Ministries and other national bodies

The health minister has banned surrogate pregnancy arrangements in the country, putting the brakes on what appeared to be a quickly expanding—if controversial—industry. The move comes just days after the justice minister called for the practice to be outlawed. ...

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been asked to investigate cases of mistreatment of Cambodian migrant workers imprisoned in foreign jails, the Foreign Ministry announced this week. ...

Agriculture officials and struggling smallholder tobacco farmers are cautiously hopeful that tariff exemptions granted under a new trade agreement with Vietnam will lift sagging demand for their crops. ...

Cambodia is overcoming “ineffective practices” and should not be held to the standards of developed countries, a Commerce Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday amid renewed calls for the government to investigate over $400 million in unrecorded sand exports to Singapore. ...

Four Cambodian products – Kampot salt, Phnom Srok silk of Banteay Meanchey province, fragrant milled rice from Battambang province and Kampot durian – could be given geographical indication (GI) status by the European Union (EU), said a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce and ...

The first ever smartphone tax app is set to be launched next year in an effort to make tax payments by companies more transparent. The app developed by the General Department of Taxation (GDT) of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, is a platform for individuals ...

As part of ongoing government efforts to modernize and streamline the country’s tax system, 43 tax agent licenses were awarded yesterday. The 43 companies are now legally recognized as offering tax declaration services to the public and private sectors. Eighteen had previously been doing this work ...

American-owned dairy farm Moo Moo Farms is looking to markedly increase production of its raw – unpasteurized – milk and increase its current herd of 25 cows. The farm, located in Kandal province, began operations earlier this year. According to a statement from the Ministry of ...

Public Works and Transport Minister Sun Chanthol announced the creation of four new departments within his ministry yesterday during a road renovation ceremony in Preah Sihanouk province. Transport Ministry spokesman Va Sim Sorya confirmed the changes to Khmer Times yesterday and said they were done to ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday again ordered Kandal provincial authorities to stop residents from leasing land to Vietnamese farmers, repeating a similar demand from in August. ...

In response to persistent rumors of rice in Cambodia being adulterated with rice-like plastic pellets, the government announced yesterday that it would boost testing of rice across the country, and threatened to take legal action against any unsubstantiated claims. ...

Ministry spokesman Mao Hak said yesterday that seasonal rains are expected to taper off in mid-November, with cooler winds sweeping into the Kingdom from Siberia and Tibet, promising a “winter” even cooler than last year’s, in which some areas saw temperatures as low as 18 ...

Amid reports of the emergence of the Zika virus in Myanmar and the discovery of the first birth defect believed linked to the virus in Vietnam, two researchers with Phnom Penh’s Pasteur Institute have concluded that Cambodia is at high risk of its own Zika ...

Minister in Charge of Border Affairs Var Kimhong yesterday moved to quash the latest outbreak of rumours that National Assembly President Heng Samrin’s native village of Thlok Trach would be given to Vietnam in a land swap. ...

Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol yesterday ordered his officials to keep a close eye on a new $1.3 million project to widen National Road 4 in Preah Sihanouk province in order to halt criticism of shoddy road quality and corruption in his ...

The Mines and Energy Ministry yesterday shut down six sand depots in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district for allegedly failing to “respect” a ministry directive concerning the proper transportation of sand, but they will be allowed to reopen on Wednesday if they agree to comply. ...

About 40 Chroy Changvar peninsula residents yesterday held a press conference rejecting City Hall’s two-month ultimatum to part with most of their land or accept below-market rates to make way for a planned satellite city. ...

The Ministry of Environment on Thursday issued its first prakas on safe battery management, laying out specific guidelines on the collection, storage, treatment, delivery and disposal of batteries by households and businesses alike. ...

A total of 60,000 cubic meters of illegally-felled luxury timber confiscated by the National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) sold at auction yesterday for $15 million, $3 million above the reserve price. Soung Meng Kea, chairman of the subcommittee running the auction and undersecretary of state at the ...

Ten students will have the opportunity to further their studies for free thanks to Smart Axiata’s SmartEdu Scholarship Program, which not only covers their entire tertiary education tuition, but has also awarded them a monthly stipend amounting to $15,000 for the duration of their degree. ...

Residents of Phnom Penh’s iconic White Building were presented with two options yesterday: take a $70,000 payout for their apartment or live in Phnom Penh’s Teuk Thla commune for three years while the structure is renovated. The 50 people representing the 554 families living in the ...

At least 17,571 hectares of rice fields were affected by the recent floods – of which about 3,186 hectares were severely damaged, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) yesterday, which urged all provincial agriculture departments to immediately evaluate the affects from ...

As part of ongoing education reforms, a new curriculum set to be implemented in 2018 will address the lack of career counselling in high schools across Cambodia, a Ministry of Education official told attendees of an education forum yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Transport has started checking trucks traveling along National Road 6 to ensure they conform to legal size and modification requirements, it announced this week. According to a post on the ministry’s Facebook page, mobile inspection teams were deployed in Kampong Cham province to ...