News

Trade between Cambodia and Hong Kong is rising fast, expanding from about $1 billion in 2014 to $1.3 billion last year year, Veng Sothy, an Undersecretary of State at the Commerce Ministry, told a meeting in Siem Reap Friday. ...

Pailin province’s first thunderstorm of 2016 claimed a victim on Friday afternoon when two farmers were struck by lightning while returning home from their fields. ...

The Kampot Provincial Court will continue to investigate three villagers and an NGO worker after they were arrested and released on Friday for allegedly setting up an illegal checkpoint to extort money from timber and firewood transporters in Kampot’s Chhouk district, according to officials. ...

Cambodian and Australian officials on Sunday denied claims made by a Rohingya refugee from Burma over the weekend that he was being poorly treated in Phnom Penh, with the Interior Ministry’s refugee director calling the man “a liar.” ...

Local rights groups have raised major concerns about Cambodia’s sweeping new Telecommunications Law, which gives the government virtually unchecked spying powers and criminalizes any electronic communication deemed to cause “national insecurity.” ...

Opposition lawmaker Kong Saphea – one of the two parliamentarians brutally beaten by anti-CNRP protesters outside of the National Assembly last year – has been summonsed to appear for questioning over a complaint regarding property stolen from him during the attack. ...

The National Committee for Road Traffic Safety announced that from Tuesday, traffic police will start intensifying their enforcement of the recently implemented traffic law after a two-month test period showed positive results. ...

Although an eviction deadline passed on Sunday for guesthouses, restaurants and bars along Sihanoukville’s popular O’Tres Beach, less than half of the businesses had left as of the evening, with others seeking to negotiate a deal with authorities that would allow them to stay. ...

A government anti-trafficking committee is in the final steps of drafting a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to crack down on human trafficking between Cambodia and China, an official said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s central bank has asked all financial institutions, especially rural lenders, to refrain from accepting personal identity cards, residential records and family books as a guarantee while giving out loans to consumers.   ...

The head of Laos’ ruling party reportedly pledged to limit the downstream impacts of the controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam in his meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen in Vientiane on Saturday. ...

More than 250 Preah Vihear families who have been living under the threat of eviction since 2010 are to be allowed to keep their homes, according to a letter from the Interior Ministry obtained yesterday. ...

In what one commentator described as “a bold step”, the Interior Ministry’s prisons department has seemingly admitted it has a drug problem, and last week sent a letter requesting the Health Ministry’s assistance in tackling it. ...

Two women were arrested on Friday for allegedly breaching a court order related to an ongoing dispute over 1,000 hectares of land they live on along with 165 other families in Kompong Speu province’s Phnom Sruoch district.   ...

Cambodia’s embassy in Thailand has denied allegations that officials from the embassy were extorting Cambodian employers and migrant workers in Thailand by demanding bribes for fake passports and pushing along applications to legalize a person’s working status. ...

Cambodian women play an important role in the agricultural sector, especially as the nation’s economic conditions continue to force many men to seek work overseas, according to experts. ...

The CPP appears set to pass a controversial trade union law next month despite conceding it is “not 100 percent perfect” and failing to address a litany of objections from unions, employers and the opposition party. ...

Sok Rasmey (not his real name) works for an NGO in Phnom Penh with a salary of $350 a month. This is usually enough to cover his modest living costs, but when urgent expenses arise, he often looks to borrow to cover his costs. Ashamed ...

A freight train traveling from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville plowed into a cement company truck crossing the tracks in Kampot province on Wednesday afternoon, leaving the truck driver and his assistant with minor injuries, police said Thursday. ...

The Phnom Penh property market continued to see a broad rise in sales and rental values during the final quarter of last year, with land values across the capital’s four central districts rising by an average of 8.4 percent from the third quarter, according to ...

Cambodia is set to host a seminar by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in May to encourage other countries to sign a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs and brief military officials on international conventions and laws. ...

More than 100 villagers from Chroy Changvar yesterday protested a draft sub-decree that would make Phnom Penh Municipality the legal owner of 280 hectares of land that are part of the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation’s $3 billion satellite city development. ...

Officials from 14 governments gathered in Siem Reap on Wednesday to discuss sustainable development of extractive industries in the regions, urging Cambodia to take stock of its oil, gas and mineral reserves and device mechanism to develop these resources sustainably. ...

As a result of the meeting with the specialist commissions, Minister of Labor Ith Samheng said that nearly 50 percent of the comments given by union leaders, business owners, development partners and the government were used to make changes in the draft union law yesterday. ...