Government

Cambodian rice exports in 2017 increased 17 percent by volume compared to the year before, with exporters pushing to fill orders under China’s expanded import quota while shipments to European markets remained steady, according to Agriculture Ministry figures. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Friday sacked an advisor who had been previously convicted in 2010 on fraud charges, according to an Interior Ministry proclamation.​ ...

​Prime Minister Hun Sen and former opposition leader Kem Sokha offered starkly divergent New Year’s messages to the Cambodian people, with the former hailing the Kingdom’s “stability” even as the latter grimly warned that recent democratic backsliding could lead to a “fragmented nation”.​ ​ ...

A slew of new health and maternity benefits for workers took effect at the stroke of midnight yesterday in a dramatic expansion of the country’s social security framework, even as labour advocates and business experts raised concerns about cost and quality. ...

Villagers in Preah Vihear province locked in land disputes with five economic land concessions belonging to sugar cane firms have urged provincial authorities to resolve their conflicts. Kroeun Vong, a villager representative in Chey Sen district, said ministry officials solved some cases by giving one hectare ...

Backed by China, Prime Minister Hun Sen has entered 2018 triumphant from his decades-long struggle with the West – and set the stage for his succession. ...

In 2017, according to a ministry report, the cadastral survey commission solved 85 land dispute cases for 326 families, which amounted to 44.5 hectares. It found 37 cases to have been wrongly authorized and withdrew another 11 complaints. The report added that from the start of ...

The Interior Ministry’s department of fire control officials said yesterday that fires killed 22 and injured 12 in 2017. ...

The government has decided to transfer nearly 100 hectares of land on Koh Sdach island in Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district to local residents, who were concerned they would be forced to relocate by development companies. ...

Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin oversaw a meeting on illegal logging in the northeast region of Cambodia, reportedly branding the Kingdom’s anti-logging crackdown a “success” despite evidence to the contrary. ...

A Chinese company inked a deal worth $20 million yesterday with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to repair 107 kilometres of roads in the kingdom. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng announced yesterday that he would introduce an amendment to the Constitution banning individuals from doing “anything to impact the national interests” of Cambodia, singling out ex-opposition figure Kem Monovithya as an example. ...

China will donate more than 30 different kinds of equipment – including 60,000 polling booths and 15,000 ballot boxes – to the National Election Committee (NEC) ahead of next year’s general elections. ...

The government and international funders have committed a further $66 million to a project to increase small farmers’ productivity, after yesterday claiming success in the program’s initial seven-year period. ...

The Commerce Ministry yesterday announced a 19 percent surge in exports for the year and a quadrupling of revenue collected from import licence fees, but would not provide analogous figures for total imports or explain what could be driving the increases. According to the ministry’s annual ...

During a cabinet meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a “vision” to shrink the country’s cabinet by excluding secretaries and undersecretaries of state from the body, and to be given the right to bypass the National Assembly by appointing them directly, according to ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) has decided to slash transaction fees on derivative trading, a move the SECC claims will help spur future trades. ...

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said royalist party Funcinpec will not be investigated for requesting funds from China, despite an article in the Law on Political Parties banning parties from receiving financial support from foreign governments and institutions. ...

Ruling Cambodian People’s Party member Yin Bunnang will take the seat of recently deceased lawmaker Im Sethy, representing Kampong Cham province, the National Assembly announced yesterday. The assembly also selected a lawmaker to replace Sethy on the justice commission. ...

The Cambodian People’s Party is poised to sweep every single elected Senate seat in upcoming elections in February, despite its assurances that multiparty democracy is thriving after the dissolution of the main opposition party. ...

Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) boss Om Yentieng has said the Kingdom’s whistleblower and witness protection draft law was nearly complete, while at the same time lashing out at Transparency International Cambodia for not assisting in the process, something the group flatly denied. ...

Claims the military is involved in systematically clearing forest in Oddar Meanchey province in an area meant to be protected by a carbon credit scheme involving Virgin Atlantic have prompted the UK-based airline to launch an investigation into the program. ...

An annual National Committee for Disaster Management report shows that natural disasters have killed at least 103 people, injured 120 people, and affected 2,000 families while also damaging thousands of houses, crops and infrastructure this year. ...

The chairman of the Anti-Corruption Unit gave a press conference yesterday in which he claimed that corruption was present in every country, and was worse in the United States than in Cambodia.   ...