Government
National government
‘Deforestation plagues ASEAN’
Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have never been higher, but Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries are still failing to curb emissions created by heavy deforestation, according to a new report. Forest land in ASEAN countries declined by more than 6 per cent ...
Phak Seangly and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98deforestation-plagues-asean%E2%80%99
Lawmaker blasts illegal logging in Stung Treng
Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-blasts-illegal-logging-in-s-treng-59494/
Activist ‘threatened with knife’
A forest activist in Kampong Thom province yesterday claimed to have been threatened with a knife by a soldier after reporting that the officer was behind a number of forest crimes in the area. Pen Bunkear, a soldier with the Kampong Thom military research unit, yesterday ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-%E2%80%98threatened-knife%E2%80%99
Thai tourism threatened by coup; effect on Cambodia uncertain
Thailand’s Tourism Ministry has been biting its nails since the country’s military declared a coup on Thursday and imposed a nighttime curfew, but a Cambodian official said Sunday that it is too soon to say whether the lock-down will have a knock-on effect on tourism ...
Simon Henderson and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thai-tourism-threatened-by-coup-effect-on-cambodia-uncertain-59558/
Orphanage director in court
American national and orphanage director Daniel Stephen Johnson was tried on Friday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges that he sexually abused five boys last year. The court heard that Johnson, 36, the director of the Hope Transitions Christian orphanage in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
https://cambodia.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=51030&action=edit
Tourism campaign to counter unrest
The Ministry of Tourism will hold an emergency meeting with industry leaders and representatives in Phnom Penh today to look at what can be done to curb the loss of cross-border visitors resulting from unrest in neighbouring countries. Minister Thong Khon yesterday emphasised the need for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tourism-campaign-counter-unrest
Two dead, one seriously injured in another hit and run
Two men died and another was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident on Friday night in Phnom Penh when a Range Rover plowed into a motorbike in Toek Thla commune, police said Sunday, adding to a recent spate of fatal—and often high-profile—hit-and-runs. Thang Ratha, 23, died ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-dead-one-seriously-injured-in-another-hit-and-run-59553/
Chamkar Mon Hospital land for sale online
The land on which the former Chamkar Mon Referral Hospital sits was put up for sale for $12.1 million on Friday, just days after a municipal health official denied that the property would be sold. According to an advertisement posted on the Khmer24 classified advertising website, ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/chamkar-mon-hospital-land-for-sale-online-for-12-1m-59503/
NGOs begin to stop the rot of Cambodian teeth
Every day for weeks on end, 6-year-old Srey Nuch was tormented by severe pain caused by several of her teeth rotting away. Her mother, Lay Vicheka, despaired when she heard her daughter’s cries, knowing the family was far too poor to pay a dentist to fix ...
Holly Robertson and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/ngos-starting-to-stop-the-rot-of-cambodian-teeth-59490/
Cambodian parliament passes judicial reform laws amid opposition boycott
Cambodia’s ruling party- controlled National Assembly has unanimously passed three laws, designed to strengthen the country’s judicial system, despite ongoing boycott of parliament by the main opposition party. The Law on the Organization of the Judiciary was adopted on Thursday, and the Laws on the Organization ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/23/c_133355900.htm
Khiri Travel helps Cambodia’s Banteay Chhmar community with a new tourism product
Banteay Chhmar Community-Based Tourism project is a group of local villagers from the Banteay Chhmar community dedicated to preserving and protecting the cultural heritage of their local temple site. Khiri Travel is aiming to create a responsible tourism industry in the town of Banteay Chhmar. The CBT ...
Luc Citrinot
http://www.traveldailynews.asia/news/article/55650/khiri-travel-helps-cambodia-rsquo-s-banteay
Pupils blamed for illegal books
Education officials yesterday shifted the onus of pirated and illegally sold state textbooks onto students, faulting the teenage pupils for fuelling demand. “If there are no buyers, there will be no sellers,” Lim Sotharith, director of the Education Ministry’s textbook department, said during a forum on ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pupils-blamed-illegal-books
Journalists in CPP firing line over ‘1-party’ tag
The single-party National Assembly sat for the third day of its third plenary session Thursday, with a senior ruling party lawmaker calling on Information Minister Khieu Kanharith to examine whether journalists who call the Assembly “single party” can be punished under law. Sixty-four of the 68 ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/journalists-in-cpp-firing-line-over-1-party-tag-59430/
Farmers urged to go green
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture have called on farmers to cease using chemical pesticides and adopt environmentally friendly methods in an effort to increase yields and reduce damage to produce. At an agriculture workshop on biological control agents hosted yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture, ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/farmers-urged-go-green
Economic official in K Cham Hit and run
A car belonging to Ly Thida, the director of the Kompong Cham provincial department of economy and finance, was involved in a fatal hit-and-run collision Thursday in the province’s Choeung Prey district, a police official said. District deputy police chief Cheang Se said two people were ...
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/economic-official-in-k-cham-hit-and-run-59440/
Cambodia keeps cool after coup in Thailand
As news broke yesterday evening that the Thai political situation had evolved from martial law to a full-blown coup d’etat, Cambodian government officials said they hoped the army’s takeover would be transitional and dismissed any concerns that tensions could rise on the Cambodia-Thailand border. ”We wish ...
Kevin Ponniah and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-keeps-cool-after-coup-thailand
Cambodia sees big jump in construction investment in first quarter
Cambodia’s construction sector received a total investment of 851 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2014, up 311 percent compared with 207 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, the official figures showed Thursday. During the January-March period this year, the ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=219820
Assembly passes first of three contentious laws on judicial reform
Ruling party lawmakers at the National Assembly pass the first of three draft laws in judicial reform, defying an opposition boycott and ignoring calls for further review by outside legal experts. The Law on the Organization of the Courts will put more power within the Ministry ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/assembly-passes-first-of-three-contentious-laws-on-judicial-reform/1920338.html
Temple to be restored
A stone wall from the Angkorian-era Banteay Chhmar temple that was damaged in a rainstorm last month will be repaired in July, an official said yesterday. Yang Tangkouy, a provincial official, said the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts is cooperating with UNESCO on the restoration ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/temple-be-restored
Union leader rejects video, photo evidence
During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-rejects-video-photo-evidence-59326/
Farmers blocked from petitioning Red Cross
Municipal and military police on Wednesday blocked a group of about 100 displaced farmers from Kratie province who were attempting to deliver a petition to the Cambodian Red Cross’ Phnom Penh headquarters calling on the group to help them in their land dispute with a ...
Aun Pheap and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/farmers-blocked-from-petitioning-red-cross-59339/
Directive aims to stop ELC abuses
Sacred burial grounds and community forests should be granted more protection under a new government proclamation issued this month, but rights groups and land-grab victims are wary that, without proper enforcement, it will amount to little in practice. An interministerial proclamation, or prakas, signed by ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/directive-aims-stop-elc-abuses
Put trips to Bangkok on hold: gov’t
The government asked Cambodians to avoid all nonessential travel to Bangkok following Thailand’s imposition of martial law. “The situation is calm and we will continue monitoring it, but travellers planning to go to Thailand should hold off for now,” Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said after an ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/put-trips-bangkok-hold-gov%E2%80%99t
Government spending, foreign aid up in 2013
Government spending increased 32 per cent last year, while increases in both domestic revenue and foreign aid helped stabilise Cambodia’s budget deficit, according to budget statements from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The consolidated financial records, which were released on May 8, show Cambodia’s ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/government-spending-foreign-aid-2013