Government

Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) MPs are to end their boycott of parliament, saying the national interest takes priority.The boycott started in May after security forces tried to arrest deputy party leader Kem Sokha after he refused to attend court for questioning over an alleged ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has waded into the Twittersphere, using his first tweet to congratulate US President-elect Donald Trump on his victory, and later calling on the few Cambodians who use the site to register to vote in next year’s commune elections.   ...

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron has unveiled a plan to add coursework on entrepreneurship to the school and university curricula starting in the next academic year, state news agency AKP said yesterday. ...

The Immigration Department at the Interior Ministry has put in a request to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor to conduct a preliminary investigation into a commune chief who allegedly forged a birth certificate for a Chinese national in exchange for $12,000. ...

Election officials toured the country during this week’s Water Festival holiday to investigate a recent sharp drop-off in the pace of voter registrations, but no glaring issues were found, a National Election Committee (NEC) spokesman said on Wednesday.   ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) says it will consider prolonging voter registration in some areas only if it’s needed as compiling this year’s voter list ends in two weeks. ...

Ongoing land disputes between the Ministry of Land Management and the owner of development firm Phanimex are influencing White Building residents’ decision on whether to relocate or stay, according to Land Management Minister Chea Sophara. ...

As business mogul and reality television personality Donald Trump was announced as the next president of the United States yesterday, Cambodian political figures called for continued good relations. Shortly after president-elect Trump gave his victory speech in New York yesterday afternoon, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, ...

The Kingdom’s total exports to Japan, one of the world’s largest economies, sharply increased in the first nine months of the year, a result of Cambodia’s effort to diversify export markets and preferential trade treatment from Japan. ...

The Ministry of Land Management is to create a committee to plan and review development of Phnom Penh’s iconic White Building. Meanwhile, the sale or transfer of ownership of the building has been blocked temporarily for the committee to collect details of the people living there. ...

The United Kingdom’s bilateral trade dealing with Cambodia will remain unchanged in light of ongoing negotiations on the UK’s position within the European Union, a senior British trade official said yesterday. ...

Cambodian ministries are currently facing a $620 million funding shortfall if they are to implement their climate change adaption action plans by 2018, according to figures announced by NGO Forum at a press conference yesterday. ...

Voter registration has fallen far behind schedule over the past two weeks, with enrolment dropping to just 30,000 a day from a target of 100,000, according to official figures, leaving more than 2 million Cambodians at risk of not registering to vote in time. ...

US presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are now on barnstorming tours across the country, making their final appeals to swing voters ahead of next Tuesday’s election. Democratic candidate Ms. Clinton has received an overwhelming number of endorsements from a variety of places, including French ...

Last month’s purchase by Singapore-listed KrisEnergy of a 42.75 percent working interest in the Block A offshore energy concession made them a majority owner in the project, with an overwhelming control of 95 percent of the stakes. This acquisition is expected to accelerate the development ...

A new customs and immigration terminal is planned at the Poipet International Border Gate in Banteay Meanchey province, on the Cambodian side of the common border with Thailand, to cater to an expected increase of foreign tourists when the railway linking both countries is completed ...

The ban on surrogate pregnancies announced by the health minister on Monday will remain in place until the government drafts a law protecting Cambodian women giving birth to the children of other parents, an official said on Thursday. ...

Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction is preparing to host a construction seminar next week that will discuss the criteria for issuing building permits and also tackle problems related to construction site management. ...

Reduced fees for the loading of containers of milled rice for export, fixed for the next two years, came into effect on Tuesday as part of government efforts to boost the rice sector’s global competitiveness. According to a letter signed by Economy Minister Aun Pornmoniroth, dated ...

Illegal sand dredging has been eradicated from Cambodia, but reforms are still needed, the Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Wednesday, facing mounting blowback over sand export records that differ by tens of millions of cubic meters from those kept by the U.N. ...

The government announced yesterday that it will hold its first public auction for 4G spectrum frequencies, with two licences up for bid on frequencies reassigned after their original licence-holders failed to utilise them. ...

Several of the opposition-led commissions in the National Assembly have plans to summon three ministers to clarify several ongoing issues, including the sand exports to Singapore and the murder of political analyst Kem Ley. During a Tuesday evening press conference at the Cambodia National Rescue Party ...

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. ...

Both Cambodia and Thailand agreed on Tuesday to adopt an approach of nonviolence when dealing with those found illegally crossing the border after a meeting between the two nations’ border authorities. ...