Urban administration and development

When Sok Kheurn travels to the city of Siem Reap, some 32 kilometers from her home in Banteay Srei district, Siem Reap Province, the 58-year-old woman is always astounded by the differences she  sees. While in her village, everyone gets water from wells and light at ...

Regional flights to Cambodia will rise next year with the news that Philippines Airlines is eyeing flights to the Kingdom and Singapore’s SilkAir announced it would increase the frequency of flights to Siem Reap. The regional wing of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, announced on Tuesday an increase ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday unveiled its new three-year assistance plan of 525 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia in order to help the country reduce poverty, promote growth and mitigate climate change, the bank said. The plan for 2013-2015 marked the bank’s strategic focus ...

With demand for shopping space in Cambodia on the rise and investor interest growing, the Japanese developer Aeon Mall (Cambodia) Co Ltd last week broke ground on the construction of a US$205-million mall in Phnom Penh. “We are happy to contribute to the development of ...

The Government of Cambodia on Friday passed a draft law on fire prevention in order to contribute to maintaining security, social safety, public order, and life and property protection, according to a media statement released after the weekly Cabinet meeting. In the meeting, Hun Sen ...

Thailand and Cambodia will launch the first bus services linking Bangkok with Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in the next two weeks. The first bus service between the two countries will debut on Dec 29, said The Transport Co, a state enterprise under the Transport Ministry. The ...

A verdict in the land encroachment case against a prominent businesswoman was not delivered as expected yesterday, after a judge ordered the case be re-investigated due to a lack of evidence. Phnom Penh Municipal Court tried Chhin Sokountheary, director of Layimex Holdings Group, in absentia on ...

Officials expressed optimism that microfinance institution Prasac would be able to attract more deposit placing clients, after the inauguration of its new headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tompun district yesterday. Representatives from the National Bank of Cambodia  and Prasac expect the new 10-storey building to enhance ...

Potential real estate investors in Siem Reap are being advised to look towards retail strips rather than hotels, according to Cambodian real estate professionals. Knight Frank’s Cambodia chief, Sunny Soo, said that while the hotel industry is well supplied, the town lacks an organised retail strip. ...

The Siem Reap City governor said yesterday that he would not allow a popular night market to be rebuilt after a deadly fire on Saturday razed it to the ground. “We cannot allow them to rebuild the market because this location is only suitable for ...

The Advanced Bank of Asia (ABA) is expanding its Siem Reap operations to take advantage of the growing tourism sector. The bank is moving out of its 160-square-metre Sivutha Street office into a 1,080-square-metre, three-level office across the road, and it is now one of the ...

Eight people, four of them children, were killed when fire ripped through Siem Reap City’s popular night market in the early hours of Saturday morning, officials and witnesses said. The fire, which stared at about 2 a.m., left the market completely gutted and damage estimated at ...

In a rare acknowledgement of deforestation concerns, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO, said the widespread clearing of forests around Angkor Wat was harming views of the historic temple complex. Sok An made the remarks in Siem Reap at a ...

Phnom Penh, which currently has six satellite cities under development, may be jumping the gun in terms of the demand for them, according to a new report from global real estate firm CBRE. In its latest MarketView report, CBRE says bluntly that currently “demand for satellite ...

Foreign renters are vacating apartments in Phnom Penh’s central Daun Penh district and opting for cheaper, more spacious and better-equipped living spaces elsewhere in the city, realtors and landlords say. As a result, landlords in Daun Penh are being forced to decrease rental prices to try ...

Phnom Penh City Hall had signed a contract with the French company Citelum on Monday to broaden and modernise its public lighting system over the course of a 20-year agreement, the French embassy announced yesterday. ...

The amount of cargo entering Cambodia through the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port increased 17 percent over the first 11 months of the year, compared to the same period in 2011, a port official said yesterday. From January through October, the Port received a total of 86,334 ...

Provincial authorities have reported an influx of people from Phnom Penh to the provinces over the three-day Water Festival celebration, while vendors who set up shops on Koh Pich in the capital during the holiday said that they had barely broken even. This year saw ...

Three projects of the six satellite cities around Phnom Penh that were originally approved by the government have been “significantly” developed, according to officials of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Lao Tepseiha, deputy director of the construction department of the Ministry ...

The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court delayed the destruction of the homes and subsequent eviction of 14 families embroiled in a land dispute with a company owned by tycoon Kong Treav in Village 4 of Sihanoukville’s Commune 4, local authorities said yesterday. Though many of the families ...

The Philippine ambassador in Cambodia is confident there will be more direct flights between the two Asian countries, apart from the current Manila-Siem Reap route, which is six hours away by land from this capital. Ambassador Noe Wong expressed optimism there will be another memorandum of ...

Capitalising on recent worldwide attention to their plight, some 200 villagers who say they’ve been robbed of their homes and land staged a vivid and stylised protest yesterday aimed at President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling for intervention in Phnom Penh’s land-titling ...

Many expats living in Siem Reap have found themselves on the eternal quest for a comfortable sofa. A big, squishy sofa like the one at home, that allows a body to really stretch out on. A Khmer settee – wooden, bench-like and unforgiving – just ...

Myanmar Airways International (MAI) will resume its regular flights between Yangon and Cambodia’s two main international airports in early December after they were suspended for about three months. MAI started a twice-weekly schedule to Siem Reap in late February, but suspended the route over the last ...