Ministries and other national bodies

Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn said yesterday that the Cambodian embassies and consulates abroad lack sufficient financial resources, with Prime Minister Hun Sen immediately promising $2 million for the ministry to upgrade embassies’ motor pools – albeit within reason, he cautioned. ...

Thousands of students across the country are scanning identification cards and their thumbprints at school as part of a pilot program aimed at encouraging attendance. ...

Health officials have urged people to take care when buying food beyond its use-by date or suspected to be chemically contaminated after more than 60 students in Takeo province became ill from eating noodles. ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy collected $20.3 million in non-tax revenue last year, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, it said yesterday. ...

More than 3,500 foreigners committed immigration offenses last year and more than 800 were banned from returning to Cambodia, the Interior Ministry’s report for 2016 said yesterday. ...

Besieged by color revolutionaries, agitators and criminal politicians, the Interior Ministry kept the country safe from encroaching instability—at least, that was the ministry’s boast on Wednesday at its annual meeting. ...

Cambodia’s already swollen prison population leapt by more than 20 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Interior’s annual report, which acknowledged the influx has caused “serious challenges” with overcrowding, and revealed one-third of inmates are in pre-trial detention. ...

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Lê Minh Hưng, and Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), Chea Chanto, have agreed to step up co-operation between the two banks. ...

The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) issued a second directive on Wednesday to all mobile phone operators in the country instructing them to stop placing misleading advertisements in the media that could cause public confusion. ...

The Culture and Fine Arts Ministry has laid down rules for writers and artistic directors who want to reproduce works of literature, art and music.   ...

Frustrated with the lack of compliance, the government has given the Kingdom’s mobile operators an ultimatum: declare their company revenue shares and settle all outstanding debts owed to the government by the end of the month or face swift and severe punitive action. ...

Cambodia’s telecommunications regulator yesterday stepped up efforts to avert a brewing price war between the country’s six mobile network operators, ordering the companies to submit profitability statements within the next 10 days and summoning all operators to a meeting at the end of the month ...

The Ministry of Education next week will launch a new online system for students to practice for the high-stakes grade-12 national exam, though one observer noted it would do little to help students who lack internet access. ...

Cambodia is expecting a shipment of military vehicles donated by South Korea, according to a sub-decree. The Ministry of Finance in December released about $1 million to the Defence Ministry to cover the equipment’s transportation, it says.​ ...

The Land Management Ministry has said it will resolve the land disputes in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district and Kandal’s Ponhea Leu district between Suy Sophan and more than 500 families. ...

About 100 people representing nearly 200 families protested at the Ministry of Land Management in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the ministry expedite a solution to their land disputes with three sugarcane plantation companies in Koh Kong province.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said he will not allow members of the opposition to question government ministers in the National Assembly (NA), telling a pro-government news outlet that the opposition had to “respect the law first.” ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday issued a sub-decree to limit teacher overtime in public schools in an effort to fix teachers’ working hours in accordance with government budgetary constraints. ...

Six months since the central bank launched its FAST payment system, a new scheme to provide instant riel-denominated fund transfers between financial institutions and their clients, the bank recorded a total fund transfer of 10 billion riel ($2.5 million) as of end-2016. ...

The Land Ministry will meet with the three companies at the center of the decade-long land dispute in Koh Kong province this week in an attempt to finally resolve the villagers’ grievances. ...

Land titles were issued for nearly four million people involving 500,000 land plots last year, nearly two thirds of the total of seven million plots, the Land Ministry has reported. ...

The Ministry of Commerce has finished the draft consumer protection law and will soon submit it to the Council of Ministers, according to a senior government official.​ ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) released its review of 2016 and outlook for 2017 this week, highlighting the continued large growth of the banking sector while warning that the Kingdom was still vulnerable to external economic factors. ...

The government is stepping up the fight against illegal mining in the country, cracking down on an illegal mine in Mondulkiri province last Friday and arresting two people. But local residents targeted by the crackdown protested after the raid, complaining that large mining corporations were allowed ...