Ministries and other national bodies

Unseasonable weather has wreaked havoc this week, bringing floods to Sihanoukville and Poipet and leaving one dead from a lightning strike in Koh Kong province, officials confirmed yesterday. ...

A tripartite group consisting of employers, unions and the government finished discussing the draft law on minimum wage yesterday. Labour Minister Ith Samheng said yesterday’s talks were the last public workshop to discuss the draft law on minimum wage after two workshops had already taken place. ...

An environment-monitoring working group from the Environment Ministry and the Council for the Development of Cambodia plans to meet with the owners of nearly 50 special economic zones across the country to promote standards on environmental protection and liquid waste management. ...

The Constitutional Council is planning to meet later this week to discuss amendments to the Constitution, including changes to an article guaranteeing the right for citizens to form organisations and political parties. The document, a letter of invitation to local media, outlines an agenda for the ...

Cambodian workers may soon be headed to Lebanon, the latest country that the Ministry of Labour is targeting as a destination for thousands of underemployed Cambodians looking for work amid stagnant job opportunities at home. ...

Defence Minister General Tea Banh yesterday confirmed that China is to provide the army with tanks and armoured personnel carriers to strengthen relations between the two militaries.He said the tanks and APCs would arrive in Cambodia in March, when the two countries will hold their ...

India, the world’s second most populous nation, agreed to provide a $20 million concessional loan for the construction of electricity transmission lines in Cambodia after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s official four-day visit to India. According to a joint statement, “The two governments agreed to sign a ...

There were 1,428 forestry and wildlife crimes in 2017, with 778 cases ending up in court and the remaining 650 cases leading to administrative fines. According to the annual report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the cases included illegal logging, the cutting of ...

Following an agreement with Vietnam to boost cashew production in the kingdom, the Ministry of Agriculture has called on all provincial agricultural departments in the country to conduct studies on the areas that present the best conditions for growing the crop. On January 17, the ministry ...

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 ...