Government

Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Wednesday denied recent claims from a group of disgruntled unions that the government was making it nearly impossible to register branches at garment factories, and announced a new push to bring noncompliant factories in line with Cambodia’s labor laws. ...

The government’s apparent unwillingness to take seriously evidence of continued large-scale illegal logging orchestrated by the Try Pheap Group is “disappointing”, Global Witness said yesterday. A report released last week by the UK-based group titled The Cost of Luxury detailed evidence, collected during an eight-month covert ...

Nine more Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri on Tuesday, bringing the total number hiding in the province’s O’Yadaw district to 32, a police official said Wednesday. ...

Both deposits and loans in Cambodia’s banking sector increased about 30 per cent last year, a rise that industry insiders say is a productivity boost for the Kingdom’s economy. By the end of December, deposits at all Cambodian banks reached $10 billion, a 32 per cent ...

The government’s faith in Phnom Penh’s embattled trash-collection company appears to have finally been lost after the Council of Ministers announced in a letter on Tuesday that a shake-up was on the way as it considers rescinding Cintri’s exclusive right to manage the city’s garbage ...

Local authorities investigating a house in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district confiscated more than 260 containers of fertilizer and insecticide Wednesday morning after neighbors of a Chinese man complained of a noxious smell emanating from his house, which they feared might have been a dangerous ...

Four Vietnamese nationals were charged on Tuesday with illegally collecting first-grade logs from the forest after they were arrested while transporting the wood from Mondolkiri province’s border-hugging Koh Nhek district to Vietnam. ...

Montagnards seeking asylum in Cambodia and who are found to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam will not be allowed to stay in the Kingdom if a third country does not accept them, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. Speaking after opening a workshop on violence against ...

Cambodia, a common source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, yesterday launched a far-reaching plan to combat the exploitative practice. The 2014 to 2018 National Plan of Action (NPA), which was launched yesterday afternoon at the Interior Ministry, was devised by the National Committee for ...

A CPP-aligned youth group and a regional road-safety NGO on Tuesday launched a $1.2 million, two-year pilot program to educate Cambodians about the importance of wearing helmets while driving or riding as passengers on motorbikes. ...

With Valentine’s Day just days away, the Ministry of Education on Tuesday entreated the nation’s teachers to put their students through a crash course to dispel what it believes is a widely held misconception among Cambodian youth that the holiday is a pretext for sex. ...

An Australian teacher charged with sexually abusing six young boys claimed during the first day of his trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court Tuesday that an anti-pedophile NGO framed him. George Moussallie, 52, a former English teacher at the American Pacific School in Phnom Penh, ...

Days after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced it would help resettle Australia’s refugees currently being held on the Pacific island nation of Nauru in Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday acknowledged criticism of the deal at home and abroad. ...

As violence against women remains pervasive throughout the country, the government on Tuesday launched a second action plan that it hopes will help give women greater protection. The National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2014-2018 focuses on preventing gender-based violence and aims to provide ...

During a graduation ceremony at Royal University of Law and Economics, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he and the opposition leader agreed to create a law to prevent landlords from raising rent. ...

Motorcycle fatalities are claiming the lives of a third of people in Asia–but governments don’t seem to notice. In Cambodia, HIV/AIDS-related deaths equate to 2,300 per year, and the government allocates $58 million to combat the disease—but 2,000 deaths are caused by highway fatalities, with ...

Cambodian President of the National Assembly Heng Samrin on Tuesday voiced his support to all joint activities between Cambodia and China in advancing ties and cooperation in culture and information, a spokesman said. ...

Garment workers continue to die in traffic accidents on their way to and from the factory, a new report highlighting the deadly commute in Cambodia’s largest industry shows. In the report, titled The Dangerous Journey of Garment Workers in 2014, the Ministry of Labour’s National Social ...

Senior officials at the Ministry of Interior who have recently retired will be reappointed to “political positions”, Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. ...

Garment workers around the country have started picking up paychecks this month that for the first time include the $28 increase the government added to the sector’s previous minimum wage of $100. But with available overtime hours on the wane, enthusiasm for the raise is ...

Amid reports of hundreds of workplace deaths at World Cup construction sites, Qatar invited Cambodia on Saturday to discuss implementing a long-signed agreement to send labourers there ahead of the tournament in 2022. The issue was discussed during a meeting between Foreign Ministry Secretary of State ...

Minister of Agriculture Ouk Rabun yesterday dismissed allegations of large-scale illegal timber smuggling by the Try Pheap Group published in a report by UK-based corruption monitor Global Witness last week. Global Witness’s report, The Cost of Luxury, identified Pheap, a prominent tycoon and former adviser to ...

Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Treetod Sonjance, paid a two-day visit to Cambodia on Monday in a bid to promote ties and cooperation between the two neighbours. ...

A Defense Ministry official has requested that vehicles bearing Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) license plates be exempt from paying the country’s road tax, noting that a recent increase in inspections by tax officials could hurt “military officers’ feelings.” ...