Ministries and other national bodies

Cambodia will probably call for a moratorium on the Laos’ 260-megawatt Don Sahong dam development project on the lower Mekong River during the second Summit of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), to be held on April 4 and 5 in Ho Chi Minh City of ...

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is remaining coy about a potential refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison met with Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday. Mr Morrison is the second minister to travel to Phnom Penh for talks with the Cambodian government in the past ...

The Areng Chorng ethnic minority group yesterday submitted five petitions – addressed to the UN office in Cambodia and four government institutions – seeking a halt to the Sinohydro dam project in Koh Kong province. After blocking Sinohydro from entering the dam site in the Areng ...

The government yesterday accused Licadho of producing wildly misleading figures on land grabs, following the rights group’s announcement earlier this week that land conflicts in Cambodia have affected more than half a million people since 2000. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Sar Sovan, secretary of ...

Opposition lawmaker-elect Mu Sochua protested for her “right to freedom” for the third day running at Freedom Park yesterday and was once again forcibly ejected from the area by security forces. But the now-familiar encounter departed from the script when she left the area and went ...

Sixty-eight Khmer Krom families in Takeo province allege they are being forcibly evicted, charged by fishery authorities with illegally occupying a nature preserve. Yesterday, three representatives from the Borei Choslar district, Sangkum Meanchey village, were summonsed to court. ...

Preah Vihear provincial governor Oum Mara has sent a letter to inform Interior Minister Sar Kheng that he is ordering an NGO to close its local offices, on the grounds that the organization is inciting villagers to destroy sugarcane farmed by a Chinese company. In the ...

A draft law meant to improve the maintenance and construction of Cambodia’s dilapidating roads was passed yesterday in a one-sided session of the National Assembly that saw ruling party lawmakers lambast Public Works and Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek for his allegedly poor stewardship. ...

Toll Royal Railway, the private operator of Cambodia’s train service, has no system in place to regularly inspect the state of its tracks, and lacks qualified inspectors to check either tracks or bridges, according to a recent safety audit of the firm’s Phnom Penh operations. The ...

Cambodian fishery exports rose slightly during the first three months of the year, according to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The report, which was released yesterday, says that fish exports reached 4,800 tonnes in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of ...

Ruling party members continued to meet at the National Assembly on Wednesday, discussing a draft law on roadways despite a boycott by the opposition. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party has refused to participate in the new government, following 2013 elections it says were marred by ...

The work of fourth Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge has almost been completed after a 16-month construction, a contractor said Thursday. He Luesa, head of Shanghai Construction (Group) General Company’ s construction team, said the construction of a 855 meters by 13.5 meters Takhmao Bridge across Tonle Bassac ...

Two major conservation groups yesterday said that the proposed Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province should be scrapped, while protesters who have blocked developer Sinohydro Group from entering the site for several days headed to Phnom Penh to voice their concerns and discontent. Conservation ...

The number of road fatalities in Cambodia rose to 576 in the first three months of the year, up from three percent over the same period last year. Preap Chan Vibol, director of Transport Department at the Public Work and Transportation Ministry, attributed the high ...

The Education Ministry’s crusade to clean up the national high school exam continued Wednesday, with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) releasing a statement inviting concerned parties to monitor exams in August and warning that cheats would be failed and effectively banned from sitting again for two ...

Officials said two people were killed on Tuesday by separate lightning strikes in Pailin and Kompong Cham provinces as the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a warning about seasonal storms spreading across the country. Searing temperatures and the approach of wet season ignited the ...

Senior opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua walked into Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Wednesday morning, trailed by a small group of news photographers, and stopped to pose in front of about 100 municipal riot police exercising in the park. Ms. Sochua’s small act of defiance against the ...

To attract tourism and make Battambang province more appealing as a nightlife destination, provincial authorities are preparing to follow the way of Siem Reap and lay the groundwork for a Pub Street ahead of the Khmer New Year. The deputy governor of Battambang, Ngon Ratthanak, says ...

In the wake of two deaths from separate lightning strikes this week, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a notice yesterday warning against potentially devastating storms lasting from today until Sunday. ...

As Thailand sells its rice reserves and reforms in Myanmar are rewarded with more access to markets abroad, Cambodia’s total exports of milled rice are on the decline, falling more than 10 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same ...

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said yesterday that the government will not let opposition leader Sam Rainsy dodge a government ban on public gatherings by holding mass demonstrations during the campaign period before the May 18 district, provincial and city council elections. ...

Garment worker unions have tangled with factory owners over the unions’ plan to use the coming Khmer New Year holiday to launch a nationwide strike. A coalition of eight unions will send a letter today to the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) stating that workers ...

The Ministry of Labour has announced that factory managers must allow employees three days off for Khmer New Year, even as some union leaders encourage workers to extend that time. In a letter to factory owners dated March 25, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng reminds owners ...

More than half a million Cambodians have been affected by land conflicts involving the government since 2000, with more than 2,000 families across the country subjected to largely violent land grabs during the first few months of this year, local rights group Licadho said Tuesday. The ...