Khmer Times

The Environment Ministry has started it’s process of recruiting 300 new forest rangers to work in select provinces next year in a bid to fill staff shortages and reduce deforestation.​ Ministry spokesperson Sao Sopheap said yesterday that the existing 960-strong ranger workforce was insufficient to guard ...

Pursat provincial police have launched a week-long campaign to crack down on widespread illegal fishing. Authorities say they have confiscated and destroyed many kinds of illegal fishing equipment on the Tonle Sap Lake from Kampon Loung in Krakor district to the Kampong Chhang province border. Pursat deputy ...

Kampot provincial authorities have warned some 100 families who have settled on land within Bokor National Park to leave or face eviction. In a letter, the authorities say the families are living illegally on state land in Chhouk district’s Decho Aphivat commune that is part of ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) issued a prakas, or directive, last week instructing commercial banks and microfinance institutions to make out more riel loans to their customers, in a bid to promote the use of the national currency. The prakas, which took effect on Thursday, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday urged landlords not to indiscriminately increase the price of rent in light of the upcoming hike in the wages of garment workers next year. Speaking at the inauguration of the Coca-Cola factory in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone, the ...

A railway linking Phnom Penh to its international airport is being planned, with passengers getting the chance to check in baggage and get boarding passes before they get on the train. The line would join the Phnom Penh to Preah Sihanouk track which runs past the ...

The 2017 national budget, with more than $5 billion in expenditures, was passed by the Senate yesterday without any changes despite opposition from the CNRP. Expenditures in the 2017 budget are up 15.6 percent compared with 2016 and include more than $1 billion in foreign loans. ...

Coca-Cola officially opened a new $100 million plant in Phnom Penh yesterday to expand its production capacity to meet increased demand for the Coke beverage in the Kingdom and Asean. The plant, situated on a 12.5-hectare land, in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone is able ...

Freshly pardoned CNRP deputy leader Kem Sokha yesterday claimed the pardon that exonerated him on Friday was made without any conditions or concessions from the opposition party. The acting president of the opposition, who had been under de facto house arrest since May and had been ...

China is considering setting up an industrial zone in Cambodia and says it will announce new areas of cooperation with Asean nations in line with Cambodia’s industrial development policy. The issues were discussed on Saturday when Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak met Xu Ningning, executive president of ...

Civil society organizations and youth groups have called for young people to be more involved in human rights and the environment. They also demanded greater protection for young activists who have suffered threats, violence and court action. The call was made in a youth forum on young ...

The story of the Oum Saom forestry community in Kampong Thom province is one that has been told in various forms hundreds of times in Cambodia: local residents locked in a seemingly never-ending battle against a company aiming to cut down their local forest and ...

The government will offer three-year, multiple-entry visas to Chinese and South Korean investors in an effort to make doing business easier and increase investment in the Kingdom, the premier said during the first Cambodia-China Business and Financial Development Forum in Phnom Penh yesterday. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni ordered last week that the Phnom Penh boundaries be expanded to include portions from neighboring Kandal province in a bid to improve the city’s development. In a royal decree dated November 11, but only released on November 21, King Sihamoni ordered the government ...

Officials from Koh Kong province’s environment department have confirmed that the construction of a yellow vine processing plant has been halted after a directive from the Environment Ministry.​ Department chief Morn Phalla said that while the plant’s construction had ceased, factory equipment was on the site ...

Union officials have applauded the Ministry of Labor which is preparing to ratify some International Labor Organization’s (ILO) conventions, including two that unions, factory workers and domestic workers have long demanded. The Labor Ministry said on Wednesday that to promote and protect the rights, benefits and ...

Japan, the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s largest donor to date, has contributed a further $1.12 million to its international component, the tribunal said on Tuesday in a statement. ...

Civil society groups yesterday urged the government to step up transparency in the judiciary to create an environment where activists could address social injustices without having to worry about being prosecuted. ...

Canadian exploration company Angkor Gold announced on Tuesday that it agreed to buy back all shares sold to investors in 2014, through its net smelter rights (NSR) scheme in the Kingdom’s first commercial underground gold mine in Phum Syarung, in Rattanakiri’s O’Yadaw district – now ...

A Japan-based firm plans to invest $3 million to develop a time-share resort built to five-star hotel standards on Kirirom Mountain – about 110 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh – with construction to start next year. ...

Hundreds of leading Chinese companies will come together with hundreds more local companies today at the first Cambodia-China Business Forum and Financial Development Forum in Phnom Penh, aimed at expanding trade and investment between the two countries. ...

Most of the 20 percent of eligible voters who did not register before the deadline yesterday are migrant workers, the National Election Committee  (NEC) concluded, echoing the opposition and civil society groups. ...

More than 50 people representing 253 families from Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district resubmitted a petition to the Interior Ministry yesterday, asking authorities to expedite a resolution of their land dispute. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) decided to extend voter registration by only one day after pleas from the opposition and civil society to extend the deadline due to more than one million citizens failing to register in time.​ ...