National government
Ministries and other national bodies
National Assembly passes five-year $26.6B spending plan
The single-party National Assembly on Thursday approved the 2014 to 2018 National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), which will cost an estimated $26.58 billion to implement. An extradition agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam was also passed. Approved earlier this month by the Council of Ministers, it is ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-assembly-passes-five-year-26-6b-spending-plan-62578/
Ministry sets official Tuol Sleng ticket price
Although foreigners have long paid a fee to enter Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has announced that the days of apparently free entry to the notorious Khmer Rouge prison are finished and the charge will now be ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-sets-official-tuol-sleng-ticket-price-62599/
Vendors with a licence to forge
On the side of a well-trafficked street in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, a man with a razor blade bends over a small rectangle of sheet metal overlaid with a vinyl stencil. As letters and numbers are lifted away, the plate begins to take on a ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vendors-licence-forge
CBRE: Cambodia’s bright future
CBRE Cambodia’s latest MarketView report sees strong growth in tourist arrivals resulting in growth in hotel occupancy rates and durations of stay. Quoting Ministry of Tourism statistics, CBRE said Cambodian tourism sector continued to enjoy steady growth over the course of 2013, with the number of ...
Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2014/06/cbre-cambodias-bright-future/
Climate change plan sparse on particulars
The Ministry of Environment yesterday shared its vision for a greener, less-carbon-emitting, climate-resilient Cambodia, but presented few detailed steps towards getting there, and even fewer financial particulars. The 10-year strategic initiative did not offer any further financial guidance. Though it identifies eight priority areas and ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/climate-change-plan-sparse-particulars
Ten commandments: Gov’t lays out food standards
Makers of food- and beverage-related products are for the first time facing mandatory health regulations, with the unveiling of 10 national standards by the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft. The announcement comes after the National Standard Council, a government-run committee, finally approved the standards in May ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ten-commandments-gov%E2%80%99t-lays-out-food-standards
Torture, beating of detainees continue, report finds
Detainees and prisoners continue to be administered electric shocks, beaten unconscious and even smothered by plastic bags, with 49 new allegations of torture or abuse at the hands of authorities this year, according to rights group Licadho, which says in a report released Wednesday that ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/torture-beating-of-detainees-continue-report-finds-62461/
Commerce minister vows ‘meaningful’ reforms to US investors
Cambodian Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol concluded a trade mission in the United States this week, emphasizing his government’s willingness to make “deep” reforms to improve its investment climate. Cambodia meanwhile needs more foreign investment to create jobs for the 300,000 young Cambodians who enter the ...
Sophat Soeung
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/commerce-minister-vows-meaningful-reforms-to-us-investors/1944607.html
Cambodia reports 1.14 bln USD trade deficit in 1st five months
Cambodia recorded a trade deficit of 1.14 billion U.S. dollars in the first five months of 2014, a latest report by the Ministry of Commerce showed Wednesday. Total trade value jumped to 7.32 billion U.S. dollars during the January-May period this year, an increase of 17 ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=226339
Workers to spend US$49 to legally work in Thailand
Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training ordered all recruitment agencies to charge only US$49 for each worker who wants to work legally in Thailand. The fee of US$49 included US$10 for worker card, US$4 for passport, US$15 for transportation, and food, and US$20 for labor ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YThmMGU4MDc5MTB
Road fatalities in Cambodia rise to 1,170 in six months
The number of road fatalities in Cambodia has risen to 1,170 so far this year, up 11 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a latest report by the Interior Ministry’s Public Order Department on Wednesday. Some 2,600 cases of road accidents have ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140625/road-fatalities-cambodia-rise-1170-six-months
Cambodia says over 16,000 job vacancies for Thailand returnees
Cambodia’s National Employment Agency (NEA) said Wednesday that there are 16,146 vacant jobs awaiting workers who have recently been deported from or fled Thailand in fears of a military regime’s clampdown. “NEA would like to inform laborers who just returned from Thailand that NEA has collected ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/25/c_133437849.htm
India’s rice dump may impact local exports
With the Indian government set to inject five million tonnes of rice in to its domestic market, Cambodia’s rice producers fear that any spillover into the global rice trade may impact local exports. David Van, acting secretary-general of a newly established Cambodia Rice Federation, said ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/india%E2%80%99s-rice-dump-may-impact-local-exports
New registered businesses increase by 33 percent
The number of newly registered businesses in Cambodia increased 33 percent between January and June this year compared to the same time period last year, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce released Tuesday. The total number of new businesses increased from 1,401 ...
