ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍

PRASAC, Cambodia’s largest microfinance institution by outstanding loans, planned to become a licensed commercial bank in the Kingdom, company officials said yesterday. The news comes despite calls from insiders and experts – most recently the International Monetary Fund and World Bank – for the National ...

Vietnam-based Dragon Capital is raising up to US$100 million for a new Indochina fund, some of which the private equity firm would invest in Cambodian agriculture and infra-structure, Dragon’s chief information officer Bill Stoops said yesterday. Dragon Capital has a 20 per cent stake ...

Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith is the man who gunned down three unarmed women at a protest last week, Interior Minister Sar Kheng alleged yesterday, saying an official complaint had been filed against him. Outside an unrelated conference, the minister told reporters the governor would ...

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay has sent an amended version of his draft freedom-of-information law to the National Assembly this morning and urged the parliament to at least debate the legislation. Son Chhay said yesterday his revised law had taken into account amendments requested ...

The Royal Government of Cambodia and private land developers were exploiting indigenous communities in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces by signing concession deals for the communities’ land without prior consultation, advocates said yesterday. “We urge the government as well as the private sector to respect [indigenous peoples’] ...

About 90 Siem Reap families have rejected what they say is a preliminary move by the provincial authority to have them moved off land declared part of Kulen Mountain National Park in 2002. The families, in Banteay Srei district’s Tbeng commune, said yesterday they had rejected ...

In the wake of several violent garment-factory protests last week, the International Labour Office yesterday launched a five-year, US$5 million Decent Work Country Program in Cambodia to focus on improving industrial relations. “[This] marks the beginning of a new body of work for the ILO in ...

About 160 villagers from Kratie province’s Meanchey village cancelled plans to block National Road 7 yesterday after provincial authorities and a Vietnamese rubber company agreed to their requests regarding an ongoing land dispute, but some expressed skepticism that the agreement would last. Village representative Saren ...

Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority aimed to raise US$20.4 million in a long-awaited initial public offering scheduled for mid-April, the company said yesterday during its first pitch to investors. “We’ve targeted trading for the 18th of April,” said Han Kyung-tae, managing director of Tong Yang ...

More than 200 villagers from Kandal’s Kien Svay district gathered in protest yesterday to urge the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution to resolve their long-standing dispute with a CPP official. The protesters assembled in the Samrong Thom commune brandishing photos of the prime minister and ...

The Ministry of Interior has sought a warrant for the suspect who shot three people at a protest outside a shoe factory last week amid more allegations from government and police officials that the perpetrator was Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak ...

If the government continues to grant economic land and mining concessions at the current rate, there will be no more arable land left in the country to give away within one year, a researcher from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights said yesterday. Pointing to the ...

The government yesterday moved to protect endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River, announcing plans for a 180-kilometre-long conservation area that would stretch from the Lao border through Stung Treng province to Kratie town. Touch Seang Tana, chairman of the Commission for Conservation and Development of ...

Representatives from five communes in Koh Kong province engaged in a long-running land dispute with a private Chinese firm urged the government to issue them proper land titles during a press conference in the capital yesterday. Representative Chhai Beng Hout asked the government to instruct the ...

Despite the hype surrounding the advent of fourth-generation mobile services, the bulk of growth and profits in Cambodian telecom remains in 3G networks, experts say. A recent study by London-based research firm Ovum notes that emerging markets such as Cambodia will see rapid growth in 3G ...

An International Monetary Fund and World Bank report has questioned Cambodia’s ability to deal with future financial crises if government borrowing increases. While the report indicated that Cambodia was at low risk for severe debt problems, it highlighted the need for effective management of new debt ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday extended indefinitely a ban on commercial fishing in Tonle Sap lake, citing ongoing illegal fishing to the detriment of local villagers. The premier had first imposed the ban on 35 fishing lots in the lake in August, as a result of ...

Representatives of more than 300 families in Battambang province’s Bavel district yesterday urged government officials to intervene in a land dispute with provincial authorities and a businessman. Representative Thuy Ry said the 305 families had lived on the 3,638 hectares of land in Ampil Pram Doeum ...

The government needed better mechanisms to adapt to the effects of climate change, which could result in droughts and floods that cause deaths, destroy rice paddies and place an undue burden on the budget, a senior official said yesterday. Environment Minister Mok Mareth told a workshop ...

The Sam Rainsy Party has asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to verify the details of a proposed dam that could inundate about 10,000 hectares of protected forest, citing concerns that it would lead to rampant illegal logging and devastate a traditional habitat of Siamese crocodiles. ...

The Interior Minister backtracked yesterday after previously declaring officials knew the identity of the person who shot three protesters outside a shoe factory in Svay Rieng province last week and refused to quash rumours that Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith was a suspect. Rushing to ...

Trading on the Cambodian Securities Exchange should begin at the end of March as the Kingdom’s first stock, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, prepares to consult and share information with potential investors this week. The company would host a “roadshow” for investors in anticipation of its ...

The Ministry of Health, with support from the United States, yesterday launched a national public outreach campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of counterfeit and substandard drugs, which officials said posed a “serious threat” to public health. The campaign features a poster with the slogan, ...

Representatives from five communes in Koh Kong province are scheduled to hold a press conference in the capital today, appealing for government intervention in a land dispute with a Chinese development company that has spanned nearly four years. Lov Hov, a representative from Thmar Sar commune, ...