Ministries and other national bodies

Visiting U.N. envoy Rhona Smith on Tuesday offered to help Cambodia draft its first laws on surrogacy, a ministry spokesman said. The special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, who arrived on Monday for a 10-day visit, met with Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana to discuss ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng lashed out at Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon yesterday for failing to attend a meeting on the latest government directive to reduce the exploitation of natural resources, saying the minister should get his priorities straight. ...

China will help Cambodia improve its military capacity and provide military technical skills, National Defense Minister Tea Banh said yesterday. ...

As Cambodia’s demand for electricity grows and domestic energy production increases, new data released from the Ministry of Mines and Energy yesterday show that coal-fired energy generation surpassed hydroelectricity for the first time last year. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed to people throughout the country, especially those living in lowland and highland areas, to be careful as heavy rain and flooding is expected from Wednesday to Sunday. Mr. Hun Sen issued the warning in a post on his Facebook page yesterday, ...

Health Minister Mam Bun Heng has issued a directive for all private maternity clinics and hospitals to establish neo-natal intensive care units – which treat seriously ill newborns and premature infants – in order to further reduce maternal and child deaths in the Kingdom.​ ...

An insurrection led by ethnic Jarai villagers against the Kingdom’s first commercial underground gold mine, to be operated by Indian-owned Mesco Gold (Cambodia), looms over the green, serene remote hamlet of Plung, a few kilometers from the Vietnamese border, in Ratanakiri’s O’Yadaw district. ...

The Education Ministry will look into further increasing the minimum wage for teachers in Cambodia after educators said the recent hike of $37, to take effect next April, was still insufficient.​ During the 2016 Teachers’ Day celebration at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia yesterday, Education ...

About 1,000 activists are planning to gather at the former Dey Krahorm neighborhood in central Phnom Penh this morning before marching to the Ministry of Land Management in protest of land and housing evictions, according to those involved, who dismissed City Hall’s ban of the ...

Three weeks since Prime Minister Hun Sen approved $27 million in emergency loans to prop up the struggling rice sector, the state-owned bank charged with disbursing the funds said yesterday that it has only granted $1 million in loans, claiming that the number of eligible ...

A five-day trade fair for Vietnamese products kicked off on Koh Pich in Phnom Penh yesterday, coming on the heels of recent government figures that show declines in bilateral trade and investment between Cambodia and Vietnam. ...

Police patrolling the Thai border yesterday stopped close to 160 Cambodians who were attempting to illegally cross into Thailand from Banteay Meanchey province to work. Chan Mab, the police chief in O’bey Chorn district, told Khmer Times that his men were tipped off that 157 Cambodians ...

In the first eight months of the year the Ministry of Mines and Energy has already surpassed its annual target for non-tax revenue collection from sand dredging and construction material-related mining operations, collecting 117 percent of the $6.6 million outlined in the 2016 national budget, ...

The Cambodian Independent Teacher Association (CITA), along with about 100 teachers from various provinces, gathered at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh yesterday to mark International Teachers’ Day and demanded the government further increase their minimum wage to at least $370, not including additional bonuses. CITA acting ...

Cambodia’s central bank yesterday launched a weekly issuance of Negotiable Certificate of Deposits (NCD) with selling scheduled for every Wednesday – a move aimed at developing the interbank lending market by promoting a secondary market for the short-term interest-bearing certificates. ...

In the first nine months of the year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cambodian embassies abroad have helped nearly 600 Cambodians who went to live and work abroad, legally or illegally, to return home. Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said yesterday that the ministry and ...

The Lower Sesan II dam is expected to generate electricity as planned by 2017, filling a power void in the country as national grid construction is under way, according to the deputy provincial governor of Stung Treng. The dam, located in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday that the minimum wage for teachers is set to exceed $230 (about 950,000 riel), not including additional bonuses, come April next year. During a graduation ceremony for Cambodia University for Specialties students at Koh Pich, Mr. Hun Sen said the ...

The Institute of Standards of Cambodia (ISC) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) will team up to boost the export of four seafood products that adhere to international standards. Speaking at a workshop at the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft yesterday, ISC director-general Chan ...

The government plans to create “cheque de vacances” or holiday vouchers by 2017 to encourage middle-income Cambodians to travel within the country, according to an official from the Ministry of Tourism yesterday. Chhay Khunlong, deputy director-general of tourism at the ministry, said holiday vouchers will enable ...

China has signed an agreement to assist the Kingdom with judicial reforms and to share expertise in overhauling such systems, though one international expert yesterday cautioned that China shouldn’t be considered “a model for justice reform in Cambodia”. ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology warned residents in six southwestern provinces to brace for possible floods during the final days of the Pchum Ben festival. According to an announcement posted on the ministry’s Facebook page yesterday, heavy rain from Saturday to Monday is expected ...

The Ministry of Environment signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday with two Chinese companies to study planting “Paulownia-Guotong” – an extremely fast-growing tree used to make furniture and wooden equipment – and practice growing it in Cambodia. Speaking at a workshop on a feasibility ...

Over 40 new mining licences were issued during the first half of the year to satisfy the high demand for construction materials by Cambodian infrastructure and real estate projects, while more than 100 licences were revoked due to environmental concerns or inactivity, a government official ...