Government

Five years after first ratifying the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), Cambodia remains delinquent in honouring some of its commitments under the treaty, UN representatives said yesterday. Under the OPCAT, Cambodia was obliged to create an independent National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) to ...

Cambodia is moving forward with development of the Lower Se San 2 hydropower project and is seeking support from surrounding nations. A spirit of collaboration was established on Tuesday at a meeting between Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, Tourism Minister Dr. Thong Khon and ...

Cambodian opposition officials said Tuesday they will give the government three months to hold a new election, or they will lead a movement in hopes of toppling its leadership. Kem Sokha, vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, said the government is harming its citizens ...

The government plans to extend the country’s still-limited capacity to treat ailing prisoners by building more secure rooms inside provincial hospitals. As part of the General Department of Prisons’ 2014-2018 strategic plan, the Ministry of Interior hopes to have rooms specifically designated for prisoners in each ...

Taking part in daily demonstrations outside the shuttered factory where she once worked is beginning to weigh on Bou Narith and her co-workers. Government officials this morning will sit down with representatives of employees and a representative from USA Fully Field (Cambodia) Garment factory, which, ...

The government’s Disability Action Council (DAC) on Monday announced that it would be including speech therapy in its strategic plan for the next four years to address the problem of speech and swallowing disorders. DAC Secretary-General Em Chan Makara said the decision comes after research, conducted ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to upgrade Cambodia’s diplomatic relations with Japan to a “strategic level” during talks in Tokyo on Sunday, but also thanked his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, for making efforts to mend relations with neighbor China, according to media reports. During a state ...

The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) study on the potential long-term effects of large-scale dam building on the Mekong River needs to be expedited, members of the MRC agreed at the Fifth Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo on Saturday. However, they did not set a date for the ...

An environmental protection NGO is preparing to file a lawsuit with the Kampong Speu provincial court and a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit against an Agriculture Department official who was allegedly paid by a development firm to issue land titles to villagers squatting on state ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Monday blamed stalled negotiations over the disputed results of July’s national election on divisions within the opposition CNRP, whose leaders he said were of two minds about resuming talks. Top-level talks between Prime Minister Hun Sen and CNRP President Sam Rainsy, ...

The government proposed doubling the minimum wage for garment workers—from $80 to $160—within five years during a meeting with labor unions and garment manufacturers on Monday at the Ministry of Labor. “We have a plan to raise the minimum wage up to $160 for garment workers, ...

Cambodia on Tuesday dispatched the fourth batch of 184 soldiers to Lebanon to replace the third batch’s forces, whose one-year United Nations peacekeeping duties have come to an end. The civil engineering group would perform their one-year duties by clearing landmines, constructing roads, bridges, shelters and ...

Cambodian government opposition leaders led around 1,000 protesters, most of them on motor scooters, through Phnom Penh on Monday, part of an ongoing weekly call for demonstrations over July’s election results. The rally was the second day in a row that opposition supporters gathered to demand ...

National Assembly President Heng Samrin will in the coming days send the National Election Committee (NEC) an official letter informing it of the opposition party’s boycott of parliament, according to local media, possibly the first step in the ruling party’s plan to have the opposition’s ...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic for is pleased to support the official launch of measures to better protect Cambodian migrant workers. On 16 December 2013, ahead of International Migrants Day on 18 December, the Cambodian Ministry ...

Cambodia’s garment manufacturers and trade unionists on Monday began a negotiation on pay rise for garment workers in 2014 but reached no any agreement because the union representatives demanded to double the current wage. The talk was made between the employers represented by Nang Sothy, co-chair ...

Members of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) said during a conference Sunday that they are “fed up” with the government for not controlling strikes by labor unions. “All of us have the same issue: illegal strikes,” Van Porphin, a member of GMAC’s executive committee, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen was scheduled to meet with Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Sunday, a day after Japan and the member states of Asean agreed to ensure “freedom of overflight” in the region. The agreement will likely be taken as an affront by ...

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong will visit China in January at the invitation of Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced on Sunday. Hor Nam Hong and Yang will co-chair the first meeting of intergovernmental coordinating ...

Two Cambodian companies on Monday signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with Chinese companies to invest in the agricultural sector. One deal was inked between Chan Sothea, general director of Cambodia’s Century Rice Group, and Ivan, managing director of Shengen Yonglongxin Industrial Company. Under the agreement, the two ...

The value of Cambodia’s overall trade volume for 2013 is expected to reach $16 billion, according to the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Keat Chhon. The figure comes to a 14.4 per cent rise from last year. ...

In its switch to a strategy of nonstop demonstrations calling for a new election, the opposition party has made a calculated decision to go “all-in” and toughen its stance in a bid to ramp up domestic pressure on the ruling party, political analysts said yesterday. Since ...

In a letter to three government ministries, a local domestic worker rights group last week demanded wage increases and limitations on work hours. Von Samphous, president of the fledgling Cambodian Domestic Worker Network (CDWN), sent the letter to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry ...

Opposition CNRP President Sam Rainsy on Friday expressed his intention to take his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the July national election, over which his party is boycotting its National Assembly seats, to an international stage. Speaking at the launch of a detailed election report by ...