Aid and development

Thanks to a crowd-sourcing campaign spearheaded by grassroots map developers Urban Voice Cambodia, residents of Phnom Penh can now access a map pinpointing flood-prone areas in the capital during rainy season. Updated online yesterday, the map was generated by citizens, who contributed 119 reports of flooding over a ...

Ten buses set off Wednesday morning along Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh on a month-long test-run to determine if the public is ready to jettison their motorbikes and luxury cars and hop on board mass transport. This is the second attempt by the Japanese International Cooperation ...

Cambodia’s strong economic growth and foreign investment are subject to “considerable” downside risks, the International Monetary Fund has warned. A staff report released in Washington late Tuesday said “economic activity remains strong driven by robust exports, with garment exports helped by preferential access to European Union.” At ...

A fleet of 10 municipal buses was set to roll out early this morning, commencing a one-month public bus service trial along a single route on Monivong Boulevard. If successful, the bus route will mark the first step in establishing a long-overdue public transit system to ...

Cambodia greeted about 460,000 Chinese tourists last year, up 38 percent from 333,900 in a year earlier, according to a report of the Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday. China is the second largest source of tourists to Cambodia after Vietnam, the report said. Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong ...

Amid falling local production in Italy, officials there are calling on the European Union to scrap a preferential trade agreement that gives Cambodia’s rice exports duty-free advantages in the global market. According to a January 31 report from rice industry publication Oryza, members of the Italian ...

Work on a $143 million donor project to renovate the country’s creaking railway system, which is already over budget and years behind schedule, is now indefinitely postponed due to a lack of funds, with more than 300 km of rail still to be laid, a ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has for the first time admitted to major flaws in its efforts to protect the roughly 4,000 families losing land to a $143 million project it is funding to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. On Friday, the ADB said it would ...

A call for the Cambodian government to lift its controversial ban on public assembly is among 34 such recommendations it has chosen to defer in the wake of last week’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights situation. The UN on Saturday released a ...

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) is looking to increase its annual budget to $33 million this year amid a need to upgrade its life-saving equipment, an official said yesterday. Approximately $10 million has already been raised, according to CMAC director Heng Ratana, who expressed confidence ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen asked Britain to help Cambodia on human resource development. Hun Sen and Hugo Swire, British Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs, had a meeting Friday at the Peace Palace. ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 7.2 percent this year, and pick up to 7.5 percent next year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The IMF hailed Cambodia for making good progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and reducing poverty substantially. It said ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday that the country wanted to see more British investors in order to further contribute to developing local economy and reducing poverty. The premier made the remarks during a meeting with visiting British Minister of State at the Foreign and ...

At the end of a well-paved road just past the city’s airport sits a cluster of factories. Each one is barely discernible from the next – grey concrete walls and blue aluminium roofs. But one factory in the lot, MAG (Cambodia), is different. In a country ...

A member of the European Parliament is in Cambodia investigating agri-business firms accused of evicting hundreds of families while benefiting from a free-trade scheme with Europe worth millions of dollars, according to the NGO Equitable Cambodia. The visit from France’s Patrice Tirolien follows a resolution the ...

The anti-corruption Unit is launching its investigation on corruption cases after being revealed by Global Fund Organization through its progressive report. The investigation is being launched in line with the Unit’s announcement on the 37th Meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Council on 29 January 2014. ...

CPP National Assembly President Heng Samrin has ordered Cambodia’s newest ambassadors to Asia and Europe to go on a public relations offensive against mounting news abroad that the country’s respect for democracy and human rights is slipping. Cambodian security forces have shot dead seven people ...

The French Agency for Development (AFD) has pledged $359 million in grants and loans to Cambodia over the next three years, state news agency AKP reported Friday. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy left for Europe yesterday evening to attend a UN Human Rights Council review on Cambodia in Geneva and to lobby European Union officials to take a stronger stance against the government, he said before departure. Rainsy plans on attending the Universal Periodic ...

The Chinese government on Wednesday donated 600 sets of radio transmitters to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in order to increase the capacity and efficiency in information communication among armed forces. Speaking during a handover ceremony at the Headquarters of the Infantry on the outskirts ...

European Union (E.U.) Ambassador to Cambodia Jean-Francois Cautain distanced himself Monday from a European Parliament resolution calling for an independent investigation into July’s disputed national election and the killing of five striking garment workers this month. The European Parliament on Thursday passed the resolution, which urges ...

Phnom Penh Municipality has warned the public to expect prolonged traffic disturbances around O’Russei market in Prampi Makara district after construction began in the area Monday as part of the ongoing Japan-funded drainage project, a statement from City Hall said. The public has been asked for ...

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling on the bloc’s executive body to urgently act on an EU preferential trade scheme found to have carried high risks of human rights violations in Cambodia through land evictions for industrial sugar development. In a January 16 resolution, ...

The Cambodian Senate on Monday inaugurated three office buildings, which were constructed under the Chinese grant aid of 7.7 million U.S. dollars. The inauguration was presided over by Say Chhum, Acting- President of the Cambodian Senate, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo, and was attended ...