Ministries and other national bodies

Cambodia is preparing three long-awaited laws aimed at restoring its widely criticized judicial system. However, two of the three draft laws obtained by VOA Khmer still need a lot more improvement, according to legal experts. The laws focus on codifying court jurisdiction, laying out guidelines for ...

Hundreds of senior government officials will be dispatched to the provinces in the coming months to gauge public opinion on reforming state institutions. Almost 800 senior officials from all ministries will begin the project on February 15, state broadcaster TVK reported yesterday, following a meeting at ...

The government has slammed broadcasters Radio Free Asia and Voice of America as “political instruments serving the interests of the opposition party” and accused them of fabricating news in a speech delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Tuesday. The US-government-funded broadcasters have been taken ...

Thy Sovantha is accustomed to being threatened on Facebook. But the 19-year-old CNRP youth activist, who became something of an online celebrity through the popular opposition Facebook page “I Love Cambodia Hot News,” says the latest threat against her, in which a copy of her passport ...

The Indian ambassador to Cambodia is calling on the government to reduce exorbitant shipping costs and take better advantage of a tariff scheme that India offers, two obstacles that the diplomat says are discouraging bilateral trade. Ambassador Dinesh Patnaik said on Tuesday that Indian businesses exporting ...

Video footage of Daun Penh district deputy governor Sok Penh Vuth bashing a defenceless man with a bullhorn on Monday has sparked outrage and demands for his ouster, but his boss told the Post yesterday that people shouldn’t be too hasty to judge, suggesting the footage may ...

Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando will not be granted a digital TV licence because up to 80 channels have been allocated to a Chinese state television network. Khieu Kanharith, the minister of information, said in an interview on TVK on Tuesday night that the allocation of ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday laid out more details in his plan to introduce a series of political reforms after a narrow win for his long-ruling CPP at the polls in July, including creating a new national working group and establishing public forums to ...

The Ministry of Interior has suspended the operation of an orphanage after it found that its director had colluded with a recruitment agency to cheat migrant workers out of an alleged $600,000, officials said Tuesday. “The Ministry of Interior temporarily suspends all activities of Our Friends ...

International tourist arrivals to Cambodia for 2013 increased 14.1 percent over arrivals in 2012, despite lingering political uncertainty following the July election, according to preliminary annual figures from the Ministry of Tourism. The number of visitors entering the country last year reached 4.2 million, compared to ...

The Ministry of Defense released a statement Wednesday condemning an opposition party spokesman for allegedly “looking down on” Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government and the armed forces. The statement, dated Tuesday, attacked CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann for comments made to the media on January 23, in ...

Cambodia’s opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, is currently in Geneva, where the UN Human Rights Committee is reviewing the country’s rights record. Cambodian government officials are defending their rights record for the second time in four years at the Universal Periodic Review. Sam Rainsy, who heads the Cambodia ...

Commerce Minister asked officials at all border checkpoints to prevent and crackdown on expired products. Son Chanthol, the Commerce Minister, made such comments during a meeting Tuesday with officials from Department of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce, and checkpoints in Banteat Meanchey province. He also asked his officials ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on all embassies and consulates to accelerate visa application procedures and end all “unofficial” fees. Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong said the government would crackdown on corruption related to the issue of visas. According to a Phnom Penh Post ...

Capitalising on booming travel from Vietnam and China, the domestic aviation sector has enjoyed 18 per cent passenger growth for the second year running, according to a new report, which describes Cambodia as having one of the fastest-growing markets in Southeast Asia. The report, by the ...

General Neang Phat has become the second senior military official to wade into the current political impasse between Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP government and the CNRP, accusing the opposition party of trying to destabilize the country, according to a local media report. Gen. Phat, who ...

Commerce Minister asked officials at all border checkpoints to prevent and crackdown on expired products. Thong Thira, Banteay Meanchey’s head of Department of Commerce, said that about 71 percent of 700,000 people living in Banteay Meanchey are farmers. He said the province has big 20 ...

CPP National Assembly President Heng Samrin has ordered Cambodia’s newest ambassadors to Asia and Europe to go on a public relations offensive against mounting news abroad that the country’s respect for democracy and human rights is slipping. Cambodian security forces have shot dead seven people ...

Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House have condemned a violent crackdown on supporters of Beehive Radio, who were beaten during demonstrations Monday. Beehive owner Mam Sonando called for demonstrations in opposition of the government’s refusal to grant a license for an expansion of his operations. ...

Cambodia attracted some 4.2 million foreign tourists last year, up 18 percent year-on-year, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said on Monday. Five largest sources of tourists to Cambodia are Vietnam, China, South Korea, Laos and Thailand. ...

The United States and Cambodian governments on Tuesday released an educational guide that will help Cambodian schools improve the way their students learn, according to a media statement from the U.S. Embassy. The Life Skills Curriculum is the culmination of an extensive collaboration between the Cambodian Ministry of ...

With Chinese New Year approaching, the long arm of the law has once again reached out to local businesses in at least one Phnom Penh commune asking for their help to ensure police have enough beer to usher in the Year of the Horse in ...

The Interior Ministry’s penal department on Monday questioned two representatives of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) over claims that they incited violence during protests at a Kandal province garment factory in late December. Jack Liu, director-general of Tainan Enterprises (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., filed a ...

Cambodian police fired smoke bombs to disperse hundred protesters at the capital on Monday. Mam Sonando, owner of the opposition-aligned Beehive Radio station, defied a government ban on public gathering and led about 200 protesters to rally in front of the Ministry of Information against the ...