Government

There were 1,428 forestry and wildlife crimes in 2017, with 778 cases ending up in court and the remaining 650 cases leading to administrative fines. According to the annual report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the cases included illegal logging, the cutting of ...

Following an agreement with Vietnam to boost cashew production in the kingdom, the Ministry of Agriculture has called on all provincial agricultural departments in the country to conduct studies on the areas that present the best conditions for growing the crop. On January 17, the ministry ...

Construction began yesterday on a $10 million factory in Kampong Speu province to process fresh fruit for international export, a first for Cambodia, though Agriculture Ministry officials could not confirm it would meet international standards yesterday. ...

Ruling party lawmaker Chheang Vun has accused popular former opposition Commune Chief Sin Rozeth of supporting the Sam Rainsy-led “Cambodia National Rescue Movement” and using a restaurant she opened following the dissolution of her party to conduct political activity. ...

The Grassroots Democracy Party yesterday suggested taking a pin to Cambodia’s inflated bureaucracy, saying it would campaign on a proposal to reduce the number of ministries from 23 to just 15 in order to improve efficiency and cut wasteful spending. ...

The Ministry of Labour hopes to use a new $20 million loan from Saudi Arabia to develop the country’s workforce. Yousef Ibrahim Al-Bassam, vice president and managing director of the Saudi Fund for Development, led a delegation to Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss plans for ...

This week, media outlets began reporting that China and Cambodia would be holding the next iteration of a military exercise in March as both countries commemorate the 60th anniversary of their ties this year and the Cambodian government heads to elections in the summer. The ...

A high-ranking Funcinpec official has published a petition calling for the dismissal of two prominent party members, accusing the pair of nepotism. Seng Haksrun, deputy secretary-general and adviser to party President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, wrote the complaint against Por Bun Sreu, deputy party president, and ...

The General Department of Taxation (GDT) collected $1.93 billion in tax revenue last year, a 30 percent increase over 2016 and well above the government’s own projections, according to the department’s director, Kong Vibol.​ ...

The fledgling Grassroots Democracy Party appealed yesterday to the predecessors of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party to contest this year’s upcoming elections in a bid to dilute the ruling party’s vote share – an offer they quickly turned down. ...

A UN agricultural development body presented a report evaluating their commitment of over 20 years and $189.5 million to Cambodia’s rural farmers yesterday, finding both positives and negatives in their partnership with the government. ...

A Better Factories Cambodia report shows little improvement in the continued use of short-term contracts and safety and health conditions for workers at surveyed factories, with total compliance of all exporting factories still stuck at less than 50 percent. The International Labour Organisation’s compliance program conducts ...

Tbong Khmum provincial officials have announced a crackdown on illegal checkpoints along the Vietnamese border, possibly in response to a purported warning issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen to provincial Governor Ly Leng to monitor the transport of timber in the province. Local media reports contend ...

The government subsidised $51 million worth of electricity across the country in 2017 in a bid to bring down the price of electricity for low-income households, according to the Minister of Mines and Energy. Speaking at the annual conference of the Electricity Authority Cambodia yesterday, Suy ...

The National Election Committee has released the official voter list for July’s general election, containing nearly 85 percent of eligible voters. The voter list contains 8,380,217 names out of 9,882,746 eligible voters, or 84.8 percent of those aged 18 and over. There will be 22,967 polling stations ...

Indian government data show that annual trade between the Cambodia and India has lagged of late, decreasing by nearly 30 percent to $141 million during the last Indian fiscal year, which ran from April 2016 to May 2017. That’s the lowest level since the 2012-2013 ...

As the country enters its second fishing season, fish catches are widely expected to decline due to adverse weather conditions. The second phase of the fishing season started on January 21 and will end on the 26, according to the Fisheries Administration, who issued a public ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Monday said the Cambodian government could not afford more passport printing machines to speed up the process of documenting the hundreds of thousands of citizens working abroad, predominantly in Thailand. ...

Estimates suggest that 0.38 percent of Cambodians have contracted TB, an alarming statistic for a country still recovering from decades of conflict. This rate shows an improvement from the early 2000s, when up to 1.5 percent of Cambodians had the disease. Even so, villagers who live far ...

New proposed rules from the European Union restricting the import of palm oil would likely affect Cambodia’s nascent palm oil sector, but the country’s main exporter is hoping that demand from India and China will cushion the blow. ...

China will hold its second military exercise with Cambodia in March focusing on counter terrorism, the Cambodian army said on Wednesday, in another sign of the Southeast Asian country strengthening ties with Beijing. The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces said in a statement the exercise would ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng bemoaned Phnom Penh’s sewage infrastructure and criticised the Ministry of Environment for allowing untreated waste water to flow into the Mekong and Bassac rivers in unscripted remarks on Monday. ...

The Defence Minister has threatened to destroy Sam Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Movement if it attempts to cause trouble in the country, while the Cambodian Nationality Party has called on people not to join the “illegal” group. General Tea Banh made the comments at the Defence ...

The National Election Committee has reaffirmed its commitment to making sure July’s general election is free and fair. The NEC yesterday held a public consultation on regulations and procedures for the polls, intended to help ensure effectiveness and transparency. ...