National government

The future of disposable packaging is banana leaves, according to the government and Unesco, which on Friday launched a campaign to “Make My Country Plastic Bag Free.” ...

A new draft of the proposed Telecommunications Law would give authorities the right to eavesdrop on any conversation, along with a host of other powers that a rights group has warned would effectively nationalize private service providers. ...

Officials with the Interior Ministry and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday that a fifth person from Australia’s refugee camps on Nauru had arrived in Cambodia, but declined to provide any details. ...

A commune chief in Takeo has taken responsibility for producing a birth certificate that incorrectly lists the southern Cambodian province as being in Vietnam, but claimed he had made an honest mistake, officials said, adding that he would not face punishment. ...

A freshwater Mekong dolphin was found dead yesterday morning on a river bank Prek Prosob district, Kratie province, where only only about 80 Mekong dolphins remain, according to officials. ...

Technological innovation is playing a critical role in the development of the country’s economy by making business operate faster, a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce told a seminar last week. ...

Chea Chamroeun, who became a member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in 1993, submitted a resignation this week, claiming who would rather focus on communities than remain in a climate of political conflict. ...

The Telecom Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) has urged 34 domestic telecom operators and ISPs to submit their business performance reports by end-November. The watchdog plans to ensure the companies comply with their licensing agreements, Khmer Times reports, citing Im Vutha, director of regulation at TRC. ...

The Interior Ministry is searching for a man who posted a doctored birth certificate to Facebook that lists his birthplace as Takeo province, Vietnam—reasoning that the suspect had “poisoned the environment,” officials said on Thursday. ...

In the lead-up to the global climate change conference in Paris later this month, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith yesterday urged the media to increase reporting on the effects of climate change in Cambodia so that citizens can be better prepared for it. ...

Cambodia and Russia will sign a package of six agreements between the two countries, including on investment, and money laundering cooperation among political parties. ...

Phnom Penh municipal authorities met on Wednesday with the city’s embattled trash-collection company, Cintri, to draft a new contract, according to a statement posted to City Hall’s Facebook page. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday promoted Ke Leng, who recently won her second world championship in petanque, from the rank of captain to major in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and promised her $40,000 for her victory. ...

More than 2,000 ducks have died from the H5N1 bird flu in Siem Reap and Battambang provinces since Thursday in the first outbreak of the virus since March 2014, according to officials and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on Tuesday. ...

Authorities have bolstered security across Cambodia in response to last week’s coordinated terror attacks in Paris that left 129 people dead, according to a statement posted to the National Police’s website on Tuesday. ...

Cambodia fared dismally in the 2014 budget transparency index compiled by the US-based International Budget Partnership, scoring only eight out of 100 and coming in near the bottom of the 102 countries surveyed, at 94. ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Health is warning the public to beware many skin whitening creams, which have been found to have high levels of mercury in them. Whitening is a common practice in Cambodia, for both men and women, in a culture where lighter skin is ...

A U.S. naval fleet docked in Sihanoukville on Monday for the sixth annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat) exercises with the Royal Cambodian Navy. ...

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of his lawmaker status and parliamentary immunity Monday, paving the way for his arrest in connection with a defamation case that the opposition says is politically motivated. The prospect of Rainsy’s arrest has sparked fears of unrest in ...

The Interior Ministry on Friday released a letter that it sent to Mondolkiri provincial governor Eng Bunheang asking him to respond to a petition—filed last month and thumbprinted by 900 members of 17 ethnic minority Bunong communities—requesting his removal. ...

A new law protecting investment from Russia and Belarus will help Cambodia diversify its export markets as well as encourage more investments from Russia and Eastern Europe, Senate spokesman Mam Bun Neang said yesterday. ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng on Wednesday dismissed rumours of ulterior motives behind the deportation of a Chinese “scammer” group. ...

After a wall of land separating a lake and a dirt quarry in Phnom Penh collapsed on Tuesday night, creating a fierce current that destroyed a fishing boat and left one of its crewmen missing, authorities Thursday refused to say who was overseeing the quarry ...

Unionists, factory representatives and Labor Ministry officials on Thursday failed to find a solution for about 1,600 employees of a garment factory in Takeo province who were fired for striking last month, and the case will be passed along to the Arbitration Council, a ministry ...