National government

Cambodia’s telecommunications regulator yesterday stepped up efforts to avert a brewing price war between the country’s six mobile network operators, ordering the companies to submit profitability statements within the next 10 days and summoning all operators to a meeting at the end of the month ...

The Ministry of Education next week will launch a new online system for students to practice for the high-stakes grade-12 national exam, though one observer noted it would do little to help students who lack internet access. ...

Cambodia is expecting a shipment of military vehicles donated by South Korea, according to a sub-decree. The Ministry of Finance in December released about $1 million to the Defence Ministry to cover the equipment’s transportation, it says.​ ...

The Land Management Ministry has said it will resolve the land disputes in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district and Kandal’s Ponhea Leu district between Suy Sophan and more than 500 families. ...

About 100 people representing nearly 200 families protested at the Ministry of Land Management in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the ministry expedite a solution to their land disputes with three sugarcane plantation companies in Koh Kong province.   ...

Violating the Constitution while following through on a threat from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the National Assembly’s CPP-staffed secretariat on Thursday issued an order saying that ministers would not appear before lawmakers unless the CNRP stopped boycotting parliamentary sessions. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said he will not allow members of the opposition to question government ministers in the National Assembly (NA), telling a pro-government news outlet that the opposition had to “respect the law first.” ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday issued a sub-decree to limit teacher overtime in public schools in an effort to fix teachers’ working hours in accordance with government budgetary constraints. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers are considering boycotting next week’s extraordinary plenary session vote to strip away their role as the National Assembly’s minority group, saying the ruling party-backed proposal highlight’s the parliament’s weakness. ...

Six months since the central bank launched its FAST payment system, a new scheme to provide instant riel-denominated fund transfers between financial institutions and their clients, the bank recorded a total fund transfer of 10 billion riel ($2.5 million) as of end-2016. ...

The Land Ministry will meet with the three companies at the center of the decade-long land dispute in Koh Kong province this week in an attempt to finally resolve the villagers’ grievances. ...

Land titles were issued for nearly four million people involving 500,000 land plots last year, nearly two thirds of the total of seven million plots, the Land Ministry has reported. ...

The Ministry of Commerce has finished the draft consumer protection law and will soon submit it to the Council of Ministers, according to a senior government official.​ ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) released its review of 2016 and outlook for 2017 this week, highlighting the continued large growth of the banking sector while warning that the Kingdom was still vulnerable to external economic factors. ...

The government is stepping up the fight against illegal mining in the country, cracking down on an illegal mine in Mondulkiri province last Friday and arresting two people. But local residents targeted by the crackdown protested after the raid, complaining that large mining corporations were allowed ...

Affordable houses for low-income earners and state workers will go on sale within two  weeks after a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday. The project, aimed at the lower middle class, low-income earners and state workers, will be restricted at first to low-income civil servants, said building contractor ...

Officials were tight-lipped yesterday about whether huge discrepancies in sand exports to Singapore would be discussed during a visit by the city-state’s president to the Kingdom later this week, though a Ministry of Mines official said a new export process was in the works. ...

The state-owned Cambodia Post will launch an online shopping platform in March in a move to tap the current rise in e-commerce activity. Ork Bora, director-general of the Cambodia Post, told Khmer Times yesterday that after about a year of studying e-commerce, the state-owned enterprise decided ...

Cambodia needs about $12 billion over a 10-year period to invest in the development of a skilled workforce and improved infrastructure in order to meet the goals of its Industrial Development Policy (IDP), Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak said recently. ...

Cambodia will join an international convention on the registration of industrial designs next month, furthering the scope of the county’s intellectual property protections, a government official said yesterday. ...

Geographical indication (GI) status for Kampot pepper and Kampong Speu palm sugar has been accepted in Vietnam. The agreement gives legal protection to both products and stops unscrupulous traders in Vietnam passing off local produce as Cambodian. The deal was reached last Wednesday after negotiations involving the ...

The Ministry of Health has called on all travelers to beware of a new strain of bird flu that is now spreading in South Korea and Japan. In a notice released yesterday, the Health Ministry said the discovery of H5N6, a new strain of the bird ...

After being questioned for more than two hours at the National Assembly yesterday, Environment Minister Say Samal claimed the number of forest crimes decreased in 2016, but acknowledged that some government officials were involved in some of the crimes. A recently released report from the University ...

The Ministry of Commerce is calling for producers and exporters who have been dealing in dried tobacco leaves and milled rice to apply for licenses to export to Vietnam. Vietnam agreed to waive all duties on 300,000 tons of rice and 3,000 tons of dried tobacco ...