Ministries and other national bodies

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Monday that it was reviewing a diplomatic request from Turkey to close Zaman-operated schools in Phnom Penh because of their alleged ties to an organization being blamed for last month’s failed coup in the country. ...

Billed as a Cambodian first, the invitation of 500 civil society and community representatives to a forum on environmental issues with Prime Minister Hun Sen proved largely a platform for the premier to hold forth on policy and politics, with many observers bemoaning the sidelining ...

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron applauded the vast majority of Grade-12 students for obeying the strict no-cheating rules he introduced three years ago as nationwide testing kicked off yesterday with relatively few hiccups. ...

Announcing that more than 160,000 immigrants are living in Cambodia without proper documentation, the Interior Ministry on Friday said it would give the majority of the group an opportunity to stay in the country, while the opposition pushed for a blanket deportation. ...

Cambodia’s first independent association for promoting intellectual property (IP) is seeking closer cooperation with government agencies to help the private sector better understand IP, its benefits and the importance of registering their products. ...

Despite steady sales of silk products in the Kingdom, the combination of a lack of skilled labor and cheap imports are adding extra stress to Cambodia’s already beleaguered domestic production, say officials and industry experts. ...

In his first year as education minister, Hang Chuon Naron quickly overhauled the national high school completion exam, enforcing strict regulations to eliminate rampant bribery and cheating, and cutting the pass rate in half to 41 percent. ...

A working group from the Ministry of Land Management yesterday went to investigate a land dispute between 147 families and the Koh Kong Sugar Industry and Koh Kong Plantation on 782 hectares in Koh Kong province. The move to resolve the land dispute was made folowing ...

Cambodia plans to attract up to 300,000 Japanese tourists to the Kingdom by 2020, as direct flights connect Phnom Penh with Tokyo early next month, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon announced yesterday. ...

Officials at the Ministry of Commerce and Council of Ministers announced yesterday that a draft consumer protection law, which is intended to ensure that food and consumer products made domestically or imported into Cambodia are safe, was almost complete. A quarter of the almost 60 ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry on Tuesday refuted the claims of two women who say they saw inmates at a Malaysian detention depot fatally beaten by guards earlier this year, including fellow Cambodians.   ...

The Commerce Ministry has scrubbed its website of all corporate shareholder information since last month’s release of a report damned by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s children for shedding light on the first family’s sprawling business empire. ...

There has been no impact on tourists traveling by air between Cambodia and Thailand following the multiple fatal bombings in the southern part of Thailand last week, according to government and industry officials. ...

The number of Cambodians traveling overseas as tourists increased to nearly 700,000 in the first half of the year, up 26 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Experts in the industry welcomed this trend and pointed out ...

Banteay Meanchey provincial authorities have warned they will take legal action against those who continue to interfere in railway construction between Phsar Kandal commune and Poipet City by today’s deadline. ...

In defiance of an order by Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Khoun Sreng, more than 100 people protested outside the offices of Equitable Cambodia (EC) yesterday. They held signs denouncing the NGO, as community representatives inside submitted a letter withdrawing their consent for the group to represent ...

As many tall buildings continue to pop up in Cambodia’s 500-year-old capital, ministries are continuing to place importance on preserving the cultural heritage of important historical sites and landmarks, ranging from ancient temples and monuments to pagodas and colonial buildings. ...

The government sold off more than 10,000 cubic meters of illegally logged wood in direct negotiations with private businessmen over the past two days, according to a Finance Ministry official, after abandoning efforts to auction it off due to a lack of interest. ...

During the past five years the government approved close to $6.83 billion worth of investments in 1,183 construction projects, according to a senior official from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday once again called on the Kingdom’s employers to hire the disabled, something mandated in a widely ignored 2010 sub-decree. ...

Though the rice-planting season has started and nationwide rice cultivation this month has been higher than planned, farmers are worried that adverse weather events caused by climate change will ruin their crops. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ planning and statistics department, the ...

The Cambodian government is on track to provide electricity to all villages in the Kingdom by 2020 as this year’s seven-month data, from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, indicate that 71 percent of rural areas now have regular power supply. Ith Praing, secretary of state ...

Meanchey district police and security guards yesterday clashed with about 70 Koh Kong province villagers at the capital’s Samaki Rainsy pagoda, shoving and pushing them as they tried to make their way to the Ministry of Land Management. ...

Cambodia has announced it will shutter the office of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission in Phnom Penh, relocating its functions to neighboring Laos. ...