International relations

UN human rights envoy Surya Subedi yesterday said he was “alarmed” by anti-Vietnamese language used by the opposition party to rally its supporters, a message he said he had conveyed to Cambodia National Rescue Party leaders during his visit. Speaking at a press conference to conclude ...

Authorities in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces on Thursday said that they were investigating an unusual change of color in the Mekong River to a muddy, dark brown that was unnatural for this time of the year and was worrying residents. Since the beginning of this ...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a spending bill that would suspend some funding to Cambodia until the government carries out an independent investigation of July’s disputed national election and reforms its electoral system, or until the opposition ends its boycott of parliament. The ...

Two months ago, Sok Sathya spent less than a dollar for a kilogram of oranges to sell from his sidewalk stall across from a row of garment factories in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district. Now the same oranges cost Mr. Sathya, 39, more than 6,000 riel, or ...

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on a U.N. special envoy to press the country’s opposition to rejoin parliament and negotiate an end to the country’s political stalemate since disputed July elections, an official said Wednesday. Hun Sen met with U.N. special envoy for human ...

Cambodia’s trade volume with foreign countries amounted to 15.9 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 18 percent compared with 13.4 billion U.S. dollars in a year earlier, according to the report of the Commerce Ministry on Wednesday. The country had exported products in equivalent to 6.9 ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy told supporters this week that the Cambodia National Rescue Party and its members “support China fully” in claims against Vietnam. The message to supporters coincided with the visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who was in Phnom Penh for a ...

Cambodia had dispatched some 22, 300 laborers overseas in 2013, down 36 percent from 34,800 a year earlier, figures from the Ministry of Labor showed Monday. The country sent 13,170 workers to Thailand last year, down 50 percent year-on-year; 8,820 to South Korea, up 8 ...

In a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen and 10 of the government’s highest-ranking officials in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi called for the perpetrators of recent state-sanctioned killings to be held accountable for their actions. Mr. Subedi spent three-and-a-half hours ...

The Japanese embassy is reporting a $280 million drop in Japanese investment last year, but officials were quick to say that the numbers don’t necessarily reflect slumping investor confidence in Cambodia. Japanese investment in the Kingdom reached about $47.5 million in 2013, compared to $328 million ...

Cambodia and the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Thursday launched a new project to expand job services and improve labor market information with funding from China, according to an ILO media statement. The ILO/China South-South Cooperation Project to Expand Employment Services and Enhance Labor Market Information ...

As military police began a 10-day training program with the U.S. military in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, questions are being raised again over Washington’s ongoing support to Cambodian security forces involved in serious human rights abuses. On January 3, military police officers opened fire with AK-47 ...

Cambodia and Belarus set to promote bilateral relations in politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, and tourism for mutual benefits of the two countries and peoples, a Cambodian spokesman said Thursday. Cambodia and Belarus established diplomatic relations in 1995, he said, adding that economic and trade relations ...

Megabank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. said Tuesday that it will boost business collaboration with Acleda Bank, Cambodia’s leading commercial bank, and Absa Bank in South Africa, Japan’s Jiji Press reported. The Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. unit said it has dispatched a staff member to a ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the Southeast Asian nation has no ambition to develop a nuclear power plant, but wants to use nuclear technologies in agriculture, health, and animal breeds. The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with Yukiya Amano, director ...

Economic freedom in Cambodia worsened over the past year, according to the latest report from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in the US. Cambodia is ranked 108 out of 178 countries surveyed, with an overall score of 57.4, a 1.1-point dip from ...

Vietnam Dairy Product Joint-Stock Co, better-known to milk lovers as Vinamilk, was granted a licence on Monday to open a $23 million processing facility in Phnom Penh’s Special Economic Zone. A statement to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange released by the dairy giant on Monday ...

U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi, who is on his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia, met with opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on Tuesday ahead of a planned meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior government officials Wednesday. Reached by telephone after the meeting ...

Construction on Phnom Penh’s first international-standard critical-care center is expected to begin in April, and when completed it will offer state-of-the-art medical technology and highly trained staff, according to an official with the Japanese firm in charge of the project. “[Construction] is supposed to start from ...

The Free Trade Union (FTU) on Monday reported an overall increase in industrial action by its local branches last year with 136 total strikes in the first 11 months of 2013, up 35 percent from all of 2012, when there were 101 strikes by its ...

Defying a new ban on public gatherings, more than 50 activists and monks gathered outside the local U.N. human rights office Monday morning to demand the immediate release of 23 men who were arrested earlier this month during violent clashes between police and garment workers. The ...

In his first public remarks of the year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday took pains to recount his experience under the Khmer Rouge and thanked Vietnam for overthrowing the brutal communist regime. Speaking at the inauguration of a Vietnamese hospital, in the presence of visiting Vietnamese ...

The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, who began his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia on Sunday, has been asked to investigate issues faced by ethnic Khmer Krom people after five monks were arrested for participating in garment worker protests earlier this month. In ...

The Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court laid fresh charges of money laundering on the detained chairman of an embattled British investment firm on Friday, the same day that a provincial official was arrested in relation to fraud charges the businessman was already facing, a court official ...