Social development

More than 100 former Boeung Kak and Borei Keila residents submitted petitions to the premier and various ministries in Phnom Penh yesterday, asking for intervention in their respective land disputes and making various other requests. ...

The health minister has banned surrogate pregnancy arrangements in the country, putting the brakes on what appeared to be a quickly expanding—if controversial—industry. The move comes just days after the justice minister called for the practice to be outlawed. ...

Companies should embrace the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their operations and encourage a positive impact through their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public, said an NGO official yesterday. “CSR-focused businesses would proactively promote public ...

Civil society groups are getting closer to unveiling a new set of guidelines that will change how the impact of big development projects is assessed across the Mekong region, NGOs said yesterday, following the end of a two-month public consultation period. ...

The public has spoken and among their top priorities for spearheading sustainable development in Cambodia are eradicating poverty, administering quality education and achieving peace and justice, according to a new survey published by NGO World Vision. The survey takes focus on 2030’s UN Sustainable Development Goals ...

A project in Stung Treng province is giving women the opportunity to participate in one of the fastest-growing food-production sectors in Cambodia: aquaculture fisheries – a field that has also traditionally been among its most male-dominated. ...

Amid reports of the emergence of the Zika virus in Myanmar and the discovery of the first birth defect believed linked to the virus in Vietnam, two researchers with Phnom Penh’s Pasteur Institute have concluded that Cambodia is at high risk of its own Zika ...

Cambodian betel nut chewers are six times more at risk of contracting potentially malignant oral cancers, according to a new report. The study surveyed 1,634 people in Phnom Penh, Kampot, Kampong Cham, Pursat and Stung Treng and found that 54 percent had oral lesions – white ...

Pen Sovann, Cambodia’s first prime minister after the Vietnamese invasion in January 1979 that swept the Khmer Rouge from power and a serving opposition member of parliament, passed away at his home in Takeo province’s Duan Keo town on Saturday evening aged 80. ...

Ten students will have the opportunity to further their studies for free thanks to Smart Axiata’s SmartEdu Scholarship Program, which not only covers their entire tertiary education tuition, but has also awarded them a monthly stipend amounting to $15,000 for the duration of their degree. ...

At least 17,571 hectares of rice fields were affected by the recent floods – of which about 3,186 hectares were severely damaged, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) yesterday, which urged all provincial agriculture departments to immediately evaluate the affects from ...

As part of ongoing education reforms, a new curriculum set to be implemented in 2018 will address the lack of career counselling in high schools across Cambodia, a Ministry of Education official told attendees of an education forum yesterday. ...

An election watchdog yesterday announced it had uncovered plans to move registration stations closer to military bases in Kampong Speu, Tbong Khmum and Kampong Chhnang provinces.​ ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district were thwarted in their attempt to inspect an ethnic Jarai community’s timber stocks on Tuesday, with some officials and observers ascribing the incident to a clash of cultures. ...

Despite having access to other sources of information about the election process, including television and smartphones, Cambodia’s urban poor remain heavily reliant on potentially biased village-level officials when it comes to voter registration, according to a new report. ...

Cambodia’s indigenous groups populate much more of the country than was previously known, but many are also at risk of disappearing, according to yet-to-be-published research.​ ...

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Cambodia announced yesterday the launch of a new mobile workshop that repairs prosthetics for the disabled in Siem Reap province. ...

The NGO Open Institute has launched a new online service that aims to help Cambodian unskilled labourers find jobs within the country as part of an effort to discourage worker migration in hopes of reducing human trafficking. ...

A senior official at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction appealed yesterday to institutions, private companies and related parties to help increase public housing for low and middle income families. In the first annual national forum on housing yesterday, Chhan Saphan, a secretary ...

After her third UN fact-finding mission to Cambodia, special rapporteur Rhona Smith issued a searing review of the human rights situation in the country, stating that the days of the government evoking the troubles of the past century as an excuse for its present shortcomings ...

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and Habitat for Humanity Cambodia (HFHC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that supports a national housing policy to address housing for low-income families. The MoU aims to support implementation of the national housing policy, which ...

Delegations from the five lower Mekong states met with officials from the Asia-Pacific region, the US and Europe yesterday to convene the 9th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) and Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) Regional Working Group aimed at devising strategies to strengthen infrastructure, connectivity ...

The Asian Development Bank has approved a $45 million loan for Cambodia to overhaul its upper secondary education in order to address the increased demand for skilled workers. ...

The government was urged yesterday to follow the spirit of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement as a model to solve the current political problems with dialogue and partnership rather than conflict. At a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of the agreements, which saw ...