The Phnom Penh Post

Zaman school officials and parents yesterday urged the Cambodian government not to shutter the schools as the Turkish Ambassador to Cambodia Ilhan Tug has requested, saying students will ultimately suffer. The Turkish Embassy has repeatedly called for the schools’ closure in recent weeks, citing their links ...

Cambodia’s microfinance sector continued to expand rapidly during the first half of the year, despite concerns over rising default rates as the industry’s main borrowers – provincial farmers – struggle to repay their loans after successive seasons of drought and poor harvests. ...

Poor women in Cambodia are more likely to use long-term reversible forms of birth control, like IUDs or implants, if they receive outside assistance, a new study has found. ...

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development financial institution, signed a commitment letter for $125 million direct loan to Acleda Bank to support all sectors through microenterprises and small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), Acleda Bank said in a press release yesterday. ...

About 40,000 Battambang rice-farming families already suffering steep losses from a severe drought are at risk of seeing their crops wiped out entirely by devastating floods as late seasonal rains start to kick in. A drought that meteorologists have blamed on the tail-end of an ...

The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) officially began receiving applications for liquidity providers yesterday as part of an initiative to boost market liquidity, it said in a press release. ...

Two months since a group of angel investors visited Phnom Penh in search of startup investment opportunities, the organisation behind the initiative is planning an even bigger scouting mission, looking for investment opportunities in the Kingdom’s small but vibrant startup community. ...

An NGO operating in the Pursat section of the protected Cardamom Mountains uncovered 50 cubic metres of luxury timber yesterday. Chea Hean, director of the Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organisation, said he and four colleagues uncovered the illicit stash as part of an ongoing investigation, ...

National Police deputy chief Kirth Chantharith will head a team to handle security during upcoming elections, with the group to decide upon the placement of “national security agents” for voters’ protection, according to a statement. ...

Representatives of Cambodia’s rice sector and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) met yesterday with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to discuss the implementation of a five-year program to promote the Kingdom’s agricultural products. ...

Land Management Minister Chea Sophara met with US Ambassador William Heidt on Monday evening to discuss the progress of recently established land dispute working groups and to request funding for an initiative to incentivise the resolution of such disputes. A ministry press release said Sophara ...

Industrial park operator Phnom Penh SEZ, which became the fourth company on Cambodia’s stock exchange when it listed in May, released its audited 2015 annual report and 2016 half-year financials yesterday, reporting declines in revenue and net profit over the past 18 months on slower ...

Billed as a Cambodian first, the invitation of 500 civil society and community representatives to a forum on environmental issues with Prime Minister Hun Sen proved largely a platform for the premier to hold forth on policy and politics, with many observers bemoaning the sidelining ...

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron applauded the vast majority of Grade-12 students for obeying the strict no-cheating rules he introduced three years ago as nationwide testing kicked off yesterday with relatively few hiccups. ...

Investors in Cambodia’s garment industry are increasingly purchasing modern equipment as they look to produce higher value-added products to compete in the international market and counter rising labour costs, an industry insider said yesterday. ...

A group campaigning for better governance yesterday demanded parliamentarians push the government to allow Cambodians living abroad to vote, while also calling for stricter enforcement of migration legislation inside the country. ...

The research branch of the NGO Khana has argued in a new peer-reviewed study that livelihood programs for people living with HIV – which address recipients’ economic rather than medical needs – could be the key to significant improvements in quality of life for the ...

While local petroleum prices have dropped by nearly a quarter of their value since the start of the year, companies operating in the Kingdom’s highly competitive transportation sector insist they have not been able to convert lower fuel costs into higher profits – even when ...

Twelve NGOs have issued an open letter to the UN Human Rights Council urging it to adopt a strong resolution on what they term the grave deterioration of the human rights situation in Cambodia. ...

With a mixture of hope and hard-earned scepticism, environmentalists from around the country will today get an opportunity most had never dreamed possible: an audience with the prime minister. About 500 civil society activists have been invited to Phnom Penh for the first National Forum ...

Cambodia’s first independent association for promoting intellectual property (IP) is seeking closer cooperation with government agencies to help the private sector better understand IP, its benefits and the importance of registering their products. ...

Nearly 30 Cambodians detained in Thailand since early July were released last week, though four remain in detention, an official at the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok said. The migrant workers – 20 women and 14 men – were arrested on July 7 and taken to a ...

A new study has predicted that even if Cambodia manages to eradicate so-called “human” strains of malaria by 2025 – a key government goal – it will continue be at “high risk” of infections from a strain of the parasite more typically found in wild ...

Vietnamese budget airline VietJet will re-launch flights to Cambodia at the end of October following a six-month halt in the service due to unspecified market issues, an aviation official said yesterday. ...