News

The World Bank’s private sector arm may be doing more harm than good when it invests in private equity firms, banks and other financial intermediaries, global development group Oxfam said in a report on Wednesday. In one project indirectly sponsored by the bank’s International Finance Corporation ...

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday threatened to overturn reforms to the country’s National Election Committee (NEC) if the opposition refuses to accept his nomination of the head of a local election watchdog as a ninth, “neutral” member to the electoral body, based on ...

Cambodia has made some progress in improving its education system in line with its 2015 UN Millennium Goals, but dropout rates remain high, due to endemic poverty and corruption. Universal literacy and 9th-grade education were the second-highest goal in the development plan, whose progress Cambodia will ...

Cambodia inaugurated a 1.73-km Mekong River bridge, along with a 143-km road, here on Wednesday in a bid to boost economic development and reduce poverty in this far northeastern region. ...

Human right group leader Pung Chhiv Kek on Wednesday congratulated Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy for choosing Hang Puthea, Executive Director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Election, (NICFEC) to be the ninth member of National Election ...

Cambodian and Indonesian foreign ministers discussed ways to further enhance ties and cooperation between the two countries on Wednesday. Both sides also agreed to boost bilateral trade volume, which was still relatively small — around 500,000 U.S. dollars last year, he said. ...

Representatives for some 200 families in a yearslong land dispute with the Union Development Group (UDG) in Koh Kong province met for the first time with both company and government officials Tuesday but left with little to show. ...

As refugees being held by Australia on the South Pacific island of Nauru continue to spurn the prospect of resettling in Cambodia, many Cambodians likewise say they do not want to see any of the refugees sent to their country. ...

Coca-Cola will build a second factory in Cambodia, investing $100 million into a new plant in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone that will more than triple its current output, company officials said yesterday. The news comes on the heels of a meeting in November during ...

The Education Ministry will conduct random and unannounced inspections of schools across the country, targeting “low-hanging fruit” in its ongoing bid to clean up the education system, the minister said Tuesday. ...

Despite a 72 percent increase in the number of drug-related arrests last year compared to 2013, 50 percent less drugs were seized during the same period, an official from the National Authority for Combating Drugs’ (NACD) said Tuesday. ...

Female members of the National Assembly sat down with a representative of the UK Parliament yesterday to discuss female participation in politics, on the final day of a consultative meeting hosted by the British Embassy. ...

The Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA) demanded in a letter sent on Monday to the Ministry of Education that all Cambodian secondary schools be paid their full yearly program budget after complaints were lodged by some teachers that the funds had not yet been received. ...

Police in Mondolkiri province on Tuesday burned down more than 130 shelters belonging to a community of ethnic Bunong families in Keo Seima district that authorities accuse of squatting on a Vietnam­ese rubber plantation, a local official said. ...

The former common-law wife of tycoon Khaou Phallaboth appeared in court yesterday to face allegations she breached the terms of her 2013 divorce by not letting her ex-husband, and his family, see their 8-year-old daughter. ...

A Russian man wanted for his involvement in a violent brawl at Sihanoukville’s Queenco casino in February was arrested and jailed Tuesday evening after leading more than 20 police on an hour-long motorbike chase through the coastal town, officials said. ...

Four Chinese tourists were sent to the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court on Tuesday after being arrested in Sihanoukville on Monday in possession of nearly $500 worth of counterfeit dollar bills, local authorities said. ...

Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections, was selected Tuesday as the “neutral” candidate for the National Election Committee (NEC) following Licadho president Pung Chhiv Kek’s announcement that she would not accept her nomination. ...

The trial of fugitive tycoon Thong Sarath’s parents on possession of illegal weapons charges will begin on Friday, officials said yesterday. ...

National mail service provider Cambodia Post reported a 10 per cent increase in 2014 revenues yesterday, as increasing consumer confidence boosted use of the once-fledgling service. The service provider, which was privatised in 2011, collected $5.19 million in revenue last year, up 14 per cent from ...

Marking the sixth annual International Transgender Day of Visibility yesterday, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) called on the government to protect transgender people and end discrimination. ...

The Ministry of Commerce launched its long-awaited online system to generate certificates of origin (COs) yesterday. The new system, developed in partnership with Singapore-based Crimson Logic, is expected to speed up and simplify the process of getting a CO, a document which identifies where a product ...

Approximately 200 lawmakers, educators and civil society and development partner representatives met here on Tuesday to discuss reform measures to improve educational system in Cambodia. Hang Chuon Naron said Cambodia now has more than 7,000 primary schools with about 2 million students, 5,750 secondary schools ...

A US delegation led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House minority leader, wrapped up two days of meetings in Cambodia on Tuesday, having met with Prime Minister Hun Sen and key rights and democracy workers. ...