News

Scientists warn that plans to build dams across Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake, could be an ecological timebomb threatening the food security of millions. In a few months’ time, monsoon rains will more than quadruple the size of Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake ...

Work was underway on Friday to erect the big top of Phare, The Cambodian Circus, at its new location on the outskirts of Siem Reap City. ...

Five Cambodian Muslims were killed outright and nine others injured in a collision between an oil tanker and a minibus on Friday morning in western Cambodia’s Pursat province, a local police chief said. ...

The number of drug cases and people arrested for drug crimes in Cambodia in 2015 more than doubled year-on-year, while the volume of drugs seized shot up 18- fold, local media reported on Friday. ...

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s decision-making central committee will hold its annual congress this weekend on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich. ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow at 6.9 percent this year, the same rate it expanded last year, due to slowing growth in leading economies in region, especially China, Asia’s largest and the world’s second-largest economy, according to the World Bank. ...

In his latest abrupt policy backtracking, Prime Minister Hun Sen used a speech on Thursday to rescind a recently announced plan to ban dual nationals from leading political parties—an effort that had ostensibly been aimed at the self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy. ...

Four Vietnamese military-controlled land concessions in Ratanakkiri province were downsized to a fraction of their original acreage as part of a government audit of land leased to private companies, officials said yesterday, amid opposition criticism of the concessions. ...

A $300 million sugarcane processing factory will begin producing sugar in Preah Vihear province next month and it is being described as the world’s largest such factory, according to reports in local media. ...

A Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker is calling on young Cham party activists to rally support for the opposition party, expressing a desire to see a politician from the Muslim minority join the National Assembly. ...

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Bun Serey yesterday told the city’s district governors to find all rice wine producers and sellers in their jurisdictions in anticipation of planned mass inspections. ...

The number of drug cases and people arrested for drug crimes in 2015 more than doubled year-on-year, while the volume of drugs seized shot up 18-fold, according to police. ...

Cambodian authorities have signalled their intent to prioritise cross-border trafficking, amid a planned boost in funding from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. ...

A group of villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a lawsuit this week against three local border police officers and a forestry official accusing them of allowing Vietnamese loggers to sneak across the nearby border and illegally log the forests they depend on for a living. ...

China State Construction Engineering’s plan to spend $240 million to construct a four-building project called Sino Plaza as part of its strategy to move into rapidly growing Southeast Asia, realtors said. ...

The government is planning to gradually reduce tariffs on most goods imported from other ASEAN member states to zero, putting Cambodia ahead of what is required of it under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), officials said.   ...

Cambodia reported 6.27 million internet users in 2015, a 25 percent rise from 5 million users in the year before, according to the figures of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on Thursday. ...

As part of a long-planned project to overhaul the country’s social security system, Prime Minister Hun Sen signed into law yesterday a sub-decree effectively granting health insurance to hundreds of thousands of Cambodian workers. ...

Police and government officials say they know nothing about a recent report published by the National Police accusing wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol of using government-approved economic land concessions in Mondolkiri province to illegally log a local wildlife sanctuary, but added that they would investigate ...

Cambodia’s two international ports – the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) – yesterday reported increases in container traffic last year, with the latter looking to go public this year in a bid to fund an expansion plan. ...

Three applicants have been shortlisted for the top spot on the reformed National Election Committee, with a final decision to be made on January 15. ...

Despite starting with a bang just a week ago, the Land Traffic Law has already been subject to two amendments from Prime Minister Hun Sen in direct response to a public outcry on Facebook, a stark contrast to the premier’s usual attitude toward online criticism. ...

Russian authorities have temporarily detained a cargo ship flying the Cambodian flag near Crimea in the Black Sea on January 3, a spokesman for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said yesterday. ...

More than 600 villages, home to more than half a million people, have been declared “open-defecation free” as a result of a major program aimed at boosting the number of Cambodians who have access to hygienic toilets, according to Plan International. ...