Ministries and other national bodies

The European Union says the Cambodian government has agreed to the first part of a comprehensive plan they have been wrangling over for more than a year to properly compensate thousands of families that have lost land to sugarcane plantations. ...

The Health Ministry has drafted Cambodia’s first-ever law to control the sale and consumption of alcohol, which imposes a minimum legal drinking age of 21 and would fine retailers who sell liquor to anyone underage. ...

More than 200 Cambodian fishermen trapped in Indonesia were scheduled to be returned home Thursday morning on a charter Boeing 737 airliner following the intervention of Indonesia’s Fisheries Ministry and Cambodian diplomats in Jakarta. ...

Cambodia on Wednesday renewed its call for Vietnam to cease immediately the construction of a military post at an undemarcated border area between Cambodia’s Kandal province and Vietnam’s An Giang province. ...

Less than a week after Unicef announced that primary school enrollment in Cambodia had reached a high of 94.5 percent, government officials and foreign donors met Tuesday to discuss ways to improve the quality of the education those students are getting. ...

The labor minister said Tuesday there were so few underage workers in the garment industry that “we can count them on our fingers,” but a unionist and an NGO countered that child labor was still rife in the country’s smaller garment factories. ...

Late CPP President Chea Sim’s personal bodyguard unit will be disbanded following the cremation of his body on Friday and its members returned to their former police departments and military brigades, officials said Monday. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Monday extended a rare compliment to Cambodia’s foreign minister, who has sent two missives since Friday to Vietnam, accusing the government allowing encroachment in Ratanakkiri province. ...

The government has released a schedule for minimum wage discussions with unions and factories this year, as workers continue to demand $177 per month to keep up with the rising cost of living. More talks are scheduled from July through January. ...

Thailand and Cambodia are negotiating on the avoidance of double taxation for investors from each other’s side. Thai Ambassador to Phnom Penh Nuttavudh Photisaro told Radio Thailand reporters that if the negotiation is successful, it will save both Thai and Cambodian investors from paying taxes twice. ...

Child-protection NGOs and government officials are urging tourists and residents of Cambodia to stop giving money to street children because these well-intentioned gestures can have devastating effects. ...

A leaked copy of the contentious draft law on associations and NGOs is fuelling fears among its many critics that its purpose is to stifle criticism of the government by giving it broad powers to shut down both foreign and domestic associations and NGOs. ...

The Labor Ministry on Friday announced that formal negotiations to set a new minimum wage for the country’s all-important garment sector—now at $128 a month—will begin in July, reviving the same schedule for talks it used with unions and employers for the first time last ...

The government may recognize the more than 100 Montagnard asylum seekers in the capital as refugees, a senior official at the Interior Ministry has said. ...

Continuing a campaign by the opposition to inspect alleged encroachment upon Cambodian territory along the Vietnamese border, CNRP lawmaker Ou Chanrith on Saturday led a trip to a disputed cashew farm in Svay Rieng province, fellow lawmaker Kong Saphea said Sunday. ...

Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni Sunday bestowed the royal honorary title of “Samdech” on two politicians in the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) for their devotion to the nation and the throne. ...

Cambodia has protested Vietnam for digging five ponds inside northeast Cambodian territory in Ratanakiri province, according to a Cambodian Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic note sent to the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh on Friday.  ...

Cambodia will begin to discuss the annual increase of monthly minimum wage for the garment and footwear industry for 2016 in July, according to a Labor Ministry’ s statement issued late Friday. ...

The spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Kiev Sopheak, said that there are still ghost workers in government offices, even though the Anti-Corruption Unit cracked down on this practice last year. ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry sent a strongly worded diplomatic note to Vietnam on Friday asking its eastern neighbor to “respect the borderline” after an inspection by government officials confirmed that Vietnamese authorities dug five ponds within Cambodian territory in Ratanakiri province. ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy on Friday announced the provisional winners of its public auction to award four licenses to dredge sand on a stretch of the Mekong River clogged by a build-up of silt, which is obstructing the passage of vessels through the ...

Mam Sonando, a prominent radio station director and government critic, announced Friday that he would resign from his position as head of the Association of Democrats, an NGO he founded in 2010, in order to create a new political party to stand in the upcoming ...

Cambodia and Thailand have joined hands to boost foreign and inter-ASEAN tourism under the ” Two Kingdoms, One Destination” pact, local media reported on Friday. Tith Chantha, secretary of state at Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism, said Cambodia and Thailand have already created a single- visa option ...

Seven newly appointed Cambodian ambassadors met with King Norodom Sihamoni at the Royal Palace on Thursday prior to leaving for their posts in the coming days, said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong, who has been appointed ambassador to Australia and New Zealand. ...