Social development

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday signed a $180 million package of loans and grants to Cambodia that are meant to improve the country’s roads, water supply and small-scale farms. One $70 million loan will go towards improving 147-kilometres’ worth of flood-prone stretches of National Road ...

The Information Ministry will use a new form of media pass for journalists working in Cambodia by the end of January in order to easily manage and collect data from journalists. ...

After joining the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) family in 2016, Cambodia has been an active supporter and enthusiastic participant of the mechanism. On Dec. 21, China provided 7.3 million U.S. dollars from the LMC Special Fund to Cambodia for carrying out 16 projects in the kingdom, ...

An ethnic Phnong community in Kratie province’s Snuol district has accused local officials and soldiers of grabbing over 1,000 hectares of community forest and threatening the lives of local villagers for years, with the rights group Adhoc yesterday saying they would take the case to ...

The Ministry of Education plans to incorporate an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 community-based kindergartens – currently run by commune councils with support from NGOs – into the state public school system to ensure their sustainability, according to a new sub-decree. ...

Repairs on an ancient sandstone statue discovered in Siem Reap province in July are 50 percent complete, according to a report. The Angkor-era statue was found at the Tonle Sgnout temple by a group of Apsara Authority archaeologists working with colleagues from the Singapore-based Institute ...

A national network of people living with HIV, which has been key in helping coordinate anti-HIV services at the grassroots level, is now being excluded from a new Global Fund grant, raising “deep” concerns, according to NGOs and a leaked internal email sent to government ...

The prime minister lashed out at journalists and analysts today for questioning the current government’s reform record, a seeming reference to a Post article from December about a speech in which he touted his administration’s progress. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen today announced plans to offer free health care to cyclo drivers and to form a foundation to help preserve them as a tourist attraction. ...

The Health Minister has ordered civil servants to prioritise the implementation of new social security services for public officials, former government workers and veterans, which came into force at the start of this year. ...

Officials from the Ministry of Health said the numbers of malaria cases was roughly similar in 2017 as it was in 2016.​Authorities only reported one death from malaria this year, but sill called for people to take every possible measure to prevent the disease.​ ...

​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”.​ ​ ...

Preah Sihanouk province authorities yesterday demolished part of one home and its fence, which had encroached on a road they are trying to widen in the province’s Prey Nop district. ...

The Phnom Penh governor said he would crack down on pharmacies who do not follow the laws of the Health Ministry. Governor Khuong Sreng vowed to ban practices such as the selling of medication without a license and the dissemination of illegal medications, and to search ...

On Christmas Eve, the Cambodian government transferred control of the abandoned church on Bokor Mountain to a Catholic community, with plans to renovate the dilapidated house of worship. ...

A deadline for a group of Borei Keila residents to accept compensation or leave their homes with nothing passed on Friday, with none of the residents agreeing to move to a resettlement site, and authorities saying they have no right to remain, but with no ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) said only four political parties had registered to contest the February Senate elections, from which the country’s main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, will be excluded following its widely condemned dissolution by the Supreme Court in November. ...

Villagers in one of Phnom Penh’s fiercest land disputes said yesterday they are determined to stay in Borei Keila despite today’s deadline to either accept compensation or leave with nothing. ...

The Cham families along the Tonle Sap in this area of Kandal have traditionally lived and worked on the river, some for more than five decades. But now they are building a village on land called “Islam Thmey”, or “New Islam”, to seek what they ...

Representatives of 40 families locked in a decade-old land dispute with a Chinese sugar company in Preah Vihear province blocked tractors from clearing land that the villagers say belongs to them, while 50 families in a separate land dispute in Koh Kong took their complaints ...

Politicians and civil society members in New York called on the United Nations to take harsh measures to restore democracy in Cambodia during a panel on Tuesday, even recommending leaving Cambodia’s seat at the UN empty and putting senior ruling party officials on a blacklist. ...

Japan has granted about $28 million in aid for the construction of teacher education colleges in the kingdom. The signing ceremony took place yesterday at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. ...

Former Funcinpec Deputy Prime Minister Lu Lay Sreng could be facing a new court case after calling for peaceful protests against the government in a video posted to Facebook yesterday, issuing comments similar to ones that recently saw former opposition leader Sam Rainsy slapped with ...

The government and the Global Fund have signed a grant agreement worth more than $55 million to implement anti-AIDS and tuberculosis programmes in Cambodia from 2018 to 2020. ...