Social development

On the same day that Prime Minister Hun Sen gave a speech touting salary increases for teachers ahead of next year’s national election, about 20 Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) members were blocked from having a peaceful demonstration seeking just that. ...

An Oknha has filed a complaint seeking $100,000 in compensation from a navy commander in Preah Sihanouk for allegedly encroaching on his land and threatening his employees. ...

Government officials yesterday destroyed more than 80 tonnes of counterfeit chemical products, chief among them hazardous skin-whitening creams and knock-off Viagra pills.​ ...

A library funded by the Chinese government and charitable donations opened to the public this weekend in Kampong Speu province’s Cbarmon district. ...

Around six people were arrested outside the United States Embassy in Phnom Penh yesterday for attempting to stage a small protest, but were released later in the afternoon after agreeing to not demonstrate again without a City Hall permit. ...

The National Exam Committee on Saturday changed the qualifications to sit exams for entrance to medical schools after Prime Minister Hun Sen made the suggestion on Facebook while replying to upset students. ...

States, United Nations officials and civil society representatives continued to heap criticism on Cambodia’s approach to civil and political rights at the UN Human Rights Council yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Interior yesterday ordered the temporary suspension of land rights NGO Equitable Cambodia for allegedly violating its own by-laws and the controversial law regulating NGOs passed in 2015. ...

Financial literacy as a school subject to increase students’ knowledge about money will be introduced nationwide through the first phase of the Cambodian School Curriculum Project, with the Ministry of Education collaborating with the National Bank of Cambodia, Asian Development Bank, Good Return and the ...

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has signed an agreement with the Institute of Technology of Cambodia to strengthen engineering education and research for industrial development. ...

The UN’s special rapporteur on Cambodia yesterday slammed the Kingdom’s government at the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council, going so far as to express doubt as to whether next year’s crucial elections will be free and fair. ...

The central bank announced yesterday that it was close to finalising a new academic curriculum to promote financial literacy with the aim of incorporating it into schools nationwide by the start of the 2019 academic year. ...

The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge and Sipar have launched a five-year action plan in collaboration with the government to reduce the death rate from rabies by 50 percent. ...

The Ministry of Health yesterday issued a warning for citizens not to eat raw or undercooked meat after tests confirmed that eight people who died from eating undercooked wild hog in Kampong Thom province had contracted trichinosis. ...

High failure rates of the frontline medication to treat malaria in Southern Vietnam have revived concerns that parasites resistant to multiple drugs, first observed in Cambodia’s Pailin province, may be spreading. Meanwhile, experts in the Kingdom are currently testing alternative treatment options to stay ahead ...

The floodgates of the largest and most controversial dam project in the country’s history officially closed yesterday at an inauguration ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who took aim at environmentalists, ambassadors and NGOs in a wide-ranging speech. ...

The Interior Ministry on Friday announced it had stricken critical environmental NGO Mother Nature from its registry, effective immediately, with the group saying it had requested the move and would continue to investigate sand dredging and export violations in the country’s southwest despite the de-registration. ...

For the city’s homeless, Phnom Penh’s busy intersections, pagodas, markets and tourist sites are places of work, where many beg for money, and often lay their heads. Others drag carts or bags around the capital, collecting recyclable waste and scrap materials to sell. ...

A recent report by the World Economic Forum underscored the Kingdom’s poor performance in educating and training its citizens in order to develop a competitive workforce and put their skills to productive use, ranking it for the first time in its annual review as the ...

Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy announced yesterday that he plans to create a France-based NGO called the Association for Democracy in Cambodia, though he declined to give a detailed account of the structure and goals of the organisation. ...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights yesterday urged the Cambodian government to guarantee all political and civil rights ahead of next year’s election, while the government’s Human Rights Committee dismissed allegations of wrongdoing. ...

Material apparently aimed at incriminating jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha continued to flow in over the weekend, with pro-government leaker “Seiha” releasing another video of Sokha expressing his gratitude to the US government for its assistance in building democracy in Cambodia. ...

The number of students who passed Cambodia’s high-stakes grade-12 exam saw only a slight increase this year, signalling that scores may be plateauing after an overhaul to weed out rampant cheating in 2014. ...

Agriculture ministers in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) on Friday endorsed a five-year strategy and action plan to build a region-wide food safety system. ...