Khmer Times

The National Budget 2017 was approved on Friday by the Council of Ministers, with a government expenditure of about $5.04 billion. This represents an increase of about 15.6 percent compared to the 2016 budget of $4.36 billion, according to a government statement. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen, ministers, secretaries of state and 2,500 other civil servants and political figures will receive substantial pay rises after the Council of Ministers approved a draft of the 2017 Draft Law on Financial Management on Friday. During the cabinet meeting, Mr. Hun Sen ...

Cambodia Airports welcomed more than five million passengers and 53,000 flights in the first nine months of the year, representing an increase of 6.2 percent and 2.8 percent respectively compared to the same period last year, according to a report released by the company yesterday. ...

Rubber exports have continued to rise in the first nine months of the year, despite the fall and current stagnation of prices as global demand continues to stall, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). ...

Custom officials seized 35 live ferrets weighing about 80 kilograms in Kandal province after a group of smugglers prepared to transport them to Vietnam by boat, authorities said yesterday. ...

A senior official at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction appealed yesterday to institutions, private companies and related parties to help increase public housing for low and middle income families. In the first annual national forum on housing yesterday, Chhan Saphan, a secretary ...

A flooded section of a main street in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district has been temporarily closed because of flooding, according to a statement by Phnom Penh City Hall on Wednesday. ...

Up to 10,000 Cambodians seek legal employment abroad every month, according to a Labor Ministry official, and some civil society groups are not pleased with the large exodus of workers from the country. Labor Minister Ith Samheng told reporters on Wednesday that the government sends thousands ...

After her third UN fact-finding mission to Cambodia, special rapporteur Rhona Smith issued a searing review of the human rights situation in the country, stating that the days of the government evoking the troubles of the past century as an excuse for its present shortcomings ...

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and Habitat for Humanity Cambodia (HFHC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that supports a national housing policy to address housing for low-income families. The MoU aims to support implementation of the national housing policy, which ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) dismissed a request to help migrant workers vote in the upcoming elections, despite creating a system similar to what was requested for soldiers only seven days ago. NEC spokesman Hang Puthea said they would be unable to help the roughly ...

Delegations from the five lower Mekong states met with officials from the Asia-Pacific region, the US and Europe yesterday to convene the 9th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) and Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) Regional Working Group aimed at devising strategies to strengthen infrastructure, connectivity ...

The government plans to increase the 2017 national budget by 15.7 percent, to more than $5 billion – representing an increase over this year’s government expenditure of more than $4.3 billion – a government source said yesterday. ...

In an effort to improve the governance of the Kingdom’s mining industry, with a focus on increasing revenue generation, the government has approved 11 articles largely concerning export permits for mined resources. A September 22 sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, but released by the ...

The Justice Ministry is investigating accusations that surrogacy services are being offered in the Kingdom as rumors spread online. Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana said yesterday at a three-day workshop launching the “Explanatory Note of Domestic Adoption,” he was unsure if the rumors pertained to ...

Kampong Speu province will soon be home to a Chinese-funded agricultural special economic zone (SEZ) with facilities to research plant diseases, after the Ministry of Agriculture and Tian Rui (Cambodia) Agricultural Cooperation SEZ Co., signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. ...

One year strong and more than 900 jobs later, the US State Department-supported start-up center WECREATE, which invests in the economic empowerment of women, is beginning its expansion throughout the Lower Mekong Region. ...

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) provided Amret Microfinance Cambodia with a grant of $245,000 to help more women in the Kingdom access financial services and eventually contribute to local community development. ...

The NGO preparing to file a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) against two opposition officials will also file complaints against Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ACU president after voter registration is finished, he announced yesterday. Ros Sarom, the director of the Victory Intelligent Standard ...

The damage to the country’s rice crops from the recent heavy rains is likely to be small, according to provincial officials, as the Agriculture Ministry stressed that flood damage to rice crops was under control. As the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology continue to warn ...

Because of improved working conditions in garment and footwear factories across the Kingdom, the government yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to continue implementing the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program for three more years. During a celebration commemorating the 15th anniversary of BFC, Labor Minister ...

The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a letter to the National Election Committee (NEC), asking them to help Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand to register to vote in communes along the Thai border. The letter, signed by acting party president Kem Sokha yesterday and ...

Eight markets in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk provinces have started trialing a campaign to reduce the number of plastic bags given to customers. Thol Buntha, a media relations officer for Italian-based NGO Fondazione ACRA, told Khmer Times that the markets, which include ...

Cambodia’s three-year reign as holder of the World’s Best Rice Award came to an end last year, but the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) is confident it will regain the title at next month’s ceremony in Thailand. CRF Secretary-General Moul Sarith told Khmer Times yesterday that they ...