Ministries and other national bodies

Cambodia is experiencing a runaway property boom that must be constrained by laws and regulations in order to draw investment from European developers, which are largely absent in the country, experts said at an industry conference in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Simon Griffiths, senior manager at ...

The Finance Ministry’s general department of customs and excise is getting a new boss after the long-serving general department chief Pen Siman retires, according to a royal decree released to the media Tuesday. ...

The Ministry of Culture on Tuesday introduced the country’s first strategic cultural policy, an ambitious plan that includes setting up provincial cultural centers, launching arts education in schools, holding annual cultural events and promoting individual artists. Speaking to an audience that included representatives from the leading ...

Cambodia on Tuesday defended its plan to build the 108-megawatt Chhay Areng River hydropower plant in a jungle in southwestern Koh Kong province, saying the project would greatly contribute to developing the energy sector. “An initial study found that the project has a capacity of 108 ...

The construction of Koh Kong’s Cheay Areng hydrowpower dam will cost USD 400 million and be completed by 2020, said Energy Secretary of State Ith Prang Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference, he said the study of the dam and its impact on environment has been ...

Two-and-a-half years after Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed a freeze on the granting of economic land concessions (ELCs), Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Monday appeared to leave the door open to the government giving more companies access to the often-controversial land holdings. At a press ...

With the spectre of potential garment-sector unrest on the horizon and emboldened communities protesting land disputes, the National Police is buying what appear to be the authorities’ first water-cannon trucks designed specifically to control demonstrations. In advertisements in yesterday’s Post and Post Khmer newspapers, the ...

About 500 workers who have been on strike at a Chinese-owned footwear factory in Phnom Penh for the past two weeks protested in front of the Ministry of Labor yesterday asking for the government’s help in resolving the dispute. On September 15, more than 1,000 employees ...

The Ministry of Interior has deported more than 200 foreign nationals over the past two months as part of its ongoing nationwide census, according to Sok Phal, director of the ministry’s immigration department. The Interior Ministry’s census was launched last month, at the same time ...

Foreign minister Julie Bishop announced that an additional $40 million in development assistance was given to Cambodia. The amount shall boost Cambodia’s effort to provide humanitarian aid to those who are in need of protection as part of the Refugees Convention and a member of ...

Cambodian Environment Minister Say Samal said Monday that the government has canceled licenses of economic land concessions (ELCs) for eight companies after they have not undertaken development on the lands for years.​ ...

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy said that Cambodia should not have signed a deal with Australia to accept refugees to live in Cambodia. Cambodia should not have accepted the refugees from Australia because they are not goods for being exported or imported by any country, Sam ...

Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem has issued a letter to the National Assembly commission on the environment, offering assurances that the planned Stung Cheay Areng Hydropower Dam will meet high environmental and social standards. Opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party member Te Chanmony on September ...

Negotiations held on Friday between garment factory owners, union leaders and government officials failed to set a new industry minimum wage for next year, but a final decision will be reached by October 10, according to Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng. The tripartite Labor Advisory Council ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday announced plans to raise salaries of commune and village officials in an effort to close the gap between earnings of high- and low-ranking civil servants. The draft sub-decree, which will see wages of commune chiefs rise from 300,000 riel per ...

Garment and footwear industry, Cambodia’s largest income earner, reported a 12.6 percent rise in exports in the first seven months of 2014, according to the data of the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. The country exported apparel and footwear products worth 3.47 billion U.S. dollars during ...

Cambodia and China’s Yunnan province signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Monday on media cooperation and exchanges. The deal was inked by Buth Bovuth, chief of the Cambodian Information Ministry’s General Department of Information and Broadcasting, and Wu Jingbo, deputy chief of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China’s Yunnan Provincial Committee, with the presence of Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith and Ge Guangzhi, deputy director of Department No. 6 of the Information Office of China’s State Council. ...

About 1,000 workers protested outside the Chinese-owned Komchay Mear Trading factory in Prey Veng province on Saturday morning after managers refused to give them a government-mandated salary advance for the Pchum Ben holiday, officials and unionists said on Sunday. The protest was short-lived, however, ending Saturday ...

The Cambodian Interior ministry is carrying out a census to identify how many foreigners – legal and illegal – are living in the country. ...

More than 200 university students yesterday called on the government to publicly release the latest version of the controversial cybercrime law, amid fears it will lead to a clampdown on their currently unrestricted use of social media sites like Facebook. ...

Tycoon Try Pheap has collected an estimated 1,500 cubic metres of timber from Forestry Administration offices since the government in July issued his companies permission to confiscate “waste wood” from their offices and from the Ministry of Environment, according to preliminary government figures obtained by ...

The National Assembly asked Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng to provide Korean-language test paper for free to or sell in the lowest price for workers as the current test paper costs USD 24. ...

Municipal officials on Tuesday announced a new initiative to help rehabilitate Phnom Penh’s drug addicts by offering discreet treatment services at local health centers. The initiative will encourage commune-level officials to visit known drug addicts in their community and tell them about the treatment options available at ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng told an audience of university graduates on Tuesday that recent efforts to clean up the education system would extend to his ministry to combat claims that the civil service is plagued by nepotism. ...