Ministries and other national bodies

Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana quipped over the weekend that anyone who can find his offshore financial holdings—revealed earlier this month as part of the “Panama Papers” leak—can keep the money, according to Information Minister Khieu Kanharith. ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has denied media reports the government will issue dollar-denominated sovereign bonds using Bangkok-based Twin Pine Consulting as advisers to raise more money and reduce reliance on foreign loans. ...

Renderings of Casa Meridian, a new condominium complex, suggest that its wealthy buyers are investing in a glistening 414-unit skyscraper overlooking a placid, ocean-blue body of water surrounding Koh Pich island, which is sprouting a number of luxury towers developed by the Overseas Cambodian Investment ...

Less than a week after taking over the Transport Ministry, Sun Chanthol has established a committee to move more services online, including the process for applying for driver’s licenses, officials said on Monday.   ...

The Ministry of Justice has announced that Royal pardons and reductions of prison sentences have been pushed back to Visak Bochea Day in May, as a result of prisons not offering enough information about potential candidates. ...

Cambodian conglomerate the Royal Group is in talks with two foreign state-owned petroleum companies to conduct feasibility studies for an oil pipeline that would run from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh, a government official has confirmed. ...

The newly appointed minister of land management and urban planning, Chea Sophara, has announced a working group to handle petitions and complaints lodged by land dispute victims. ...

The judiciary is perceived as the most corrupt government institution in the Kingdom, according to a United Nations Development Programme global survey of corruption in the judiciary released on Friday.   ...

China and Southeast Asian countries decided to improve their cooperation in security and anti-terrorism during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday. The two sides will take action to improve multilateral and bilateral cooperation against terrorism, said senior Chinese official Meng Jianzhu. ...

Houses will be built for school teachers from illegally-felled timber seized by authorities, the Ministry of Education has announced, but before work can start on the new structures officials from the ministry have been asked to gather information on which schools need the houses the ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit has not yet opened an investigation into Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana’s secretive offshore holdings, but the unit’s chairman said on Thursday that a future probe could not be ruled out. ...

Sun Chanthol, the newly-appointed Minister of Public Works and Transport, revealed his plan to improve the ministry’s efficiency and transparency by overhauling its internal operations within his first 100 days in office during a speech yesterday. ...

Five people died and more than 200 houses in eight provinces were damaged by natural disasters in the first quarter of this year, a senior official of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said yesterday. ...

The nearly 1 million hectares of newly protected forests the Environment Ministry wants to create by the end of the year will add nearly a third more land to the portfolio of an agency already struggling to manage the 3.2 million hectares it has. And ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen made an appeal to public safety yesterday, announcing $6 million in bonuses for soldiers and law enforcement in anticipation of the Khmer New Year. ...

The two ministers who were publicly scolded for their “very slow” work by Prime Minister Hun Sen in February both gave up control to their successors at a pair of handover ceremonies in Phnom Penh on Wednesday as part of a cabinet reshuffle approved by ...

The Ministry of Health has ordered provincial health department directors to organize officials and doctors to work during the four days of Khmer New Year so hospitals and health centers are able to respond to traffic accidents and other issues. ...

A new plan to protect the environment started taking shape yesterday when the Environment Ministry held a workshop to discuss ideas on how to convert numerous laws into a single code to govern the county’s natural resources. It is expected the process will take two years ...

Oil and gas exploration companies operating in Cambodia must follow the schedule of their concession contracts or face fines and risk having their contracts revoked, a state official warned yesterday. ...

Eight tigers will be released into the Cambodian wild in an unprecedented plan projected to cost between $20 and $50 million, the Ministry of Agriculture and WWF-Cambodia announced at an event in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.   ...

More than 20 Cambodian migrants who had been working at two pig farms in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province have been given work permits and allowed to remain in the country after they were found to have been working without proper documents. The move followed intervention from ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday threatened to remove Sam Piseth, Phnom Penh’s Public Works and Transport Department Director, saying he was not satisfied with inefficient road maintenance in the capital. ...

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has defended the controversial new Telecommunications Law following a biting legal analysis by rights group Licadho, which says the legislation is a veiled tool to silence critics and potentially criminalize private expression. ...

The new minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, Chea Sophara, should strive to resolve the country’s land disputes and expand land registration services, his outgoing predecessor Im Chhun Lim said during a handover ceremony yesterday. ...