News

The Australian Senate yesterday urged the Cambodian government to run free and fair national elections next year without the “harassment or intimidation” of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who remains in self-imposed exile avoiding an 11-year jail sentence. The appeal comes only days after the European Parliament ...

Cambodia will allow inter-country adoptions to resume from January 1 next year, four years after the government stopped adoptions amid claims of corruption and baby selling, government officials confirmed yesterday. Speaking after a meeting with Susan Jacobs, the U.S. State Department’s special adviser on children’s issues, Secretary of ...

A lawyer for Norwegian-owned power and electronics equipment firm Eltek Valere yesterday called on investors not to buy stakes in the Thai-owned mobile phone operator Mfone, and to await court’s ruling. The lawyer’s appeal came after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued a warrant for keeping ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged one of its own clerks [Kruoch Borath] with breach of trust for taking $250,000 dollars that was paid to the clerk to facilitate a speedy trial without “problems,” officials said. [Another clerk for Judge Lim Meng] Mr. Khen ...

The American Center for International Labor Solidarity has set its sights on the Herculean task of unionizing Cambodia’s civil service, a move that, were it successful, could have profound implications for the country’s political landscape. The term civil service in Cambodia has unusually broad application, referring to bureaucrats, ...

Swedish fashion retailer H&M has hit back at accusations that it fails to pay adequate wages to workers in Cambodian factories making its clothes – and says instead that the situation would be a lot worse if it didn’t source from the country ...

Cambodia has received a US$1 million grant in order to develop its milled rice industry and strengthen the country’s exporting capacity, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce. It is part of a larger, US$3-4 million grant from the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), a partnership ...

A leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that ACLEDA Bank Plc. (ACLEDA), the largest bank in Cambodia, has extended its ACLEDA Unity mobile banking and payments service to new, untapped consumer segments using Mobiliti Reach™ from Fiserv. The bank, which has ...

Even as its controversial Xayaburi Dam project is still drawing protest from Mekong river downstream countries such as Cambodia, Laos has inked a deal with South Korean firms to build and operate another large hydropower plant on the Mekong River network. According to the Phnom Penh ...

Fishermen representing five Cambodian communities will publicly express their support for a ban on gillnet use in a ceremony highlighting the importance of the Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin. The event organised by the Commission for Dolphin Conservation and Development of the Mekong River Dolphin Eco-tourism Zone, ...

Thailand’s GL Finance Plc. launched its business in Cambodia on Friday by opening eight branches in Phnom Penh and Kandal province that will operate hire purchase operations out of Honda motorcycle dealership. Speaking during the opening ceremony for its branch in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district, ...

Busy juggling jobs, children, and housework, Cambodian women do not have the time, or platforms, to discuss bigger women-related issues like abuse, migration and forced eviction. And that is why a new initiative, called “Gender Cafe,” aims to change that by giving local women a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen requisitioned 768 hectares of land on Saturday that will be used to build an international airport in Kampong Chhnang after 2025. During presiding over a land title distribution ceremony in Kampong Chhnang province, the prime minister announced the expansion of the airport. ...

The mother of a domestic maid allegedly stranded in Malaysia has become the latest Cambodian claimant to file an official complaint to the Ministry of Interior over labor abuse in the country. Em Sokhum said her 24-year-old daughter Chher Sophorn left to pursue work in Malaysia more than ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that in order to manage future tourist numbers, the government will construct a new international airport on the site of the Kampong Chhnang airbase, which was built by slave labor during the Khmer Rouge regime. Mr. Hun Sen said that ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday accused unnamed individuals of attempting to grab land in Kompong Thom province by invoking his wife’s name and ordered one of his sons to investigate and give back any misappropriated land. According to Mr. Hun Sen, unscrupulous individuals were ...

The U.S. Embassy donated more than 300 laptops and other assorted equipment valued at over $250,000 to the Ministry of Defense on Saturday, according to an embassy statement. The equipment will go to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ priority units, which already receive training from the ...

The collective power of agricultural co-operatives could bring huge benefits to poor, small-scale farmers, a Phnom Penh conference for international World Food Day heard on Friday. The sentiments were shared by the director of Cambodia’s General Directorate of Agriculture, So Khan Rithy Kun, who said farming ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly castigated the Kampong Thom provincial governor in a speech on Saturday for allegedly claiming a large portion of land and saying it was needed for the local office of the Cambodian Red Cross, an agency lead by Hun Sen’s wife, Bun ...

The Norwegian energy firm Eltek Valere won an injunction from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court earlier this month against the Thai-owned mobile operator Mfone after it filed a complaint claiming that Mfone had failed to pay $3.73 million in service charges, court documents obtained Friday ...

Cambodia’s small economy leaves it especially vulnerable to devastation in the face of large-scale natural disasters, United Nations agencies and Cambodian officials warned last week. “The relative size of an economy adds to the vulnerability as seen particularly in the case of the Lao Peoples’ Democratic ...

Criticism has mounted against Swedish multinational clothing company H&M in its home country following a documentary released last week that sheds light on wages in its source factories in Cambodia. The episode of Swedish network TV4’s Kalla Fakta, or Cold Facts, focuses mainly on Cambodian garment ...

The government on Friday pledged a 20 per cent increase to the base salary of civil servants year-on-year in a move one government official insisted was based on economics, not politics. The announcement was made in a statement released over the weekend outlining government spending for ...

Drawing from a long list of human rights abuses, the European Parliament has urged the Cambodian government to stop forced evictions, called on the European Commission (E.C.) to investigate the country’s controversial land concessions policy, and raised the prospect of sanctions. In a resolution passed Friday ...