National government

More than 3,500 foreigners committed immigration offenses last year and more than 800 were banned from returning to Cambodia, the Interior Ministry’s report for 2016 said yesterday. ...

Besieged by color revolutionaries, agitators and criminal politicians, the Interior Ministry kept the country safe from encroaching instability—at least, that was the ministry’s boast on Wednesday at its annual meeting. ...

Cambodia’s already swollen prison population leapt by more than 20 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Interior’s annual report, which acknowledged the influx has caused “serious challenges” with overcrowding, and revealed one-third of inmates are in pre-trial detention. ...

The government will recruit more than 12,000 civil servants and teachers and an additional 20,000 service contractors for 2017, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Public Function. ...

National Assembly effectiveness declined last year with prosecutions of opposition lawmakers, partisan passing of laws and many assembly members visiting constituents only to shore up their vote, an election watchdog claimed yesterday. ...

In what some are calling one of the most significant threats to democracy that Cambodia has faced in a generation, the CPP-controlled National Assembly on Monday voted to give the government and courts sweeping new powers over political parties. ...

The National Assembly (NA) has passed amendments to electoral laws which could be used to remove political parties. The controversial amendments were carried with the votes of 66 members from the ruling CPP after opposition CNRP members boycotted the session. The ammendments could affect the way ...

Cambodia’s parliament today passed a controversial provision that severely curtails the power of the country’s opposition parties and effectively bans former opposition leader Sam Rainsy from returning to power.   ...

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Lê Minh Hưng, and Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), Chea Chanto, have agreed to step up co-operation between the two banks. ...

Members of the opposition CNRP have decided to boycott the National Assembly’s (NA) plenary session today, saying amendments to the law on political parties which are being debated today will lead to national disunity and run contrary to democratic principles. ...

The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) issued a second directive on Wednesday to all mobile phone operators in the country instructing them to stop placing misleading advertisements in the media that could cause public confusion. ...

The Culture and Fine Arts Ministry has laid down rules for writers and artistic directors who want to reproduce works of literature, art and music.   ...

Frustrated with the lack of compliance, the government has given the Kingdom’s mobile operators an ultimatum: declare their company revenue shares and settle all outstanding debts owed to the government by the end of the month or face swift and severe punitive action. ...

Cambodia’s telecommunications regulator yesterday stepped up efforts to avert a brewing price war between the country’s six mobile network operators, ordering the companies to submit profitability statements within the next 10 days and summoning all operators to a meeting at the end of the month ...

The Ministry of Education next week will launch a new online system for students to practice for the high-stakes grade-12 national exam, though one observer noted it would do little to help students who lack internet access. ...

Cambodia is expecting a shipment of military vehicles donated by South Korea, according to a sub-decree. The Ministry of Finance in December released about $1 million to the Defence Ministry to cover the equipment’s transportation, it says.​ ...

The Land Management Ministry has said it will resolve the land disputes in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district and Kandal’s Ponhea Leu district between Suy Sophan and more than 500 families. ...

About 100 people representing nearly 200 families protested at the Ministry of Land Management in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the ministry expedite a solution to their land disputes with three sugarcane plantation companies in Koh Kong province.   ...

Violating the Constitution while following through on a threat from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the National Assembly’s CPP-staffed secretariat on Thursday issued an order saying that ministers would not appear before lawmakers unless the CNRP stopped boycotting parliamentary sessions. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said he will not allow members of the opposition to question government ministers in the National Assembly (NA), telling a pro-government news outlet that the opposition had to “respect the law first.” ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday issued a sub-decree to limit teacher overtime in public schools in an effort to fix teachers’ working hours in accordance with government budgetary constraints. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers are considering boycotting next week’s extraordinary plenary session vote to strip away their role as the National Assembly’s minority group, saying the ruling party-backed proposal highlight’s the parliament’s weakness. ...

Six months since the central bank launched its FAST payment system, a new scheme to provide instant riel-denominated fund transfers between financial institutions and their clients, the bank recorded a total fund transfer of 10 billion riel ($2.5 million) as of end-2016. ...

The Land Ministry will meet with the three companies at the center of the decade-long land dispute in Koh Kong province this week in an attempt to finally resolve the villagers’ grievances. ...