Government

Jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha’s lawyers yesterday boycotted the questioning of their client on “treason” charges at Trapaing Phlong Prison to protest the judge’s decision not to question him at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.​ ...

Four new Cambodian cement factories are set to come online in the near future, tripling the number of local producers, but insiders and officials this week maintained that even increased capacity will not significantly lower rates of cement imports to Cambodia due to prevailing high ...

The government has converted three plots of land in Phnom Penh from state public property to state private property – effectively handing them to private entities – including a Ministry of Planning office on Monivong Boulevard that was transferred to the son-in-law of a senior ...

Nine Cambodians deported from the US arrived yesterday in Phnom Penh, days after a US judge temporarily blocked a flight set to carry more than 50 Cambodian deportees to the Kingdom. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated his demand for the owners of garment worker housing to freeze rents in 2018 yesterday, telling the leasers to come to him personally if they disagreed with the order. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said from now on he will “stop talking” about the recently dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party and instructed his government officials to do the same, before vowing that self-exiled opposition members who returned to Cambodia would not face arrest. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday pledged to start a new bank with an initial capital of $100 million to provide financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with industry players saying its success hinged on whether concessional or low interest rates could be provided to ...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng held a meeting with other top ministry officials yesterday to discuss introducing a legal amendment banning insults to the King, similar to so-called “lèse-majesté” laws in Thailand, which critics have characterised as a cudgel to suppress dissent. ...

China will provide Cambodia with more than $7 million today to implement a variety of projects across the kingdom through the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund. Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo will sign the agreement at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, ...

Japan has granted about $28 million in aid for the construction of teacher education colleges in the kingdom. The signing ceremony took place yesterday at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. ...

Electricite du Cambodge has signed an agreement with Laos to import 115 kilowatts of electricity from Laos to Preah Vihear province, and on to Kampong Thom and Oddar Meanchey provinces. ...

The government’s crackdown on illegal immigrants has resulted in more than 2,300 being deported and barred permanently from the kingdom so far this year. ...

At least 2 hectares of flooded mangrove forest in Koh Kong’s Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary have been filled in with sand from illegal dredging nearby, with local authorities and an NGO yesterday claiming an unidentified “powerful” tycoon was behind the environmental crimes. ...

Former Funcinpec Deputy Prime Minister Lu Lay Sreng could be facing a new court case after calling for peaceful protests against the government in a video posted to Facebook yesterday, issuing comments similar to ones that recently saw former opposition leader Sam Rainsy slapped with ...

Cambodian businesses need to adapt and digitise their financial operations if they want to remain competitive regionally and around the world, industry insiders said yesterday. ...

The government and the Global Fund have signed a grant agreement worth more than $55 million to implement anti-AIDS and tuberculosis programmes in Cambodia from 2018 to 2020. ...

Transparency International Cambodia yesterday released its first Business Integrity Country Agenda assessment report, aimed at reducing corruption and improving the overall business environment in the country. ...

Hydropower development will likely deal a serious economic blow to Cambodia, with dire outlooks for its fisheries and rice outputs predicted even under best-case scenarios, according to key findings from the Mekong River Commission (MRC). ...

Pro-government academic and head of Cambodia’s Royal Academy Sok Touch yesterday continued to voice support for the government’s recent actions against the opposition while dismissing US pressure for Cambodia to maintain democratic principles, claiming the “American democracy” model was not palatable to the “culture and ...

Cabinet chief Phat Sikan was elected as the new president of the Beehive Social Democratic Party after the party held a congress on Sunday in Kandal province. Mr Sikan, 64, was elected to lead BSDP at the congress in Kien Svay district’s Koki commune, attended by ...

Following the recent approval of its environment and social impact assessment by the Ministry of Environment, the kingdom’s first gold-processing plant will begin operations next year, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Monday. ...

As Cambodia continues its impressive economic development and reaches higher stages of industrialisation and social well-being, there is an urgent need to prepare for future cutbacks in international development assistance, the Commerce Minister said on Friday. ...

With Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly daring Western countries to impose sanctions in response to the recent dissolution of the country’s main opposition, the minister of commerce has quietly expressed concern at the staggering customs bill Cambodia would incur should the EU suspend its preferential ...

The European parliament has voted to consider suspending Cambodia’s preferential “Everything But Arms” trade access to the European Union in response to the country’s authoritarian backslide. ...