Government

The secretary-general of the National Assembly, who has been accused of allowing gross misspending and nepotism in parliament, spent two hours Tuesday refusing to answer questions over allegations from lawmakers on the Assembly’s commission on finance and audits, according to the commission’s vice chairman. ...

The opposition hailed the rewriting of Cambodia’s election laws a success on Monday, with the completion of the bills coming eight months after it ended its parliamentary boycott for pledges of a comprehensive overhaul of the National Election Committee (NEC). ...

The ruling party and opposition on Monday held a workshop to discuss two draft laws on election reform, but many civil society groups refused to attend, claiming parts of the bills fall short and are unconstitutional. Koul Panha, executive director for Comfrel, told VOA Khmer on Monday that more ...

The first Singapore patent has been granted protection and recognised in Cambodia, less than two months after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts (MIH). ...

Police arrested four men in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district on Sunday on suspicion of smuggling drugs from Laos, confiscating more than half a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine in the bust, officials said Monday. ...

The ruling CPP has denied that an article in the new election law that lays down strict penalties for politicians that incite racial discrimination during election campaigning is targeted at the opposition party. However, a CPP source familiar with election reform negotiations has disclosed that ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen last week issued a directive ordering all government bodies to hold off on new hires for the rest of the year except to fill existing positions being vacated, in an apparent bid to keep spending in line with the current state ...

The Ministry of Environment is set to join the Ministry of Labour in the monitoring of garment factory workplaces, after creating a working group that will probe the environmental safety of all plants in Cambodia. At a press conference at the ministry yesterday, Minister of Environment ...

Thai authorities deported 20 Cambodian monks through the Poipet International Checkpoint on Saturday after they illegally crossed into Thailand to seek alms, an immigration official said Monday. ...

The National Assembly’s Seventh Commission, which oversees tourism and culture, summoned four government ministers to answer questions yesterday regarding the development and future of Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain. ...

A four-story crack in the south-facing side of Phnom Penh’s aging “White Building”—which first appeared in early February as a pile driver broke up earth inside an adjacent construction site—widened over the weekend, shortly after a meeting between worried tenants and the firms behind a ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Monday said that more than 9,000 hectares granted to companies as economic land concessions (ELCs) were recently taken back from the owners because local villagers had been farming the land first, and announced that 14 companies had been put ...

In the coming weeks, a task force composed of officials from the ministries of tourism, religion, culture and education will lead an expedition to a remote patch of forest on Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain where Vietnamese tourists pray, the education minister said Monday. ...

Due to a lack of funding, the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts has delayed publishing guidelines that are meant to increase clarity on inspection procedures for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). ...

Families in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district have been protesting since Friday against wealthy businessman Khun Sear’s plan to build a brick wall that will effectively block access to their village. ...

Representatives of more than 60 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and an electoral reform group on Monday boycotted a national workshop held Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties on the electoral reform draft law, saying they did not have enough time to review the documents. ...

The Transport Ministry is speeding up work on a joint plan for bus services that would link the far South and Malaysia to meet the needs of commuters between the two countries. Thailand also plans to hold talks with Cambodian authorities this month over increasing ...

Environment Minister, Say Sam Al, said on Monday that the Royal Government of Cambodia has cut off over 14,000 hectares of land and handed over to citizens, and military forces. ...

Cambodia’s construction sector attracted a total investment of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, down 10 percent from 2.77 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, according to official data on Monday. ...

At the behest of Prime Minister Hun Sen, prisons across the country Sunday marked International Women’s Day by releasing a total of 22 female inmates who are either pregnant or had young children with them in jail, including a woman convicted of attempted murder over ...

Dozens of NGOs are planning to boycott a workshop Monday to discuss the new election law, saying that the CPP and CNRP have not given them enough time to review the draft and that they do not want to give the event a veneer of ...

The National Assembly’s Anti-Corruption Commission will visit Siem Reap this month to further probe claims Angkor Archaeological Park’s manager, the Apsara Authority, underreported ticket sales, as new figures show a drop in visitors to the World Heritage site last month. ...

The Interior Ministry has given Cambodian dissident Sourn Serey Ratha permission to proceed with the registration of a political party despite the self-exiled government critic’s recent conviction in absentia for plotting an attack on the state. ...

An annual US-led military training exercise, which was marred by controversy last year when a major rights group said it was teaching tactics that would assist Cambodia’s “abusive armed forces” in crackdowns, will officially open today in Kampong Speu province. ...