Aid and development

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday signed a spending bill that suspends some funding to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government until an independent investigation into last year’s disputed national election is carried out, or until the opposition CNRP ends its boycott of parliament. The bill targets ...

A draft US law that would require the World Bank to regularly report to congress about the condition of families displaced or still living in the Boeung Kak lake area was approved Wednesday by the House of Representatives. The bill includes language that specifically requires the ...

Authorities in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces on Thursday said that they were investigating an unusual change of color in the Mekong River to a muddy, dark brown that was unnatural for this time of the year and was worrying residents. Since the beginning of this ...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a spending bill that would suspend some funding to Cambodia until the government carries out an independent investigation of July’s disputed national election and reforms its electoral system, or until the opposition ends its boycott of parliament. The ...

Cambodia and the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Thursday launched a new project to expand job services and improve labor market information with funding from China, according to an ILO media statement. The ILO/China South-South Cooperation Project to Expand Employment Services and Enhance Labor Market Information ...

As military police began a 10-day training program with the U.S. military in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, questions are being raised again over Washington’s ongoing support to Cambodian security forces involved in serious human rights abuses. On January 3, military police officers opened fire with AK-47 ...

Construction on Phnom Penh’s first international-standard critical-care center is expected to begin in April, and when completed it will offer state-of-the-art medical technology and highly trained staff, according to an official with the Japanese firm in charge of the project. “[Construction] is supposed to start from ...

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived for an official three-day visit Sunday, during which he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen as well as inaugurate a new Vietnamese-funded hospital and attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a bridge linking the two countries. Tran ...

China’s humanitarian assistance has helped relieve difficulties of flood- hit families, HIV/AIDS victims, elderly, disabled and poor people in Cambodia, beneficiaries said Friday. The Chinese government donated one million U.S. dollars to Cambodia in October for people who have faced hardships due to severe flooding last ...

Chinese military trainers on Wednesday successfully ended the 2nd mine clearance course for 52 Cambodian peacekeeping forces after a six-week intensive training. The course, instructed by a team of 12 Chinese military experts, had been conducted at the Institute for Peacekeeping Forces, Mine and Explosive Remnants ...

The Global Fund has backed down on its threat to cut or reduce health grants to Cambodia worth more than $100 million, saying they considered the fraction of misused funds that have been returned thus far a sign of sufficient good will. In a letter sent ...

The Construction of Second Chroy Changva Bridge, which is funded by Chin’s loan, is expected to be finished by the end of 2014, reducing the heavy traffic on the current Chroy Changva Bridge, said a government official. The construction project costs USD 27.5 millions and ...

In an attempt to crack down on rampant cheating on nationwide testing, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) has announced that primary and high school teachers will begin individually authoring and writing final exams on the white board for the 2014 academic term, ...

Financial records the Global Fund requested for its investigation into widespread corruption in health grants to Cambodia were withheld and censored by grant recipients, the probe found, suggesting a systematic attempt to cover up wrongdoing. Out of a total of $220.3 million worth of expenses the ...

International donors along with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Planning kick-started the Kingdom’s fourth Demographic and Health Survey in the capital yesterday. ...

The Education Ministry and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday that they had begun a joint investigation into the misappropriation of textbooks intended for secondary school students under an ADB-funded scheme. Two NGOs on Thursday released results of an investigation into 33 secondary schools, which ...

American lobby group Human Rights Watch has lashed out at Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, for her trip to Cambodia earlier this month. In a commentary posted Thursday, it noted that the IMF recognized that corruption threatened market integrity, distorted competition, ...

School textbooks paid for by the Asian Development Bank have been routed to district education offices, some of which are charging schools for books that are supposed to be free, an NGO investigation has found. The textbooks on Khmer literature, maths, geography, morality and science were ...

The French Agency for Development will provide $26 million in loans to the Cambodian government to rehabilitate irrigation systems across three provinces in the northwest. Speaking at the signing ceremony for the deal yesterday, Aun Pornmoniroth, the Minister of Economy and Finance, said the new systems ...

A pilot cashew-peeling factory in Kampong Thom province aims to make business easier for farmers who have traditionally relied upon sending their raw harvest elsewhere for processing. With $130,000 from the Asia Development Bank, the building went up in May on 3,600 square metres in Kampong ...

Smoke billowed over Phnom Penh International Airport and people lay on the grass verges near an aircraft simulator on Friday as hundreds of rescue service personnel and firefighters took part in the airport’s fourth-ever full-scale emergency exercise. Hundreds of soldiers and police, as well as actors ...

A financial review by USAID, the U.S. government’s development arm, into local health NGO Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) has found financial mismanagement coupled with a lack of transparency and oversight within the organization that may point to evidence of fraudulent activity. Well-known for its ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to maintain the robust growth of over 7 percent this year even though the country is still trapped in political dispute and recovering from the aftermath of recent floods, senior officials and bankers said. But some analysts predicted that political trouble, coupled ...

Returning from a state visit to Japan on Tuesday, a member of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government dismissed the possibility that newly upgraded ties with Japan and Cambodia’s decision to join its Asean neighbors in a “freedom of overflight” pact with Tokyo might strain its ...