News

A set of controversial laws and constitutional amendments was quietly signed by Senate President Say Chhum in place of the King last week, going into effect immediately despite the Justice Ministry previously claiming there would be a promulgation period. ...

Fourteen families from Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district have asked the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Land Management to intervene in their land dispute with the Union Development Group. The 14 families, from Prek Khsach and Phnhi Meas communes, delivered their petition to the ...

The Ministry of Environment and Japan will today sign a $600,000 agreement on forest conservation for a period of three years in the Prey Lang forest, which spans four provinces. The project will focus on forest conservation, legal strengthening and community forestry development, according to a ...

Takeo provincial military police yesterday seized 3,900 kilos of dried crocodile hides being smuggled into the country from Vietnam. Major Bun Sothy, Takeo provincial military police deputy commander, said the crocodile skins, worth about $24,000, were being smuggled into Koh Andet district from Vietnam’s An Giang ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information has chalked up 2017 as a “huge success for the government”, saying supporters of jailed journalists were “killing” democracy and the closure of multiple media outlets was necessary. ...

A deadline for an earn-in agreement involving Australian-listed Medusa Mining and Sea Resources to explore the Prek Kampi region of Kratie province passed on Thursday with no deal being reached, according to a UK-based news website. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blamed Cambodia’s rampant deforestation on local villagers who he claimed had been “incited” by the opposition to clear the forestland, though conservationists were quick to point out that those behind illegal logging are actually often powerful tycoons connected to the ...

The King has signed off on promotions for more than 300 Royal Cambodian Armed Forces officers in December and January, including at least six generals who recently joined the ruling CPP’s Central Committee. The mass military promotion – the second so far this year – brings ...

The new rail line between Phnom Penh International Airport and the railway station on Monivong Boulevard is scheduled to open on April 10, according to government and Royal Railways officials. Hoeurn Somnieng, deputy director of the cabinet at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said ...

About 100,000 foreigners working without permits will be fined after Khmer New Year and potentially face jail time and deportation if they fail to get paperwork or pay their fines, the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour announced yesterday. ...

The Council of Ministers has ordered a temporary suspension to permits for clearing and transporting timber from the reservoir area of the Lower Sesan II Dam until after the upcoming elections in July, with a government official yesterday saying illegal logging was “out of control”, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on monks to join hands in educating people to respect traffic laws and avoid drug use in order to reduce traffic deaths and drug problems. During a building inauguration at Chey Mongkul pagoda in Kampong Cham province, Mr Hun Sen ...

The Labour Ministry has created a technical working group to study and investigate what causes fainting in an attempt to reduce episodes of fainting at factories nationwide. Labour Minister Ith Samheng, who is also chairman of the National Committee for Health and Work Safety, said the ...

The Cambodian government expressed “dismay” yet remained defiant yesterday in the face of a US decision to cut aid to the Kingdom in response to its ongoing political crackdown, saying it would not comply with demands to restore the forcibly dissolved opposition CNRP. In a statement, ...

A representative with Duong Sruoch Group in Preah Vihear yesterday denied allegations that that the company had been illegally clearing forest outside the boundaries of social land concessions it had been licensed to log. Duong Sruoch Group was specifically named in a directive issued Monday by ...

Cambodia exported about $3 billion worth of goods to the EU in the first nine months of last year, according to Ouch Borith, a secretary of state at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Borith’s remarks came at the ministry’s annual meeting and were in response to a ...

A task force established a month ago to address problems stemming from an influx of Chinese investment to Sihanoukville has not received a single report of illegal businesses or taken any enforcement action, with one official maintaining it was impossible to take “serious” action for ...

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday published a batch of communications held with the Cambodian government since June last year, showing that the international body has voiced its concern about a range of issues from the arrest of ...

One man has been arrested and more than 100 planks of second-grade luxury timber seized by authorities in Kampong Thom yesterday. Hang Vunn, 22, was arrested by Sandan district police after he was found to be operating an illegal sawmill in Sochetr commune. ...

The cities of Battambang, Kampot, Sihanoukville, Siem Reap, Kep, Kampong Cham, in addition to Doun Penh, a district of Phnom Penh, all received the top accolade, three romdul flowers, in the second edition of the country’s Clean City Contest. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen bragged yesterday about importing “thousands or tens of thousands” of tonnes of weaponry overnight in the run-up to a major joint military exercise with China. “Samdech Tea Banh, the minister of defence, he does not transport flowers,” the premier said to an ...

The German embassy in Cambodia is cooperating with the government to assist in rural development.According to a press release from the German embassy issued yesterday, more than 2,500 kilometres of roads, 88 bridges, 48 schools and 11 markets have been built across the country with ...

The government will begin to pay out of pocket for severance wages for labourers at abruptly shuttered factories whose owners have fled, effectively enacting a pro-worker policy without further burdening private businesses – albeit at the risk of discouraging good corporate citizenship, experts say. ...

The White House is cutting aid to several assistance programs in Cambodia due to “recent setbacks to democracy”, it announced late Tuesday. Some programs supporting Cambodia’s Tax Department, military and local government will be cut or reduced “to ensure that American taxpayer funds are not being ...