The Phnom Penh Post

In a bid to reassure European shoppers concerned with unfair labour practices, Germany’s state aid agency GIZ has pledged €1.2 million ($1.3 million) to a new program focused on enhancing Cambodia’s labour inspections system for the garment sector. ...

At the close of the three-day annual Cambodia Rice Forum, Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol on Tuesday suggested that the first-rate rice brand set to be launched on the international market this year be marketed as “Extra Premium” jasmine rice. ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has created a committee to resolve compensation and resettlement issues for 1,000 families displaced by the controversial Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province. ...

A protest against city hall’s decision to clear residents’ land for a new road on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar peninsula without paying compensation yesterday entered its second day. ...

Four months ago, Deputy National Police Commissioner Chhay Sinarith declared unregistered SIM cards a major threat to national security. They were a favored tool of terrorists, kidnappers and drug runners, he insisted, before accusing mobile operators that distribute them of toying with the safety of ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy is currently working to withdraw the licence of a copper mining company in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kraeng district that it accuses of operating illegally for more than a year. ...

Cambodia was one of the few bright spots for the air cargo industry last year with a modest increase in year-on-year air freight shipments as other regions experienced weak growth due to the cooling global economy. ...

US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday pushed Prime Minister Hun Sen and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on the need for greater political freedom in Cambodia during meetings in Phnom Penh but also praised the Kingdom’s “extraordinary” development since his first visit as a senator ...

The Thai government’s planned diversion of billions of cubic metres of water from the Mekong River, described last week by a Thai Ministry of Water Resources representative as being as far as two years away, has already begun. ...

Cambodian democracy regressed last year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 Democracy Index, which indicates that the Kingdom is “on the cusp of the ‘authoritarian regime’ category”. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen urged logistics companies transporting heavy goods to switch from container truck shipping to rail shipments, increasing cost efficiency while sparing the nation’s roads from load damage. ...

A farm in Kompong Thom province that supplies Thai agro-industry giant Charoen Pokphand (CP) dumped the carcasses of 11,500 diseased chickens into an irrigation canal on Sunday, poisoning the waterway and endangering local livestock, according to officials. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned opposition leaders they will face ruling party rallies at home if he is met with anti-government demonstrations during his high-profile trip to the US next month, a threat that raised the spectre of pro-government protests in October that ended ...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng has sent a new set of procedures to local authorities aimed at speeding up the sluggish process of issuing new IDs. ...

Hundreds of logs of timber, including luxury wood, as well as sawmill camps were torched at a controversial Vietnamese-owned economic land concession in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district in an apparent bid to destroy evidence of illegal logging ahead of a raid by a new ...

Thirty-one evicted Borei Keila community families received flats and another four families got $15,000 buyouts on Saturday as part of a “lucky draw” organised to resolve their years-long land dispute. ...

Water bird numbers are making a big comeback in the Prek Toal conservation area on the Tonle Sap lake in Battambang province, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a report released on Saturday. ...

The Ministry of Labour on Saturday issued a 12-point set of standards for recruitment agencies sending workers abroad, warning operators they have just over a month to comply. ...

Driver’s licence and vehicle inspection fees have been cut nearly in half, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation announced late last week. ...

About 50 Phnom Penh residents gathered On Sunday to rally against a planned road on Chroy Changva peninsula that will run alongside a massive $3 billion development project. The 12-meter-wide road will be located just 100 meters behind National Road 6A. ...

The maker of a new tuk-tuk prototype retrofitted with a wheelchair ramp hopes to usher in a new era of wheelchair-friendly travel in Phnom Penh. ...

The ministries of health and information are working together to put some teeth into last year’s law restricting the advertisement of tobacco products to sale locations. ...

A pilot project to bring clean-burning portable stoves to Cambodia was announced on Monday by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), which hopes to expand the venture to neighboring Laos and Vietnam. ...

In a move to crack down on future illegal logging, the government has created a special Commission, led by human rights group Adhoc, which will review and cancel any licenses of companies that violate forestry laws. ...