Ministries and other national bodies

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry yesterday announced that it was halting the operations of the US State Department-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI) and expelling all its foreign staff from the Kingdom in the next week – a move that prompted the US Embassy to fire back ...

Cambodia moved a step closer to becoming an oil-producing nation yesterday after the government finalised its long-awaited production-sharing agreement with Singapore-listed KrisEnergy to develop the country’s first oil field. ...

About 200 people from Kampot and Kandal provinces gathered yesterday at the Land Ministry asking for two separate disputes with development companies to be resolved. ...

The Ministry of Information has closed down multiple radio stations that have been renting airtime to the opposition CNRP party and to two radio news organisations that have been under fire from the government. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday that the government will cut back on recruiting new employees next year to reduce its spending on civil servant salaries. ...

Insurance industry insiders are urging the government and development partners to set up and support a policy of subsidising insurance in the agricultural sector. ...

Media outlets should review the health and agriculture products they advertise, as exposure to unlicensed medicine and insecticides can be fatal, the Ministry of Information has warned. ...

A project to increase the number of wild tigers in the northeastern part of Cambodia was put forward to the Cambodian government by a group of NGOs yesterday. ...

The education minister’s message for students finishing high school has been heard loud and clear since the reform of the national completion exam four years ago: Merit will buy you a pass grade—not money. ...

Immigration police arrested 22 Vietnamese nationals illegally living and working in Phnom Penh yesterday, an Interior Ministry official said. ...

A controversial universal minimum wage law will be passed this year in order to prevent a repeat of the mass protests over garment sector wages that rocked the country in 2013, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said yesterday, despite calls for revisions from independent unions ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said he has rejected proposals for investment in seaweed plantations in Preah Sihanouk and Kep provinces. ...

A Japanese delegation from Osaka province has expressed its intention to invest in Cambodia’s agriculture sector, after its meeting with Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak. ...

Prominent NGOs yesterday said they are trying to comply with the new law on organisations and will meet the Interior Ministry’s deadline to submit reports by the end of September. ...

The investor in Cambodia’s first large scale marine fish farm project in Preah Sihanouk province, that was approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in April, has been asked to submit an environmental impact assessment study to the Ministry of Environment before ...

Four ministries are pushing local producers, particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), to improve their quality, standards and packaging and to provide proper labels on their products to make them more attractive to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels and to boost recognition of local products ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has decided not to shut down a Christian anti-trafficking charity after its founder issued a “heartfelt apology” yesterday. The apology from Agape International Missions (AIM) CEO Don Brewster is the first public comment he has made since the social media fracas sparked ...

Cambodia’s first large-scale solar power project is still in the trial testing stage, but is expected to be fully operational at the end of this month. ...

Two hundred juvenile specimens of the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish were released by the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Fisheries Administration into freshwater reservoirs on Sunday evening in an effort to help preserve the species – which can grow up to 300 kilograms. ...

A raid on Monday of a woman’s house in Prey Veng province turned up hundreds of animals, dead and alive, set to be sold in the illegal wildlife trade. ...

The government has issued a sub-decree that all civil servants will this year receive about $12 each for the upcoming Pchum Ben festival. ...

Cambodia’s telecommunications regulator has called on seven mobile network operators to give an assurance by September 1 that they have registered all their subscribers in accordance with a directive from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication and the Ministry of Interior. ...

The central bank announced on Friday that it has fined an unnamed microfinance institution (MFI) $100,000 for engaging in non-transparent lending practices. ...

Refugee advocates have welcomed plans from the United Nations to relocate 36 Montagnard asylum seekers to a third country, but the Cambodian government yesterday remained silent as to why it has so far failed to cooperate. ...