The Phnom Penh Post

The European Union is expected to enter Kampong Speu palm sugar into its registry of protected geographical indicators (GI) by July following a push by the Cambodian government to protect the specialty food product in one of its biggest markets, a Ministry of Commerce official ...

The Japanese ambassador is set to sign a new aid package today pledging about $140 million worth of support for various projects, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ...

Opposition lawmakers yesterday left a meeting at the Interior Ministry exasperated, as officials from the latter continued to deem the presidency of their leader, Kem Sokha, and the vice presidency of three senior lawmakers, illegitimate, but offered no clear path to a resolution. ...

Doctor Beat Richner, the prominent Swiss-born doctor credited with resurrecting the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals – which have treated millions of patients free of charge since 1992 – stepped down from his more than two-decade role of managing the hospitals, citing a serious illness. ...

Members of the prime minister’s anti-logging task force who had been looking into officials’alleged collusion with Vietnamese timber smugglers in Mondulkiri has ended its 10-day investigation. ...

About $170,000 remains to be found for a coalition of watchdogs and civil society observers known as the “situation room” to successfully monitor all of Cambodia’s 2017 commune elections for irregularities. ...

Chinese and ASEAN representatives are meeting in Siem Reap to begin hammering out a code of conduct for the highly contested South China Sea. ...

Executives at Singapore-listed energy firm KrisEnergy Ltd say they have settled terms with the Cambodian government and are ready to sign a long-awaited production-sharing agreement that would pave the way for the first-ever extraction of petroleum from Cambodian territorial waters. ...

In its first two months of regular operation Cambodia’s first civil aviation training centre has provided certificates to dozens of aviation officials and airport staff, helping to raise the skill level of personnel in the Kingdom’s fast-expanding aviation sector. ...

Chroy Changvar peninsula land disputants yesterday delivered a petition to the Ministry of Land Management rejecting City Hall’s proposal to take away 90 percent of their land for the development of a satellite city. ...

A coalition of watchdogs and other civil society groups yesterday announced their intention to form a “situation room” for the 2017 commune elections in order to monitor the voting process for irregularities. ...

The growing number of foreign visitors arriving by sea represents a promising source of tourism revenue for Cambodia, though limited port and tourism infrastructure has hampered its realisation, tourism stakeholders said yesterday. ...

Phnom Penh deputy governor Ieng Aunny yesterday acknowledged that the capital continues to struggle with waste management despite recent decentralisation measures, laying the blame with districts’ and communes’ lack of awareness of their new responsibilities, as well as what he characterised as contractor CINTRI’s ongoing ...

Phnom Penh and Beijing are in talks to become “sister cities”, chief of the Chinese Embassy’s political section Wang De Xin confirmed yesterday. ...

Sweden’s development agency will provide $7 million to foster the development of small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia, according to state-run news agency AKP. ...

The Cambodian government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with officials from China’s Shaanxi province aimed at bolstering trade and tourism, according to a release yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. ...

Cambodian mobile operator Smart Axiata launched a $5 million venture capital fund yesterday that will seek to identify, fund and nurture local digital services companies and startups. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture is working to develop a procedural framework for the trade and use of biological control agents (BCAs) in agriculture in an effort to improve crop yields, protect consumer health and ensure continued access to key export markets. Regulation could also create ...

Preah Sihanouk province welcomed nearly 2.4 million tourists in 2016, generating $96 million in revenue, following a significant rise in domestic and international tourist arrivals, a tourism official said yesterday. . ...

A Poipet venue offering online gambling and affiliated with nearby Crown Casino was closed by authorities over the weekend, according to a company security official.​ ...

At least 70 timber smugglers transporting some 200 cubic metres of illegal first- and second-grade wood were stopped by authorities in the Phnom O’ral Wildlife Sanctuary over the weekend, before being allowed to leave without charges and still in possession of the illegal timber. ...

One home collapsed into the Tonle Bassac river on Saturday in Kandal’s Sa’ang district, while two others are at risk of collapse and eight others had to be dismantled and moved across the road, away from the riverbank, officials said yesterday. ...

Eleven wild elephants were rescued on Saturday in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima protected area after becoming trapped in a former bomb crater without food for four days, though rangers will continue to monitor the herd to ensure it reaccepts one juvenile who was handled by humans ...

Vietnamese state-owned dairy giant Vinamilk intends to spend almost $11 million to buy its Cambodian partner’s entire stake in Angkor Dairy Products Co Ltd, better known as Angkormilk, according to Vietnamese media. ...