News

Authorities in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district continued to demolish houses in Niroth commune yesterday, despite 46 families appealing to the municipality and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet to intervene. On Tuesday, three houses were torn down as part of efforts to clean up a stretch of ...

The number of foreign owners of houses in Cambodia has soared in recent years after the government permitted foreigners to have rights over owning real estate in the Kingdom, according to officials of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Speaking at the opening of ...

Some Cambodian foodstuffs contained potentially harmful preservatives used to extend the shelf life of the products and ensure profits, an official said yesterday. Pork Sovannarith, secretary of state for the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said some food producers continued to use preservatives that could ...

The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday questioned the first of two human rights workers who are suing local officials for allegedly disrupting a July meeting they were hosting for villagers in Lumphat district. Deputy court prosecutor Ros Saram said he questioned Chhim Savuth, program officer for the ...

A Chinese garment factory manager was deported yesterday after she was given a one year suspended sentence for destroying a picture of the late King Norodom Sihanouk, officials said. The deportation took place as another Chinese factory manager, Liv Kuy Chheang, was charged by the ...

Cambodia Airports estimates the number of passengers entering via Cambodia’s two international airports will increase by an average 8.8 per cent in 2013. That prediction is 1.2 per cent lower than the 2012 projection of a 10 per cent increase. The lower forecast is due to the ...

Reporters Without Borders has joined mounting criticism of the government’s handling of the April 26 murder of environmental activist Chut Wutty. On Monday, a security guard was convicted of accidentally killing the officer officially blamed for the activist’s death. “How convenient,” the Paris-based advocacy group said in a ...

A report released by the World Bank on Tuesday highlighted Cambodia as the most improved country in terms of businesses getting credit, due to the establishment of the country’s first credit bureau in March. Cambodia ranked 133 out of 185 in the World Bank’s report, up from 141 ...

Profits at Cambodia’s largest banks continued to grow through the first nine months of the year as loan disbursals across the sector increased by about 30 percent compared to the same period in 2011, bankers said yesterday. Acleda Bank, the largest bank in the country, this week posted ...

Sitting at his outpost overlooking the Mekong River, Deab Kuy remembers an incident some years ago when fishermen threatened to attack him if they were stopped from casting their nets around the river’s sandy islets here in Sambok commune. The outpost, little more than a wooden house on ...

The value of construction projects approved by the government during the first nine months of the year reached $1.83 billion, an 83.61 percent increase compared to the same period in 2011, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Land Management. Tith Khemra, director of ...

Cambodia Airports said yesterday that it planned to move forward with plans to build a new security fence at Phnom Penh International Airport ahead of next month’s Asean and East Asia summits, even though its construction will result in more than 180 families being evicted. Speaking ...

Cambodia has made almost no progress over the past six years when it comes to gender equality, and is still the lowest-ranked country in the region, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2012 Gender Gap Index. Ranked 103 out of 135 countries surveyed, Cambodia placed last ...

Residents of Kratie province had an education in conservation yesterday as the government and outside partners reiterated a September sub-decree banning gill nets on a sizable stretch of the Mekong in a bid to protect the badly endangered Mekong River dolphin. Touch Seang Tana, head of the Commission ...

A Chinese woman found guilty of intentionally causing damage after tearing up photos of the late King Father was deported yesterday morning – a mere two days after the crime occurred. Wang Zia Chao, 43, who on Tuesday was given a suspended one-year prison sentence, left ...

Laos has contracted firms to build and operate another significant hydro-power plant on the Mekong River system, adding to the existing furor over potential effects on downstream countries such as Cambodia from the controversial Xayaburi dam. The contracts, reportedly worth $1 billion, are for a series of three dams making ...

Cambodia had granted operating licenses to 2,606 new companies in the first nine months of this year, a 11 percent rise from 2,336 new firms at the same period a year ago, the report of the Commerce Ministry showed Wednesday. Those companies are dealing in the ...

Siam Cement PCL’s (SCC.TH) third-quarter net profit fell 13% as higher expenses and cost of sales weighed, but the fall in earnings at Thailand’s largest industrial conglomerate by revenue was in line with analysts’ expectations. Despite the profit decline, the conglomerate said before Wednesday’s earnings statement ...

H&M workers in Cambodia are only paid 3 kronor ($0.45) an hour, forcing many into debt to feed their families, according to a report on the TV4 documentary Kalla Fakta (The Cold Facts) Many textile workers therefore borrow money for food, leading to considerable debts with ...

A total of 2,606 new businesses were registered in Cambodia during the first nine months of the year, an increase of 11.6 percent compared to the same period last year, data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce shows. According to the figures, the ministry approved 306 new ...

Fishery resources could fall this year because of a lack of flooding along rivers and waterways impeding fish from travelling freely or finding food to encourage their growth, a fishery official says. Sam Nov, deputy general director of Fishery Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and ...

Kompong Thom provincial officials will stop illegal gold mining in seven locations in Sandan district’s Meanrith commune come November, provincial and district officials said. About 100 residents of Meanrith have been illegally digging for gold in the district for several years, provincial deputy governor King Vimean ...

Environment rights group Global Witness yesterday joined the call for an independent investigation into the April 26 murder of conservation activist Chut Wutty following the conviction of a security guard in the case. On Monday the Koh Rong Provincial Court sentenced Rann Boroth, a security guard ...

Three families were evicted and their houses torn down by authorities in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district yesterday after officials claimed that residents there were polluting a canal with rubbish. The authorities last week warned that families living inside 38 houses in Niroth commune were illegally occupying ...