International relations

CPP National Assembly President Heng Samrin has ordered Cambodia’s newest ambassadors to Asia and Europe to go on a public relations offensive against mounting news abroad that the country’s respect for democracy and human rights is slipping. Cambodian security forces have shot dead seven people ...

Cambodia attracted some 4.2 million foreign tourists last year, up 18 percent year-on-year, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said on Monday. Five largest sources of tourists to Cambodia are Vietnam, China, South Korea, Laos and Thailand. ...

Ahead of today’s hearing on Cambodia’s record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, opposition figures and analysts said the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has reverted to familiar tactics of post-election suppression. Analysts yesterday said that the breaking up of Cambodia National Rescue Party-led protests ...

Garment industry, Cambodia’s largest foreign currency earner, reported a 20 percent rise in exports last year, according to the figures of the Ministry of Commerce on Monday. The Southeast Asian nation exported apparel products in equivalent to 5.53 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 20 percent ...

Amnesty International and rights group Licadho in a joint statement yesterday called on UN member states to “address the country’s human rights crisis” at a UN Human Rights Council hearing in Geneva on Tuesday. The statement, which was sent to foreign embassies, the Cambodian government and ...

The French Agency for Development (AFD) has pledged $359 million in grants and loans to Cambodia over the next three years, state news agency AKP reported Friday. ...

International trade leaders say Cambodia’s workers and managers should continue to negotiate for an increase in wages, despite a deadly crackdown on worker protests earlier this month. Workers want a raise in the minimum wage to $160 per month to keep up with the rising cost ...

Cargo shipments entering and leaving Cambodia through the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port rose by 16 percent in 2013 thanks to better economic situation, according to a port’s data on Friday. The kingdom’s 2nd largest port received 110,500 twenty-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs (standard-sized containers), last year, up ...

More than 90% of tourists visiting Cambodia will end up at Siem Reap’s world heritage site Angkor Wat, despite efforts to open other areas of the country to tourism. Officials attending the Asean Tourism Forum admitted that efforts to convince tour operators to include trips to ...

Cambodia has seen a 34 percent rise in dry rubber export last year thanks to rising demand globally, the figures of the Ministry of Commerce showed Thursday. The country had exported 74,200 tones of dry rubber last year, up 34 percent from 55,344 tones in a ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy left for Europe yesterday evening to attend a UN Human Rights Council review on Cambodia in Geneva and to lobby European Union officials to take a stronger stance against the government, he said before departure. Rainsy plans on attending the Universal Periodic ...

181 national and international non-governmental organizations handed over their petitions to foreign embassies on Thursday to seek the release of 23 people who were arrested in protest crackdowns. A group of some 50 representatives marched along the streets and submitted the petitions to the German, Sweden ...

Many Cambodian women arrive in South Korea or China for marriage, only to find themselves being chosen as mistresses, say labour rights activists. While young Cambodian men, who travel to Thailand to work on fishing boats, often fall prey to drug abuse. Loss of land, debt, ...

Last week, on a busy sidewalk in Times Square, a hunched figure in a surgical mask labored at a hand-operated sewing machine. This anonymous worker was Khmer-American artist Kat Eng. According to her website, she sat in front of the flagship location of clothing giant H&M ...

The chairman of the Chinese company whose subsidiary will construct the Lower Sesan 2 dam met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday to inform him that the dam would be completed in three years’ time, Mr. Hun Sen’s assistant said. Zhang Tingke, vice president of ...

Protesters were due to march on four foreign embassies this morning to deliver petitions calling for the release of the 23 detainees held at the remote Correctional Centre 3 after being arrested during the crackdown earlier this month. The march – to the embassies of Germany, ...

PAL Holdings Inc., the operator of Philippine Airlines, is reviewing investment plans in Cambodia Air, after it deferred twice the completion of the joint venture with Inter Logistics (Cambodia) Co. Ltd. PAL said earlier it teamed up with Royal Group of Cambodia to establish its ...

Following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday as they attempted to deliver a petition to the U.S. and French embassies seeking the release of 23 jailed protesters, NGO representatives quietly delivered similar petitions to the Japanese Embassy and European Union headquarters Wednesday. The petitioners, representing ...

The Chinese government on Wednesday donated 600 sets of radio transmitters to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in order to increase the capacity and efficiency in information communication among armed forces. Speaking during a handover ceremony at the Headquarters of the Infantry on the outskirts ...

Cambodia had issued operating licenses to 2,988 new companies last year, down 12 percent from 3, 386 in a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday. Of the 2013 new business registrations, foreign businesses registered 1,448, down 9 percent, while local registrations fell ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that the country’s good relations and cooperation with China have encouraged more and more Chinese investors to Cambodia. The premier made the remarks during a meeting with Zhang Tingke, visiting vice-president of a leading Chinese power company Huaneng Group, ...

Members of the European Union’s parliament are calling for the Cambodian government to conduct an investigation into allegations of fraud in July’s election. A resolution passed by EU parliamentarians last week follows a violent crackdown on labor and opposition protests that have posed a challenge to ...

European Union (E.U.) Ambassador to Cambodia Jean-Francois Cautain distanced himself Monday from a European Parliament resolution calling for an independent investigation into July’s disputed national election and the killing of five striking garment workers this month. The European Parliament on Thursday passed the resolution, which urges ...

Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce Sun Chanthol said Tuesday that the country is expected to achieve its goal of exporting one million tons of milled rice in 2015. “The country had exported more than 400,000 tons in 2013 and there is two years more toward the goal, ...