Ministries and other national bodies

Cambodia has suggested that the US review its Generalised System of Preference for Duty-Free and Quota Free (GSP-DFQF) granted to the kingdom, as a less developed country, in order for its exports to have better preferential access to the North American market. ...

A cabinet meeting on Friday amended several articles of the fisheries law to limit the use of narrow fishing nets and introduce licences for some mechanised equipment. ...

Preah Sihanouk Provincial environmental officials and Military Police yesterday dismantled five homes that were built illegally in the Prey Toeksap Kbal Chhay protected area, leaving the inhabitants homeless. ...

Out of 600 prisoners at Kampong Thom prison 18 may have their sentences reduced by six to 12 months for the upcoming Water Festival in November. ...

The US State Department has expressed deep concern over Cambodia’s spiralling democratic climate following the government’s diktat to shutter the USAID-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI), ostensibly for violating the highly contentious NGO Law. ...

In Svay Rieng province’s Bati commune, electricity poles and wires sprung up five years ago in Thnanh village but power still has not run through them, leaving villagers reliant upon batteries and most recently, solar panels. ...

Preah Sihanouk’s governor yesterday attributed the slow progress in combating private encroachment into ecologically sensitive mangrove and coastal regions to a “careful” approach, after the prime minister on Tuesday chided officials for failing to tackle the issue since it was raised more than a year ...

A Khmer-Vietnamese Association representative in Ratanakkiri yesterday denied that illegally logged timber confiscated from the group’s office in Tes Anglong village on Tuesday belonged to the association. ...

Eighteen Cambodian migrant workers were repatriated from Malaysia this week after being cheated by brokers to work abroad illegally, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said yesterday. ...

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry yesterday announced that it was halting the operations of the US State Department-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI) and expelling all its foreign staff from the Kingdom in the next week – a move that prompted the US Embassy to fire back ...

Cambodia moved a step closer to becoming an oil-producing nation yesterday after the government finalised its long-awaited production-sharing agreement with Singapore-listed KrisEnergy to develop the country’s first oil field. ...

About 200 people from Kampot and Kandal provinces gathered yesterday at the Land Ministry asking for two separate disputes with development companies to be resolved. ...

The Ministry of Information has closed down multiple radio stations that have been renting airtime to the opposition CNRP party and to two radio news organisations that have been under fire from the government. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday that the government will cut back on recruiting new employees next year to reduce its spending on civil servant salaries. ...

Insurance industry insiders are urging the government and development partners to set up and support a policy of subsidising insurance in the agricultural sector. ...

Media outlets should review the health and agriculture products they advertise, as exposure to unlicensed medicine and insecticides can be fatal, the Ministry of Information has warned. ...

A project to increase the number of wild tigers in the northeastern part of Cambodia was put forward to the Cambodian government by a group of NGOs yesterday. ...

The education minister’s message for students finishing high school has been heard loud and clear since the reform of the national completion exam four years ago: Merit will buy you a pass grade—not money. ...

Immigration police arrested 22 Vietnamese nationals illegally living and working in Phnom Penh yesterday, an Interior Ministry official said. ...

A controversial universal minimum wage law will be passed this year in order to prevent a repeat of the mass protests over garment sector wages that rocked the country in 2013, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said yesterday, despite calls for revisions from independent unions ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said he has rejected proposals for investment in seaweed plantations in Preah Sihanouk and Kep provinces. ...

A Japanese delegation from Osaka province has expressed its intention to invest in Cambodia’s agriculture sector, after its meeting with Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak. ...

Prominent NGOs yesterday said they are trying to comply with the new law on organisations and will meet the Interior Ministry’s deadline to submit reports by the end of September. ...

The investor in Cambodia’s first large scale marine fish farm project in Preah Sihanouk province, that was approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in April, has been asked to submit an environmental impact assessment study to the Ministry of Environment before ...