Kang Sothear
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/new-registered-businesses-increase-by-33-percent-62376/
Cambodia attracts 1.9 mln foreign tourists in 5 months, up 6 pct
Cambodia has received some 1.9 million foreign visitors in the first five months of 2014, a 6 percent rise compared to the same period last year, a tourism official said Tuesday. “Vietnam, China and South Korea are the largest sources of tourists to Cambodia,” Kong ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=226061
Cambodia revising gambling laws to attract investment
The Cambodian government is in the process of amending its gaming laws in a bid to draw major casino operators, industry sources have confirmed to GGRAsia. Earlier on Tuesday, the Phnom Penh Post reported that the new draft of the national casino law could be finalised ...
GGRAsia News Staff
http://www.ggrasia.com/cambodia-revising-gambling-laws-to-attract-investment/
Gov’t to meet recruitment firms over migrants
Labor Ministry officials are set to meet today with about 40 local recruitment agencies to talk about formalizing the procedure for sending migrant workers to Thailand, an agency director said. The meeting will focus on how the agencies can help migrants obtain work permits and other ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-to-meet-recruitment-firms-over-migrants-62202/
Gambling on change
The Cambodian government is drafting a series of changes to the Kingdom’s gaming laws in a bid to draw major players from Macau and the US to the market and potentially create a new tax base from the growing, if currently illegal, online betting industry, ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gambling-change
Reform needed with new appeal courts on the way
As part of a trio of long-awaited judicial laws passed last month by the National Assembly, the country’s judicial system is set to integrate a number of new provincial appeal courts, expanding access to the appeal process to people imprisoned outside Phnom Penh. But the only ...
Lauren Crothers and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/reform-needed-with-new-appeal-courts-on-the-way-62217/
Six unions call for pay, acquittals
Union leaders made another appeal for the Cambodian government to raise the minimum wage to $160 and rescind convictions of 25 workers arrested during deadly demonstrations in November and January. ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/six-unions-call-pay-acquittals
For villagers losing land, Hun Sen is last resort
Three separate communities from across the country were in Phnom Penh on Monday to petition Prime Minister Hun Sen to personally intervene to help settle their various land disputes. Communities affected by alleged land grabs in Phnom Penh and beyond often appeal directly to Mr. Hun ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/for-villagers-losing-land-hun-sen-is-last-resort-62200/
Company defies order, continues dredging sand
A company ordered to cease its sand-dredging operation along the Sesan River in Ratanakkiri province after it was accused of illegally searching for gold is now defying the order, villagers claimed Monday. Discovery Power, a joint Chinese-Cambodian venture, was given a license to dredge sand for ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-defies-order-continues-dredging-sand-62212/
One China policy stymies citizenship scam
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday heard the case of a member of Interior Minister Sar Kheng’s cabinet who was charged with fraud for accepting $38,000 from the representative of a Taiwanese national in exchange for citizenship documents that were never delivered. Suong Veasna, a ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/one-china-policy-stymies-citizenship-scam-62210/
KDC families want compensation deal revoked
Twenty-two families who have been locked in a bitter, seven-year dispute over 145 hectares of land in Kompong Chhnang province with a company owned by the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem claim they were illegally pressured into accepting compensation and filed a ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kdc-families-want-compensation-deal-revoked-62215/