Government

The U.N.’s envoy for freedom of as­sembly on Tuesday presented a report to the U.N. General Assem­bly that calls for an approach to election monitoring that looks be­yond polling day to assess wheth­er elections in countries such as Cambodia are “free and fair.” The report, compiled ...

It has been one year since Cambodia announced that it was lifting its ban on intercountry adoptions beginning January 1, 2013, but despite praising Cambodia’s efforts to implement international regulations, countries that ban adoptions of Cambodians said this week that they were no closer to ...

At about 10 a.m. Thursday morning, during a press conference at the CNRP’s Phnom Penh headquarters, opposition leader Sam Rainsy dialed the phone number of CPP Interior Minister Sar Kheng and told a few dozen reporters in attendance that he would broadcast their conversation over ...

Cambodia’s opposition said Thursday it is prepared to hold talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party without any preconditions in a fresh bid to end a political deadlock three months after disputed national elections. The move signaled a shift by the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which days earlier had said it ...

PTT Plc, Thailand’s giant oil and gas conglomerate, has renewed its concession with the Cambodian government to provide jet fuel services for another five years at airports in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Senior executive vice-president Auttapol Rerkpiboon said PTT will provide jet fuel service at ...

China on Thursday donated one million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for the relief of the flood- affected people. Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo handed over the cash donation to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital. Bu, on behalf of ...

Germany’s new ambassador to Cambodia, Joachim Baron von Marschall, said Wednesday during a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong that he hoped the country’s ruling CPP and opposition CNRP would meet to resolve the post-election uncertainty, an official said. “His Excellency [Mr. Baron von Marschall] ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy plans to call CPP Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday to discuss restarting negotiations between the two parties. Mr. Rainsy said that he hoped Mr. Kheng would clarify whether the CPP is unconditionally open to further negotiations, or if the party is ...

The United States embassy in Phnom Penh contains an intelligence-gathering operation that amasses information about Cambodia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday, citing a map first published in Germany’s Der Spiegel. The Herald article referenced some 90 international surveillance sites, including ones housed in embassies in neighbouring Jakarta, Yangon, Bangkok and ...

Teenage pregnancies are hindering Cambodia’s development as young mothers are unlikely to finish school and therefore lack job opportunities, government and U.N. officials said at the launch of a global report on adolescent pregnancies on Wednesday. “The Ministry of Women’s Affairs acknowledges that adolescent pregnancies have ...

Malaysia has not yet received a draft agreement aimed at protecting Cambodian migrant domestic workers from abuse, but the government is pressing Cambodia to lift its two-year moratorium on sending maids, a Malaysian official said Wednesday. In October 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed a ban ...

The number of new businesses registering in Cambodia continued to plummet through the third quarter of this year amid tightened rules for start-ups and waning investor confidence following the still-unresolved national elections. Data from the Ministry of Commerce yesterday showed that 853 new businesses registered with ...

National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) Vice President Nhim Vanda on Wednesday lauded the flood response work of the Cambodian Red Cross and government, at a workshop to discuss the country’s National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction where several participants focused on the lack ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged convicted British pedophile Richard Fruin, 36, with sexually abusing two brothers, aged 8 and 11, at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh, court officials said. While the court has yet to decide Fruin’s fate, his case—and many similar ...

Bangkok Bank has urged Thai businesses to have a more active role in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) in terms of trading activities and investment, in order to tap the growing middle-class market in those countries. Speaking at the bank’s “Trade Logistics in Greater Mekong Sub-region: ...

More women should be part of any future high-level negotiations between the ruling CPP and opposition CNRP to resolve the current political deadlock, a coalition of women’s rights NGOs said Tuesday in a statement. In a joint statement by more than 20 organizations, the groups criticized ...

Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday that the ruling party was waiting for the opposition to contact them regarding negotiations to break the ongoing political deadlock. CNRP president Sam Rainsy yesterday said his party would “definitely” be contacting the CPP, ...

Cambodia ranked 137 out of 189 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2014 report released Tuesday, the first drop in at least two years that shows conducting business in the country is becoming more difficult. The report ranks countries in 10 categories, including starting a ...

They can’t talk in the National Assembly, and they can’t talk in the provinces – at least at the parliamentarian level – but a new round of local dialogues held by the National Democratic Institute will see the ruling party and the opposition face off ...

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Tuesday shared initial findings from a survey carried out across the country in the wake of July’s national election, which found that one-third of the country’s eligible voters could not vote on election day. Laura Thornton, the NDI’s country ...

An Oddar Meanchey director of education is denying a complaint filed to the Ministry of Education alleging he took school supplies from a public school for use in a private school and pocketed salaries of teachers who no longer worked there. In a letter dated Monday, ...

A 5,000-square-meter plot of land owned by the local Sokimex Group on Phnom Penh’s Street 154, near Wat Ounalom and Kandal market, could be the site of a new, multi-story hotel, the conglomerate’s CEO said Tuesday. Sok Kong, Sokimex CEO, said Tuesday that construction of a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government as the two sides remained stalled in talks in a deadlock over disputed national elections. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said in a public statement that it could not guarantee that any agreements made with Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian ...

More than 10 families in Pailin province are claiming that flood aid proffered by Cambodia Red Cross officials is being unfairly distributed by commune and village authorities. Kim San, 61, a member of one of 16 severely flood-affected families in Sala Krao district’s Stung Trang commune ...