Development policy and administration

A 39-year-old woman and two young children are missing and presumed dead after their home in Preah Prasap commune collapsed into the Mekong River on Tuesday night, a tragedy villagers are blaming on illegal sand dredging of the riverbed. Four other people were injured as a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said that the foreign direct investments in Cambodia would increase in 2014, thanks to the country’s favorable and open policies. Hun Sen made the comments during a ceremony to launch Cambodia Trade Integration Strategy at the Peace Palace. ...

Cambodia suffers from severe annual flooding, and many people who can’t swim die every year as a result. An innovative solution to the generations-old problem may have been found, not by policy hacks or scientists, but by children. A group of 11-year-olds from Cambodia’s one-of-a-kind Liger ...

The Japanese and U.S. governments are set to launch a joint project to help empower women in developing countries in Asia, including Cambodia and Myanmar, as well as Africa, officials of both governments said Saturday. The two governments came up with the project as both Prime ...

Cambodia plans to distribute 100,000 condoms on Valentine Day in cooperation with partners, health ministry of Cambodia on Monday announced that it planned to distribute 100,000 condoms on Feb 14, Valentine day. ...

The Cambodian and Lao governments pushed for the conclusion of demarcation between the two countries as soon as possible, according to a senior Cambodian government official. The decision was made during a visit of Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this week, said KOA Kimhourn, Minister attached ...

In a rare admission, the Asian Development Bank has surprisingly acknowledged its own shortcomings following a controversial railway rehabilitation project in Cambodia that sparked complaints from thousands of displaced local residents affected by forced resettlements, insufficient compensations and neglect of their human rights. The concerns were confirmed by the Compliance ...

On the second day of Phnom Penh’s monthlong public bus experiment, there was a visible uptick in passengers Thursday traveling the single route along Monivong Boulevard. About a dozen passengers interviewed, who included civil servants, NGO staff and a large number of uniformed students, were ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen left on Thursday for two-day visit to Laos. The delegation accompanying Hun Sen included Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Cabinet Minister Sok An and other members of the Royal Government. A number of agreements will be signed during his visit. The Ministry of Foreign ...

Thanks to a crowd-sourcing campaign spearheaded by grassroots map developers Urban Voice Cambodia, residents of Phnom Penh can now access a map pinpointing flood-prone areas in the capital during rainy season. Updated online yesterday, the map was generated by citizens, who contributed 119 reports of flooding over a ...

Cambodia greeted about 460,000 Chinese tourists last year, up 38 percent from 333,900 in a year earlier, according to a report of the Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday. China is the second largest source of tourists to Cambodia after Vietnam, the report said. Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has for the first time admitted to major flaws in its efforts to protect the roughly 4,000 families losing land to a $143 million project it is funding to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. On Friday, the ADB said it would ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 7.2 percent this year, and pick up to 7.5 percent next year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The IMF hailed Cambodia for making good progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and reducing poverty substantially. It said ...

A member of the European Parliament is in Cambodia investigating agri-business firms accused of evicting hundreds of families while benefiting from a free-trade scheme with Europe worth millions of dollars, according to the NGO Equitable Cambodia. The visit from France’s Patrice Tirolien follows a resolution the ...

CPP National Assembly President Heng Samrin has ordered Cambodia’s newest ambassadors to Asia and Europe to go on a public relations offensive against mounting news abroad that the country’s respect for democracy and human rights is slipping. Cambodian security forces have shot dead seven people ...

Authorities in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces on Thursday said that they were investigating an unusual change of color in the Mekong River to a muddy, dark brown that was unnatural for this time of the year and was worrying residents. Since the beginning of this ...

The Construction of Second Chroy Changva Bridge, which is funded by Chin’s loan, is expected to be finished by the end of 2014, reducing the heavy traffic on the current Chroy Changva Bridge, said a government official. The construction project costs USD 27.5 millions and ...

American lobby group Human Rights Watch has lashed out at Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, for her trip to Cambodia earlier this month. In a commentary posted Thursday, it noted that the IMF recognized that corruption threatened market integrity, distorted competition, ...

School textbooks paid for by the Asian Development Bank have been routed to district education offices, some of which are charging schools for books that are supposed to be free, an NGO investigation has found. The textbooks on Khmer literature, maths, geography, morality and science were ...

Smoke billowed over Phnom Penh International Airport and people lay on the grass verges near an aircraft simulator on Friday as hundreds of rescue service personnel and firefighters took part in the airport’s fourth-ever full-scale emergency exercise. Hundreds of soldiers and police, as well as actors ...

A financial review by USAID, the U.S. government’s development arm, into local health NGO Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) has found financial mismanagement coupled with a lack of transparency and oversight within the organization that may point to evidence of fraudulent activity. Well-known for its ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to maintain the robust growth of over 7 percent this year even though the country is still trapped in political dispute and recovering from the aftermath of recent floods, senior officials and bankers said. But some analysts predicted that political trouble, coupled ...

Returning from a state visit to Japan on Tuesday, a member of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government dismissed the possibility that newly upgraded ties with Japan and Cambodia’s decision to join its Asean neighbors in a “freedom of overflight” pact with Tokyo might strain its ...

Asian Development Bank (ADB), will conduct a press tour in Kampong Thom province in Cambodia to evaluate and report on how the “Improving Market Access for the Poor in Central Cambodia Project” is helping to increase household incomes and create jobs for poor communities in ...