The Cambodia Daily

The European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) held its first annual general meeting Thursday at the Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh where a board of directors was elected and the French and German chambers merged with EuroCham in order to reinforce the interests of European companies ...

Lawmakers from the opposition SRP and Human Rights Party who were expelled from Parliament earlier this month have called on the foreign diplomatic corps and international donors to stop signing agreements and conducting other business with the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. In a letter ...

The government does little to protect the rights and livelihoods of the country’s many ethnic minorities who are under constant threat from rapid development, representatives of indigenous groups said yesterday. “We have polices laws and guidelines to protect indigenous people, but we see that it doesn’t ...

Since 2007, the NGO Pact has been working with the government to turn 68,000 hectares of forest in Oddar Meanchey province into a moneymaking venture for the state just by keeping trees in the area standing. ...

Nineteen NagaWorld casino employees were detained Tuesday afternoon as police attempted to break up a protest of more than 500 workers who had picketed in front of the casino for the past six days, demanding the company increase their salaries.  The workers had been striking non-violently ...

National energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) on Monday announced that a 50-MW coal-fired power plant in Preah Sihanouk province is ready to come online this week and will solve Phnom Penh’s chronic blackouts. The statement does not mention which power plant had been completed, ...

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said Monday they have taken the necessary steps to investigate claims that the world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton, bribed officials in Cambodia and played down reports that it had mishandled one the country’s largest cases in corporate corruption. “The ...

A court official at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court said Monday that a total of 16 union representatives have been charged with damaging property and inciting violence during a protest outside a garment factory earlier this month, twice the number of arrests previously confirmed. Provincial Judge ...

One of Japan’s largest banks will open a representative office in July due to burgeoning interest in Cambodia most likely by Japanese investors, a bank official said yesterday. Mizuho Financial Group will open a small office in Phnom Penh Tower on Monivong Boulevard on July 8, ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a sub-decree designed to regulate the performance of the government’s administration by chastising institutions that fail to properly carry out their work in delivering public services. Though the legislation does not carry any punishment for officials that fail in ...

The Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the guilty verdict for anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha, but reduced her sentence from three-to two-years imprisonment, of which one year was suspended. The ruling means that Ms. Bopha will not be released until late 2014. Supporters and human rights groups ...

More than 700 villagers from five provinces yesterday protested in front of the provincial government headquarters in Kompong Chhnang after losing their community forests to large agro-industry firms. Organized by the Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly- a network of communities that includes forestry and land activists as ...

Sporting red bandanas and armed with the accoutrements of Khmer black magic, several hundred demonstrators representing embattled communities throughout the country held noisy protests outside several government offices yesterday, where they placed curses on corrupt officials and submitted written petitions demanding justice. Unlike previous protests that ...

Diners may soon be able to leave their wallets at home the next time they decide to eat at a restaurant in Phnom Penh. Starting next week, WING, a Cambodian mobile payment service provider, will introduce a new service that allows people to pay their restaurant ...

More than 800 street vendors and drivers of taxis, tuk-tuks and motorcycles working the border area between Banteay Meanchey province and Thailand yesterday marched through Poipet City calling for an end to the rampant corruption being carried out by border officials. Migrant workers who cross ...

Former Bavet City governor Chhouk Bundith failed to show up Wednesday for the first day of his long-awaited retrial at Svay Rieng Provincial Court for his alleged involvement in a shooting that left three workers wounded, court officials said. According to provincial Judge Leang Sour, Mr. ...

The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding in Phnom Penh yesterday reconfirming their commitment to developing their joint border with new economic zones, checkpoints and a 1,800-MW power plant. “We have agreed to create four international checkpoints to improve trade ...

Thousands of Cambodians cross the border via illegal checkpoints into Thailand every year. Some end up working in slave-like conditions on illegal fishing trawlers. Others work in factories while getting paid under the table. It is often a last resort fraught with danger and uncertainty and ...

Land Management Minister Im Chum Lim awarded a community of ethnic minority Banong in Mondolkiri province a communal land tile to their ancestral land last week, only the eighth communal land title to be handed out since the 2001 Land Law made them available. The title ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong made another appeal to Australia for additional funds to complete a behind-schedule project to rehabilitate the country’s railway network, this time to newly appointed Australian Ambassador Alison Burrows, according to a ministry spokesman. While work on the Southern Line of the ...

Fifteen villagers representing 18 families from Kratie province involved in an ongoing dispute with the Sovan Vuthy Rubber Company yesterday submitted a petition to the Ministry of Land Management calling for intervention after the company allegedly cleared their farmland. The families say they have lived ...

About 200 farmers protested in front of the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday and submitted a petition requesting changes to a draft law on the management of agricultural land, which rights groups have said could effectively legalize land grabs from poor farmers. The government says the ...

About 250 laborers working at a newly opened $90-million sugar factory complex in Kratie province-hailed by the government as a boon to Cambodia’s economy-staged a protest last Saturday morning demanding to be reimbursed for two weeks worth of unpaid wages. District governor Heng Soha acted ...

Workers with heavy machinery began repairing Phnom Penh’s busy Street 63 on Thursday in order to get rid of the potholes and cracked concrete that has turned the street into a divot-ridden, water-logged throughway since new pipes were laid six months ago. The Japanese International Cooperation ...