International relations

US Ambassador William Todd on Thursday urged the Cambodian government to strengthen the skills of its laborers, in order to meet the needs of an integrated Asean in 2015. The 10 Southeast Asian countries that comprise Asean are all moving toward an integrated economic block, which ...

A huge haul of river sand dredged in Cambodia has been quarantined at the southern Indian port city of Cochin since its arrival in April despite a ban on sand exports instituted by Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2009. India’s Deccan Chronicle news­paper reported on Tuesday ...

The National Assembly of Viet Nam presented 1,000 tonnes of rice to Cambodian flood victims at a ceremony held in Phnom Penh yesterday. The latest floods took the lives of 80 people and resulted in economic losses of around US$1 billion. ...

The European Union (EU) signs Wednesday to provide Cambodia with equipment to detect illicit trafficking and criminal use of nuclear and radiological materials. The agreement was inked between EU Ambassador to Cambodia Jean Francois Cautain and Om Yentieng, vice-chairman of the Secretariat of National Counter-Terrorism Committee. Under the deal, ...

After repeatedly equivocating about whether it has lifted a 2011 freeze on new lending to Cambodia in response to the government’s forced evictions of families in Phnom Penh, the World Bank has said that the suspension is still firmly in place. “The World Bank has not ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) is requesting that $15 million be allocated to Cambodia from a new $100 million grant to stop the spread of resistance to the best available drugs currently used to fight malaria. Eva Christophel, the WHO’s regional malaria adviser in Manila, said ...

The aid sector needs more transparency to ensure that the public knows exactly where and how money is being spent, a consortium of NGOs said Tuesday. Tek Vannara, deputy executive director of the NGO Forum, said at a workshop in Phnom Penh that while the Council ...

CPP and Senate President Chea Sim was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government on Sunday in recognition of his contributions to the strengthening of relations between the two countries. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Sim, ...

Cambodian and U.S. senior officials met here on Monday to further promote bilateral ties and cooperation. The meeting was made between Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Scot Marciel, visiting principal deputy assistant to the United States Secretary of ...

The national park near the ancient Khmer Hindu temple of Preah Vihear will be closed from Monday, eight days before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues its ruling on disputed land, located near the temple, contested by Thailand and Cambodia. The closure, which would ...

The Cambodian and Malaysian governments will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) within three months that will restart the business of sending Cambodian domestic workers to the country after a two-year moratorium, a Labor Ministry official said Friday. After meeting with representatives from the Malaysian Home ...

The government will likely sell a Japanese-style medical service to Cambodia in a package that includes an emergency care center, a medical graduate school and an insurance system. The government has decided to seek a market for the medical service in emerging nations in the Association ...

Cambodia’s newly appointed minister of commerce said Thursday that he plans to reform the country’s economy ahead of Cambodia’s entrance into the Asean Economic Community (AEC) 2015, though he and other officials did not say how they plan to accomplish that goal. Speaking to reporters on ...

The Cambodian government should construct an effective annual review system for the minimum wage to ease worker unrest, according to clothing retail giant H&M. The Swedish company’s comments came after CEO Karl-Johan Persson visited the country in mid-October, meeting Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and other ...

The U.N.’s envoy for freedom of as­sembly on Tuesday presented a report to the U.N. General Assem­bly that calls for an approach to election monitoring that looks be­yond polling day to assess wheth­er elections in countries such as Cambodia are “free and fair.” The report, compiled ...

It has been one year since Cambodia announced that it was lifting its ban on intercountry adoptions beginning January 1, 2013, but despite praising Cambodia’s efforts to implement international regulations, countries that ban adoptions of Cambodians said this week that they were no closer to ...

PTT Plc, Thailand’s giant oil and gas conglomerate, has renewed its concession with the Cambodian government to provide jet fuel services for another five years at airports in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Senior executive vice-president Auttapol Rerkpiboon said PTT will provide jet fuel service at ...

China on Thursday donated one million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for the relief of the flood- affected people. Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo handed over the cash donation to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital. Bu, on behalf of ...

Germany’s new ambassador to Cambodia, Joachim Baron von Marschall, said Wednesday during a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong that he hoped the country’s ruling CPP and opposition CNRP would meet to resolve the post-election uncertainty, an official said. “His Excellency [Mr. Baron von Marschall] ...

The United States embassy in Phnom Penh contains an intelligence-gathering operation that amasses information about Cambodia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday, citing a map first published in Germany’s Der Spiegel. The Herald article referenced some 90 international surveillance sites, including ones housed in embassies in neighbouring Jakarta, Yangon, Bangkok and ...

Teenage pregnancies are hindering Cambodia’s development as young mothers are unlikely to finish school and therefore lack job opportunities, government and U.N. officials said at the launch of a global report on adolescent pregnancies on Wednesday. “The Ministry of Women’s Affairs acknowledges that adolescent pregnancies have ...

Malaysia has not yet received a draft agreement aimed at protecting Cambodian migrant domestic workers from abuse, but the government is pressing Cambodia to lift its two-year moratorium on sending maids, a Malaysian official said Wednesday. In October 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed a ban ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged convicted British pedophile Richard Fruin, 36, with sexually abusing two brothers, aged 8 and 11, at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh, court officials said. While the court has yet to decide Fruin’s fate, his case—and many similar ...

Bangkok Bank has urged Thai businesses to have a more active role in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) in terms of trading activities and investment, in order to tap the growing middle-class market in those countries. Speaking at the bank’s “Trade Logistics in Greater Mekong Sub-region: ...