Government

After the management of an embattled garment factory this week refused to follow a government order to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, unionists and observers are at a divergence of opinion over how the state should respond. “It’s fairly unprecedented,” Dave Welsh, country director ...

Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon on Tuesday urged the main opposition party to avoid violence when it holds a mass rally next month in the tourist destination of Siem Reap. “In democratic societies, demonstrations are common, but those protests must be nonviolent and in accordance with ...

nternational Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde will visit Cambodia next week as part of an Asia tour that will also include stops in South Korea and Burma, according to an IMF spokesman. Ms. Lagarde will meet with Cambodian government officials, university students, investors and ...

The minimum wage for garment factory workers can only be raised if international clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia pay more for their products, a Ministry of Labor official said Tuesday. Khieu Savuth, chief of the Ministry of Labor’s labor conflict commission, laid down the challenge a ...

A World Bank report highlighting the rate of Cambodian children exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke has bolstered calls to increase tobacco taxes threefold. The World Bank report, which was released on November 20 and titled Risking Your Health, claims nearly 50 per cent of all Cambodians under ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Council on Monday signed off on the creation of five new districts for the city and will now pass the proposal to the Ministry of Interior for review, municipal spokesman Long Dimanche said Tuesday. The plan for the new districts, which will ...

With the vast majority of rural Cambodians still lacking access to a toilet, and suffering the incumbent health risks, Ministry of Rural Development officials on Monday renewed long-standing intentions to improve the country’s sanitation infrastructure. Just days after World Toilet Day, the officials surveyed villages ...

Against the backdrop of high electricity costs and energy imports, Cambodian businesses could save millions of dollars annually by implementing energy-efficient business practices, insiders said yesterday. “It is clear that energy efficiency has multiple benefits, not only to the tourism sector but also other economic sectors ...

In a bid to make Cambodia more business-friendly, the government will cut back on red tape and reduce industry membership costs, Sun Chanthol, the new minister of commerce, said yesterday. Speaking to representatives from the private sector at a conference at the InterContinental Hotel in Phnom ...

Flouting a government order, representatives of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd yesterday refused to rehire 19 union representatives and activists during a meeting with the Ministry of Labour. Rehiring the 19 has been the key sticking point in ending the three-month-old strike, which erupted into violence ...

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, NGOs and several U.N. agencies Monday launched the 13th annual campaign against gender-based violence, which this year is focused on rape, organizers said Monday. Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign celebrated in countries around the globe ...

The price of food spiked this month, and Cambodia’s low-paid garment workers are feeling the effects. Meat, vegetables, toothbrushes, beauty accessories and even the plastic bags they get packed in have all seen a sharp bump up in price this month, some items by as much ...

Cambodia imported 1.31 billion tonnes of oil in the first 10 months of this year, a 2.2 per cent slide compared to 1.34 billion tonnes in the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. Industry experts said the drop did not ...

As political deadlock continues, Minister of Defence Tea Banh yesterday used the unveiling of 12 Chinese-made military helicopters to announce that the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces stand “ready to protect” the government and constitution, following what he called “free and fair” elections in July. Speaking in ...

Local communities that lost their land via economic land concessions to private companies are now being paid by those same firms to illegally fell the trees that once sustained their livelihoods, a group of five advocacy groups contended yesterday. At a press conference, the NGOs singled ...

Nearly 70 representatives from 278 families in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng district are seeking intervention after a national mining company began drilling on their farmland last week, locals said yesterday. According to villager Yean Bunchan, 47, representatives from a company based in Kandal province called T P ...

A group of Cambodian NGOs threatened on Monday to expose more cases of forestry crime involving businessmen and the police, saying they were unshaken by a defamation suit filed by top tycoon accused of illegal logging and land-grabbing. Representatives of the five organizations told reporters Monday ...

Japan’s prime minister failed to address major issues, by leaving aside Cambodia’s political deadlock and its poor human rights record on a visit last week, rights activists say. “It was a missed opportunity for the government of Japan, which has a great deal of leverage with ...

Twelve Chinese-made helicopters that Cambodia purchased from China were delivered Monday to the Cambodian Defence Ministry. At the handover ceremony, Cambodian Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh said the Zhi-9 utility helicopters will be used for military training purposes and for cracking down on crimes in various ...

Local NGOs on Friday urged more participation in land dispute resolution by the nation’s youth. Youth participation can mean better laws, better application of those laws and greater respect for citizens, “especially for farmers and the poor,” said Chhit Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO ...

Monks will spend days marching hundreds of kilometres to Phnom Penh from five provinces in the lead-up to Human Rights Day on December 10, the head of a dissident monk group said yesterday. Departing in groups of 20 from Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Pursat and ...

In his closing address at a two-day National Election Committee (NEC) conference in Preah Sihanouk province on Sunday, Interior Minister Sar Kheng told the opposition CNRP to end its boycott of the National Assembly, but emphasized that neither an independent investigation into July’s disputed election ...

The opposition CNRP has decided to move a mass demonstration to mark International Human Rights Day on December 10 from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap City, the party’s deputy president Kem Sokha said on Saturday. The CNRP will also hold mass demonstrations every Sunday at Freedom ...

Shelving any thoughts that 14 months in prison had deterred her from protesting, Yorm Bopha rushed to the capital’s Borei Keila community yesterday morning to try to stop authorities from forcing evictees from an abandoned building. Bopha was one of about 10 Boeung Kak activists called ...