The Cambodia Daily

Fielding questions from opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly yesterday, the chief of the State Secretary of Civil Aviation (SSCA) addressed a host of issues that have drawn recent criticism of the government body. SSCA Secretary of State Mao Havanall began by saying that the secretariat ...

Despite a moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions (ELCs), the government has approved at least 32 ELCs since Prime Minister Hun Sen announced their suspension in May. According to sub-decrees dated from May onward and provided by local human rights group Adhoc, Mr. ...

Two years after breaking ground, a sugar refinery situated on a pair of controversial plantation belonging to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat and his wife will have its first test run on Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. He said the refinery would be ...

Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc. (EGA), a U.S.-listed gaming firm operating primarily in Cambodia, posted a 93 percent decrease in profits for the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2011, according to the company’s financial statement released Tuesday. “The decrease ...

Community representatives from Indonesia and the Philippines warned Cambodia yesterday of the potential human cost that an influx of mining companies could bring to the country. As private companies scour the land for minerals, with some set to begin extraction within a few years, Cambodia could ...

Visitors hoping to stay in Phnom Penh’s top hotels in the coming days will have to seek shelter elsewhere, as the city’s most sought after rooms are booked solid for the East Asia and Asean summits, hoteliers said yesterday. “We are completely full during the ...

Human Rights investigator Chan Soveth has returned to Cambodia more than two-and-a-half months after leaving in the face of a criminal charge that is thought to be linked to an alleged insurrection that took place in Kratie province in May. On August 14, the court charge ...

Total trade in Cambodia reached $11.17 billion from January through October, an 18.1 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. Khon Savuth, chief of statistics at the ministry’s Camcontrol department said that the ...

Thousand of families that stand to be evicted when construction work on the Lower Sesan 2 Dam begins in 2014 will each receive a 1-hectare plot of land for a home as well as a 5 additional hectares for growing crops, provincial officials said yesterday. Provincial ...

Kratie province – Cambodia’s transformation from war-torn basket-case to one of Asia’s most promising emerging economies is being overshadowed by a backwards lurch in human rights and land policies that critics say are entrenching poverty. Next week’s visit by Barack Obama, the fist by a U.S. ...

Two men died in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district on Sunday after a gold mining pit they were digging collapsed in on top of them, police said yesterday. Provincial police chief Nhem Vanny said that the victims, Sao Leng, 20, and Tharn Kim, 19, had been ...

Some of the U.S.’ most senior lawmakers are urging Barack Obama to speak out on what they called Cambodia’s deteriorating human rights situation when the U.S. president makes what will be the first visit to the country by a sitting American leader later this month. ...

The leaders of two of Cambodia’s biggest donors, China and Japan, will attend the up coming Asean and East Asia summits in Phnom Penh next week, Prime Minister Hun Sen confirmed during a speech in Siem Reap province yesterday. “China Prime Minister [Wen Jiabao] will arrive ...

Insisting on a response from American authorities, more than 100 eviction protestors from Phnom Penh continued to rally outside the U.S. Embassy yesterday and resubmitted a petition asking for President Barack Obama to address their land rights when he visits the country next week. Since confirmation ...

An agriculture and transportation company has allegedly threatened to demolish the homes of about 100 families on Wednesday if they refuse to move off an agricultural land concession in Kampot province’s Chhuk district, villagers said yesterday. “So Nguon company and [Decho Aphivat commune chief] Chum Soeun ...

Police in Banteay Meanchey province detained 298 people for trying to illegally cross the border to Thailand last week in Thma Puok district’s Kork Romiet commune, police said yesterday. During questioning, all 298 detainees admitted that they were trying to cross the border in order to ...

Tokyo police arrested 10 Japanese nationals earlier this month for allegedly defrauding more than 1,000 investors out of $20 millions using fictitious investment projects in Cambodia, according to Japanese media reports. “The Metropolitan Police Department found no evidence that the amount of money raised was ...

From large tracts of rural land to sand from the country’s rivers to human hair, a host of Cambodia’s natural resources are on display in the shop window of China’s largest online trading website. Alibaba.com – which claims more than 80 million users worldwide and is ...

Government spending next year will total more than $3 billion, a 16.2 percent increase from the $2.6 billion set aside for 2012, according to a draft of the national budget obtained Friday. The budget states that the government will allocate some $400 million, or 13.32 ...

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Friday reaffirmed Cambodia’s long-term sovereign credit rating of “B” due to the country’s positive growth outlook, but again warned of risks related to the country’s narrow economic base. “Economic output growth is vulnerable due to the still large ...

Authorities in Daun Penh district have rounded up more than 120 so-called homeless people, drug users and sex workers ahead of next week’s high-level meetings for Asean and international delegates in Phnom Penh, a district official said yesterday. Phnom Penh City Hall has also focused ...

Activist groups are planning to hold two separate forums this week in Phnom Penh to call attention to human rights issues and other problems in Asean countries as a meeting of regional and world leaders begin in the city. The assembly will meet ahead of ...

CPP Senator and business tycoon Ly Yong Phat last week continued to offer families in Koh Kong province cash compensation to get them to drop out of a lawsuit against two sugar cane plantations he once owned, according to villagers. But villager Phann Khly yesterday ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will hold bilateral talks with U.S. President Barack Obama when the newly re-elected American leader visits Phnom Penh during this month’s East Asia and Asean Summits. Mr. Hun Sen announced the bilateral meeting in a letter to Mr. Obama on Wednesday congratulating ...