Ministries and other national bodies

Cambodia will join three other regional countries in carrying out standardized testing for grade five students as part of a pilot program that aims to improve primary school education in Asean, officials said this week. ...

The wife of an army general and an Information Ministry official were convicted of defamation by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday over Facebook posts accusing the general of having an affair with CPP Senator Keo Maly, a claim the lawmaker has denied. ...

Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol told parliament Monday of plans to overhaul the current system of registering a business in Cambodia, an often slow and corrupt process, by moving the entire system online, where registration will open on December 7. ...

The Information Ministry announced Monday that it would push back by two months a deadline for all 17 local television stations to broadcast only Cambodian-produced content during prime time. ...

The Ministry of Health has issued a warning to provincial bosses, telling them to guarantee that staff members are not drinking and gambling on the job because it can “affect” the provision of care and emergency services for patients. ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information is planning to create an e-archive in early 2016 with an estimated cost of some US$5 million, according to the State News Agency-AKP. ...

Immigration police rounded up nearly 80 Vietnamese migrant workers along with six European engineers at the construction site of a new Cambodia Beer factory in Phnom Penh on Monday afternoon because they did not possess work permits, according to an immigration official. ...

During a closed-door meeting on Monday, Defense Minister Tea Banh told a Vietnamese counterpart of the CPP’s success in suppressing an opposition campaign to highlight border incursions by Vietnam and urged Hanoi to help ensure that the issue does not re-emerge. ...

Government spending on social welfare and economic development could both see double-digit growth next year, according to a document summarizing expenditures in next year’s budget that will be discussed at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Hun Sen today. ...

The Interior Ministry has ordered all governors of border provinces to watch land that is being rented to people from neighboring countries for farming, amid ongoing border disputes. ...

Cambodia will continue to see reductions in poverty, hunger and malnutrition as it continues to prioritize development of the agricultural industry, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ouk Rabun said on Friday at an event to mark World Food Day in Kandal Province.  ...

The first group of refugees to arrive in Cambodia as part of a controversial deal the government signed with Australia last year are now renting their own apartments and searching for jobs, having left their temporary accommodations in Phnom Penh, the International Organization for Migration ...

Military police have issued their own warning to those illegally using military licence plates on their vehicles, doubling down on a similar directive issued by the Ministry of Interior last month. ...

The Environment Ministry has reduced the terms of six economic land concessions (ELCs) to 50 years from between 70 and 90 years after seven of eight carbon credit investment projects were revoked. ...

An Information Ministry official has been charged with defamation over a Facebook post accusing a CPP senator of being the mistress of a military general, and has been summoned to trial on Monday. ...

A new law on the collection and dissemination of statistical data is set to be put to a vote at the National Assembly later this year after being approved by a parliamentary commission Wednesday. ...

The government is considering opening additional consulates in China in an attempt to attract more tourists from the world’s second-largest economy, according to a message posted to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s official Facebook page. ...

A Rohingya refugee who landed in Phnom Penh in June as part of a controversial resettlement deal with Australia is likely back in Burma after requesting to return home, according to the Interior Ministry. ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday signed off on a potentially sweeping draft law that would regulate the country’s telecommunications sector, which a rights group warned in May could effectively nationalize private service providers. ...

Six of the country’s eight major gas retailers yesterday agreed to a request from the Commerce Ministry to lower the price of gas by 100 riel (about two cents) per liter for the Pchum Ben festival, as negotiations on a formula for setting a price ...

As 24 Montagnards returned to Vietnam on Thursday after Cambodia refused to process their asylum claims, rights groups criticized the U.N.’s refugee agency for assisting the government in repatriating the group to a country where they claim to have fled from persecution. ...

The General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance has collected around 4,649 billion Riel or some US$1.11 billion state revenue for the first nine months of 2015, according to the state news agency-AKP. ...

Cambodia has declined to join the world’s largest rubber production group, the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC), because there is no benefit in doing so now, a senior official and an industry executive say.  ...

All tax registration and payments by companies has been centralized and the process streamlined this week by the General Department of Taxation (GDT), which also unveiled an online registration and payment system for companies here.  ...