News

Debt levels among the more than 1,000 families being evicted by a $142.6 million railway project bankrolled by Australia and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) have reached “crisis” proportions and require major intervention, according to a U.S resettlement expert who was hired by the ADB ...

CAMBODIA’S economy can “leapfrog” by developing its information and communications technology (ICT) industry, but the government is not spending enough on ICT infrastructure to attract private investments, business leaders said at a seminar in Phnom Penh yesterday. “What has been seen over the last 20 years ...

Three ethnic Jarai minority communities passed a crucial hurdle on the way to obtaining communal land titles in government-sanctioned ceremonies this week. But a human-rights activist tempered the celebration, saying mass deforestation in the province had already stripped most of the land the villagers are ...

Laos is considering a single-visa scheme with its neighbours Thailand and Cambodia to promote balanced development in the subregion, officials said. The Lao government will hold talks with Cambodia, possibly at the end of this month, to learn from Phnom Penh’s experience in this matter, a ...

Inflation in the Kingdom increased by 1.8 per cent in January compared with the same period the year before. Higher costs for food and fuel were the main drivers, official data from the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) show. Khin Song, deputy director general of the ...

Local instant noodle company Men Sarun failed in its plan to export canned noodles to US markets this year, and an official confirmed that failures stemmed from both the unstable market price and increasing costs of transportation. Choun Kol, deputy general director of Men Sarun Investment, ...

Cambodia is rapidly attracting more and more visitors from tourists to businessmen. Visits are continuing to climb as January figures show a 15.4 percent increase, Cambodia’s statistics and tourist Information Department reported. So far,the country has welcomed 404,106 visitors compared to 350,257 during the same ...

AXIATA Group Berhad, parent company of local telecommunications provider Smart, and Wikipedia operator the Wikimedia Foundation announced a partnership to offer Wikipedia on mobile devices free of data charges to Axiata customers throughout Asia, a press release said. “Wikipedia is free as such already, but notwithstanding ...

Local food producer Ly Ly Food Industry had invested about $1 million for a Chinese-made machine to improve production and food quality as it prepared for the coming regional economic community, the company’s owner said yesterday. Keo Mom said a tremendous amount of goods from neighbouring ...

Cambodia will sign a $33.9 million grant aid today from the Japanese government to support various small hydropower dam projects, improve a hospital and update resources of a university, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ...

K (Cambodia), an authorised dealer of Isuzu Motors, opened a new showroom near Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday that will be the cornerstone for Isuzu Motors’ planned long-term investment in the Kingdom, a K (Cambodia) official said. “The new showroom for Isuzu vehicle is to serve ...

Violence broke out twice yesterday at the Maru Chuen garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district – first, between police and strikers, and later, between strikers and employees who remained at work. In the morning, seven workers and one police officer were injured after police intervened ...

CONSTRUCTION is progressing on a $1.5 million baby-products factory that will be among the largest in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ). Combi (Cambodia), which owns the factory, announced the plans for its new facility in an online job listing yesterday. The five-hectare factory was scheduled ...

Residents of a village in the middle of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap “Great Lake” live surrounded by water, but don’t have enough access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing. The Tonle Sap, a combined lake and river system that swells in the rainy season to ...

It was not the hero’s welcome that greeted Mam Sonando when more than a thousand boisterous supporters cheered his release from Prey Sar prison Friday and lifted the popular radio station owner onto their shoulders for an impromptu parade. But for the three unheralded farmers caught ...

CAMBODIA Post (CP), which plans to list on the local bourse, earned 8.1 per cent more revenue year-on-year in 2012, driven in part by its recent transformation from a wholly state-owned delivery company into a semi-autonomous entity. Revenues last year hit more than $4 million, compared ...

CAMBODIA needs greater diversification of its exports – especially in the agricultural sector – in order to achieve sustainable economic growth, a senior official said yesterday. Economy and Finance Minister Keat Chhon raised the issue during the annual meeting of the Ministry of Commerce. Commerce Minister ...

Yet another resident of Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district came forward yesterday to join “Crocodile Grandmother” Chhin Sokoutheary in accusing city and district officials of issuing a false sub-decree to acquire land in the vicinity of Pong Peay Lake in Phnom Penh Thmey commune. Chea Savean, ...

Former employees of the failed telecommunications company MFone have been told they can expect a decision next month on their claims for more than $4 million in compensation. Former Mfone section manager Bou Kunthea said after a meeting yesterday with offic-ials from the Ministry of Social ...

Six of the 10 labor unions negotiating with the country’s garment manufacturers over a new minimum wage for factory workers dropped their demands yesterday to $73 per month, breaking previous commitments by unions to stand at $91. Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association ...

Four NGOs asked the government yesterday to explain the decision to promote Lao Saroeun to an undersecretary of state position in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, even though he has not been cleared of alleged corruption. “In proper practice, people under investigation for alleged corruption ...

Twenty-seven families in Oddar Meanchey’s Trapaing Prasat district filed a complaint with Hun Sen’s cabinet and the rights group Adhoc on Monday, maintaining that soldiers have been preventing them from farming since October 2012. A representative of the villagers, Soeung Sophea, 59, said yesterday that troops ...

Hun Sen asked authorities to maintain the pristine beaches along coastal provinces by not allowing any industrial factories to be constructed on or near them. The comment was aimed towards an agreement signed by Cambodian and Chinese companies late last month to build a $2.3 ...

Cambodia on Tuesday officially inaugurated the National Council on Green Growth, aiming at developing a sustainable economic society with natural resource and environment sustainability. Cambodia has adopted several legal instruments for the green growth implementation. Those included the roadmap for green growth, the memorandum of ...