Social development

Every Cambodian will be assigned a 10-digit identification number under which information from various government departments, as well as the private sector, will be collected in a central database, Interior Minister Sar Kheng announced on Thursday.   ...

Leading mobile phone operator Smart Axiata has formed a partnership with The Asia Foundation, an international development NGO, to foster innovation and creativity among Cambodian tech startups.   ...

Many of the news media’s favorite political analysts aren’t picking up their telephones. They say they are busy with work, traveling abroad or focusing on their studies. ...

The Ministry of Health acknowledged yesterday in its annual report that the quality of health care services in the Kingdom remains poor, with experts concluding that the slow improvement is due to a lack of government commitment.   ...

Four senior officials for rights group Adhoc will remain behind bars after the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Court of Appeal’s ruling that they should be held in detention while awaiting trial, but gave no reason for the decision. ...

Retired civil servants and military veterans are to get a pension rise next month, along with the same 50,000 riel Khmer New Year allowance as serving civil servants and armed forces members. ...

Officials broke ground on Saturday on a new mental health center in Kandal province that will house detainees from the notorious Prey Speu detention center in Phnom Penh, among others, government and city officials said on Sunday. ...

A lack of diagnostic equipment in Cambodia is causing cases of tuberculosis to be both over- and under-reported in children, a new study finds.   ...

A quarter of Cambodian students want more access to books and other reading materials, a study by World Vision revealed yesterday. Of the 4,000 students surveyed by the global NGO, 25 percent said they sought “more amount and variety” of books, while 12 percent wanted “better ...

Villagers from Stung Treng whose homes stand to be flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam met with representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy at an NGO Forum-sponsored meeting in Phnom Penh yesterday, in hopes of establishing a dialogue towards a long-awaited compromise. ...

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy has denounced current world governments’ surveillance legislation, calling for respect for citizens’ rights to privacy.   ...

For the ruling CPP, the promise was to appoint a woman as governor for one of the country’s 25 provinces. For the opposition CNRP, its boast was having 60 female commune chief candidates—up from fewer than 10—to run in Cambodia’s 1,646 communes for this year’s ...

Female construction workers earn on average about $2.50 less per day than their male counterparts, are given fewer opportunities to learn new skills and are victims of outdated gender stereotypes, a new report says.   ...

Leaders of the Cambodian Labor Confederation have urged authorities to take action against employers who harass, threaten and use violence against female garment workers.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered the Interior Ministry to place women as deputy governors in 25 cities and provinces as well as to increase the role of women in the army, military police and National Police in an effort to promote gender equality. ...

The prime minister has urged government ministries and public institutions to speed up work on an action plan to prevent violence against women and children, calling for education on the issue to start from an early age. ...

Cambodia and China inked a deal yesterday to build a new communicable disease control facility in the Kingdom for the country to expand its capacity to detect and respond to communicable disease outbreaks, such as Zika and Ebola, in a timely fashion. ...

Communities affected by land disputes have used the occasion of International Women’s Day today to urge the government to free activist Tep Vanny. They also called for the release of civil society organization officials and an NEC official who are being held in prison. ...

Thailand’s Rajamangala University of Technology plans to set up a tourism and hospitality institute in Siem Reap province to build the capacity of Cambodians working in the tourism sector. ...

The Global Corruption Barometer, which was compiled from interviews with more than 1,000 Cambodians, showed overall decreases in the direct experiences of corruption in the judiciary since 2011, down from 72 percent to 59 percent in 2016. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision to keep four officials from rights group Adhoc imprisoned while the court investigates their case was right “according to the law,” a Supreme Court official said on Monday during an appeal hearing. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a strong warning yesterday to NGO officials who analyze politics, while also repeating that there will be no amnesty for former opposition president Sam Rainsy. ...

Nearly 80 international and Cambodian civil society groups have signed a joint statement urging the government to halt its crackdown on activists and release five current and former senior officials of rights group Adhoc who have been awaiting trial since May. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday urged Cambodian artists to include elements of national identity in their work to ensure they are not threatened with intellectual property rights lawsuits from international artists. ...