Government

Garment and footwear industry, Cambodia’s largest foreign exchange earner, currently consists of 960 factories, employing some 620,000 workers, labor minister Ith Samheng said Thursday. The sector made a revenue of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars last year, accounting for around 80 percent of the country’s total exports, ...

The genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda were both aided by local media and propaganda, and the role of foreign media covering them is often criticized as insufficient. In interviews with VOA Khmer, media experts said more funding of that sector could help prevent such errors ...

The appointment of General Sok Phal to head the Interior Ministry’s newly formed department to monitor migrant workers has raised concerns over his close familial connection to a labor recruitment industry fraught with human rights abuses. Gen. Phal’s sister, Ung Seang Rithy, is the owner of ...

Hand, foot and mouth disease ( HFMD), which is caused by enterovirus 71 (EV-71), has reappeared in Cambodia and recently killed a boy and sickened seven other children, a local Kampuchea Thmey Daily newspaper reported Wednesday.   Dr. Ly Sovann, chief of the Health Ministry’s Communicable Disease ...

Cambodia’s tax department is under-resourced and understaffed, thereby hindering its ability to generate revenue, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) analysis released earlier this month. The analysis, which took into account survey results from 22 tax revenue bodies across Asia between 2012 and 2013, paints ...

One month after the capital’s power provider promised to end chronic city blackouts for good this hot season, residents and businesses continue to find themselves sweltering in the heat and throwing away any spoilable goods due to the unpredictable losses of electricity. In March, Electricite du ...

Twenty-one labor activists who have been detained in Kampong Cham province since their arrests in January were moved to the main prison outside Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Supporters say the 21 are being detained as a lesson to other would-be demonstrators, after a brutal crackdown ...

Cambodia has invited resource-rich Azerbaijan to help develop Cambodia’s prospective oil and gas industry, Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol announced during a high-level visit to the Caucasian country on Tuesday, according to Azerbaijani media reports. Mr. Chanthol laid out a goal to achieve an overall trade ...

Cambodia’s trade deficit expanded to almost half a billion dollars during the first three months of the year, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce. Between January and March, Cambodia’s exports reached $1.99 billion, up 19 per cent compared to the same period ...

Two union leaders were summonsed and questioned by a municipal court prosecutor yesterday over allegations they illegally detained the boss of a packaging factory in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune during a strike. According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Ek Chheng Huoth, ...

Officials with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday spoke out for the first time against Australia’s plans to send some of the asylum seekers trying to reach its shores to Cambodia, saying the pending deal was not a “real ...

Lightning killed two people sheltering from rain on Wednesday in Preah Sihanouk’s Stung Hav district. Ros Ky, the district police chief, said Khem Nget, a 40-year-old motodop from Kampot, and a second victim identified only as Vanny, 50, were taking shelter near Vanny’s home in Tomnup ...

Dozens of houses have been marked for demolition near Phnom Penh International Airport as authorities say the families must be moved to bring the site in line with international standards. Civil aviation officials visited Chrey Chisark village in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Choa commune with ...

Southeast Asian countries are likely to miss a deadline for the economic integration of Asean in 2015, a leading economist says. Jayat Menon, an economist for the Asian Development Bank, told reporters in Phnom Penh Wednesday that Asean countries are behind on key targets for integration ...

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, a world heritage site, had attracted 778,740 foreign visitors in the first quarter of 2014, up 12 percent compared to the same period last year, official data showed Wednesday. The top five countries visiting the site are South Korea, China, Vietnam, Japan ...

Phnom Penh City Hall once again rejected the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party’s bid to hold campaigns for the coming council elections in Freedom Park yesterday but said the final decision is beyond its reach. After its first request was rejected on Tuesday for going against ...

About 80 villagers calling for the release of two former Khmer Rouge soldiers allegedly arrested for illegally occupying land in Malai district rallied outside Banteay Meanchey Provincial Hall, locals and rights group Adhoc said yesterday. Community representatives Ly Khley and Hoeun Vy were detained on Tuesday ...

The Asian Development Bank announced Wednesday that it will provide $81.7 million, including a $6.7 million grant from Australia, in additional financing to help Cambodia recover from catastrophic floods in late 2013. The flooding affected 1.7 million people and caused an estimated $356 million in damage. ...

US-based broker Decker and Co has announced a partnership with the Cambodian unit of South Korea’s Tongyang Securities Inc, one of only seven underwriters licensed by the Cambodia Securities Exchange. In a statement late Tuesday, Decker said partnerships with Tong Yang in Cambodia and BPI Securities ...

One hundred fishermen in Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon town filed a complaint with local authorities yesterday, accusing a provincial fisheries administration official in Phniet commune of selling their subsistence fishing lot to a businessman. ...

A heightened global profile for the opposition CNRP since last year’s disputed election has brought with it a new challenge: balancing multiple foreign relations. The party’s campaign to delegitimize the CPP government has taken on multiple faces over the past nine months as opposition leader Sam ...

Police in Kompong Speu province on Monday night stopped three container trucks on National Road 4 bound for Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, seizing more than 100 logs of illegal luxury wood, officials said. Provincial economic police chief Nhem Sao said that his officers and police from Chbar ...

The State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) has swapped its headquarters on Norodom Boulevard and will move to a location adjacent to Phnom Penh International Airport by next year, civil aviation officials confirmed Tuesday. Sinn Chanserey Vutha, deputy director-general of the SSCA, said construction on the ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday ordered embattled union leader Ath Thorn to stay away from the SL garment factory and its workers and to avoid any public gatherings that could “damage public order,” drawing a tight circle around one of the country’s most ...