News

Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast yesterday said he would urge Canadians to invest in Cambodia as opportunies become more viable to potential foreign direct investment from countries that have thus far played a small role in the Kingdom. Fast attended a ceremony recognising the first ...

A female garment worker died and 24 other workers were injured when the truck in which they were traveling careened into a pond in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district Wednesday morning, police said. More than 30 garment workers were on board a small, open-backed truck in Prek ...

The Kampong Thom Provincial Court yesterday charged a man with clearing state-owned forestland after he was arrested on Monday along with 13 other villagers, according to provincial prosecutor Ben Sarath. Heoun Sokha was arrested in Kraya commune’s Santuk district after he was found by police clearing ...

The annual Khmer Cakes and Desserts Exhibition was launched yesterday with a ceremony on Phnom Penh’s riverfront near Wat Ounalom attended by officials from the municipality and Ministry of Culture. Noting that it was the second year the event had been held, Phnom Penh Governor Kep ...

When Heng Hak escaped from Phnom Penh maid recruitment center in March 2011, falling several stories in the process, she unwittingly became part of a groundswell-one in a series of mounting cases highlighting severe mismanagment of recruitment agencies, and the abuses incurred by both trainees ...

Although US businesses across ASEAN have expressed a positive investment outlook towards Cambodia and the other members of the regional group, they are unsure of how to take advantage of the free-trade agreement with China, insiders said at the first-ever ASEAN-US Business Summit, which kicked ...

Japanese developer Aeon Mall (Cambodia) Co. Ltd. will break ground on a 68,400 square meter high-end shopping mall in Phnom Penh in November, the firm said yesterday. Speaking during an introductory workshop for potential tenants, Kuniaki Minohara, general manager of Aeon’s leasing department, said the mall ...

Five brokers saw their convictions upheld yesterday at Phnom Penh’s Court of Appeal for trafficking 20 Cambodian nationals into Thailand, but legal experts say such convictions for trafficking in Cambodia are still far too rare. While Judge Chan Madyna upheld the men’s 2010 convictions, he shaved ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday dropped a complaint against five union representatives at the Ocean Garment factory in Pur Senchey district who were accused by management at the firm of inciting weeks of protests. Workers have been demonstrating since Aug. 11, demanding the factory fire a manager ...

Vendors in Phnom Penh’s Ngin An market are protesting a government-backed bid by the market’s new owner to push them out by tomorrow. More than 40 representatives of 223 vendors waved a banner at the market yesterday to protest a letter from Russey Keo District Hall ...

While the humanitarian objections to Mondulkiri’s proposed Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam project are well documented, a report from conservation NGO International Rivers yesterday highlighted an objection of another sort: the Lower Sesan wouldn’t be a very good location for a dam in the first ...

A Borei Keila protester received a summons yesterday to come to Phnom Penh Municipal Court to address a complaint of “incitement to commit a crime” filed by Suy Sophan, director of the Phanimex company, which evicted the Borei Keila families in January. Borei Keila resident Tim ...

The hydro-power dams planned for three tributary rivers in north-eastern Cambodia will have unforeseeable social and environmental consequences for the regional and its people, according to a report released yesterday. Authored by International Rivers and 3S Rivers Protection Network, the report focuses on six hydro-power dams planned for the Sesan, ...

More than 50 police officers exchanged heated words with Ocean Garment strikers yesterday afternoon, marching for over an hour to Phnom Penh Municipal Court in support of five worker representatives suspended by the company. Mid-protest, however, the group of more than 2,500 – who have been ...

Heng Hak wore a blank expression yesterday, her hair recently dyed a shade of blonde. Though her appearance suggested composure, a lift of her pant leg revealed the manifestation of the trauma she tried to escape last year. In March 2011, Hak jumped from the third ...

Under the shade of Angkor’s canopies and twisted Banyan trees, more than 100 restoration workers watched yesterday afternoon as union delegates signed their first collective bargaining agreement, in what union advocates say should set a precedent for Cambodia’s construction industry. Over the past two years, the ...

An opposition lawmaker is calling for the government to publicise its licensing of Cambodian mines, claiming that parliament has never received formal documentation of licensed mining companies. In a letter to Minister of Industry Mines & Energy Suy Sem last week, Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son ...

The Government has agreed to grant tax exemption for farm goods grown in Cambodia by Vietnamese enterprises and individuals and imported for processing Statistics show that in southern Tay Ninh Province alone 120 individuals from the districts of Chau Thanh, Tan Bien, Trang Bang and Tan ...

As Burma loosens its grip on the media, Cambodia has begun to rank high among the countries repressing internet and telephone freedom in the name of national security, safety and social order. It is still not comparable to China or Vietnam, but Cambodia is moving ...

More than 100 families living near a tobacco factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao commune have filed a complaint with the provincial hall to ask authorities to take action against a tobacco factory whose kiln is spewing out toxic fumes, officials said yesterday. Owned by British American ...

To make sure Cambodia is ready for potential devastating floods, government officials have created an emergency preparedness plan that includes storing 16,000 tons of milled rice and putting 3,500 armed forces on reserve. [Nhim Vanda, first vice president in charge of the National Committee for Disaster Management ...

In a scene that has become all too familiar over the past year, a group of five fishermen who had endured more than a year in forced labour on a Thai fishing vessel returned to an emotional reunion with their families in Phnom Penh last ...

Cambodia’s businesses need to dramatically improve their accounting standards if they are to attract interest from investors abroad and reach the standards necessary to list on the recently launched stock market, experts and government officials said yesterday. Speaking at the National Conference on Accountancy in Phnom ...

The National Committee for Disaster Management was preparing to ensure end-of-season floods did not compound the woes caused by months of drought, officials said yesterday. To minimise the effects of flooding, the NCDM had sent a request to the Council of Ministers for 16,000 tonnes of food and ...