is hoping that demand from India and China will cushion the blow. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng bemoaned Phnom Penh’s sewage infrastructure and criticised the Ministry of Environment for allowing untreated waste water to flow into the Mekong and Bassac rivers in unscripted remarks on Monday. ...

The Defence Minister has threatened to destroy Sam Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Movement if it attempts to cause trouble in the country, while the Cambodian Nationality Party has called on people not to join the “illegal” group. General Tea Banh made the comments at the Defence ...

Cambodia will send a group of maids to work in Malaysia in early June after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015.Labour Minister Ith Samheng said he had met with Malaysian Human Resources Minister Dato’ Sri Richard Riot AnakJaem three times already ...

The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hit back at news reports about Chinese investors laundering their money through Cambodia’s real estate market on Monday, calling them “baseless”. ...

Rice authorities in the kingdom are exploring the possibility of applying for Geographical Indication (GI) status for rice grown in areas around the Tonle Sap Lake.   ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday called on the government to amend the law on nationalisation and immigration, while a report from the general department of identification revealed 1,518 foreigners were granted Cambodian nationality from 2014 to 2017. Presiding over the department’s annual meeting, Mr Kheng ...

The Labour Ministry is expecting American buyers to increase their orders after a memorandum of understanding between the ministry and the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity on “Cooperation in the Field of Labour” was signed. ...

Community patrols in Mondulkiri province confiscated more than 500 snares and 80 chainsaws last year while arresting seven people and warning 57 others over illegal activities. According to a Wildlife Conservation Society statement issued yesterday, the patrols were led by Environment Ministry officials and members of ...

The Labour Ministry is planning to launch a national policy to cut the number of traffic accidents involving garment workers being driven to and from factories. The policy will encourage employers and drivers to prioritise road safety. Labour Minister Ith Samheng yesterday addressed a workshop on the ...

Eleven illegal gold mine shafts in Kratie province – including two in which several deaths occurred – are being filled in by authorities after villagers repeatedly ignored orders to cease operations there, officials said today. ...

In a bid to expand the markets abroad for Cambodian rice, the Ministry of Agriculture has reached an agreement with two Chinese firms to cooperate in conducting research on the high-yielding rice variety known as oryza sativa japonica. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on ...

Cambodia’s mango shipments have been routinely blocked before making it to the international market, with the Ministry of Agriculture claiming the mangoes are not of a high enough quality to meet the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements necessary to ship outside of the Kingdom. ...

Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen raised the prospect of delaying or even cancelling Cambodia’s upcoming general election due to possible chaos caused by anti-government protests. The premier’s warning came after a new movement of exiled opposition politicians said it might call on supporters to organize ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen met with members of the press yesterday, not shying away from classifying some journalists and media outlets as extortionists and tax evaders, while applauding United States President Donald Trump’s efforts to go after so-called fake news.​ ...

About 175 families locked in a land dispute with sugarcane plantation companies in Koh Kong province have asked an inter-ministerial group and provincial authorities to speed up the resolution process and end the conflict. The inter-ministerial working group responded saying they would settle the land dispute ...