News

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) would consider selling some of its stakes in Asian banks if Australia does not ease stringent capital requirements, chief executive Mike Smith said on Wednesday. The plan raises questions about how Australia’s smallest ‘Big Four’ bank will meet the ...

More than 100 families in Preah Sihanouk province were forcefully removed from their homes yesterday morning by at least 100 armed police officers  who dispersed the crowd by firing shots into the air from AK-47 rifles and spraying villagers with water cannons, accoring to provincial ...

The stabilisation of the riel over the first half of this year is a reflection of increased confidence in using riel in the economy as well as improvements in the agricultural sector, according to economists and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). The slowdown in the US economy ...

Community activists patrolling the Prey Lang forest for a second day yesterday claimed to have found more evidence of illegal logging – in the form of hundreds of cubic metres of timber and several hectares of cleared land. Prey Lang network representative Hoeun Sopheap said villagers ...

Four Land Management Ministry officials charged with corruption last week were released on bail yesterday, less than five days after arriving at Prey Sar prison for detention ahead of trial, officials said. Srung Leang, director of the prison’s center no. 1, said he received the written release order ...

T & P, the notorious labour recruitment firm that was closed down last year because of its appalling record of abuse scandals, is continuing to receive and pocket remittances from maids stranded in Malaysia, a coalition of rights groups told a press conference yesterday. At the ...

The sole provider of water and electricity in Koh Kong province’s Khemerak Phumin town, LYP group, was demanding that all rental buildings install water meters at exorbitant rates for the region, residents said yesterday. Building managers sent intervention papers to provincial governor Bun Leut on July ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned Chan Soveth, a long-serving senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, over charges of aiding an unnamed perpetrator in Phnom Penh earlier this year, according to a copy of the citation obtained yesterday. Dated Aug. 9 and sent to Adhoc’s ...

Four officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction arrested last week on bribery charges involving millions of dollars would be freed on bail in the next few days, officials said yesterday. Kuy Bunson, director of the Ministry of Interior’s prisons department, said he had ...

In a bid to ease the collection of the recently introduced tax on properties worth more than $25,000, The Ministry of Finance has launched an online service to help people get the forms they need to pay the tax. In a statement released last week, the ministry said ...

In a mysteriously vague citation, Adhoc monitoring head Chan Saveth has been called to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to face charges of “providing assistance to specific perpetrators”. Although the court’s summons, which asks Saveth to appear on August 24, provides no specifics as to the ...

Net profits at NagaCorp Ltd., owners of Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino, jumped 38 percent to reach $52.4 million in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year, the company said in its most recent financial report. The casino generated a total ...

It’s been marked by violence, fervent protests and a stream of recriminations, but now bureaucracy is hampering efforts to resolve the seven-week-long strike at the Tai Yang and Camwell factories, which supply Levi’s and Gap, a trade-union advocate said yesterday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American ...

The number of tour operators registered with Ministry of Tourism increased by more than 10 per cent in the first half of this year compared to last year due to an upswing in the number of tourists visiting the Kingdom, insiders say. Figures from the tourism ministry showed ...

The Appeal Court yesterday began hearing now-incarcerated former Anco Brothers deputy general director Heng Chheang’s appeal against Senator Kok An’s requested Phnom Penh Municipal Court injunction over his property. Chheang, and his wife, Tep Kolap, former Phnom Penh International University director, were convicted and sentenced to ...

Latest figures show the total value of approved investment in the Kingdom declined by more than 70 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the equivalent period a year before. Economists and officials are unconcerned, however, saying that some big projects during ...

Cambodia annulled licenses to four private firms whose concession of 40,000 hectares threatens Prey Lang, one of the richest national forests. A letter from the Council of Ministers to the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Mining, in charge of managing the forests and the natural resources, ...

The 30,000-square-meter expansion of Phnom Penh International Airport may be halved, saving some of the 262 families living on adjacent land from eviction, a government official said yesterday. Despite the possible change in plans, a majority of families could still face eviction because they live ...

A group of eight Cambodians held for ransom on a Thai fishing boat were freed over the weekend after their families paid 1,000 baht (US$32) per person to a human trafficker in Thailand who is still holding another nine victims, victims and police said yesterday. The ...

A lack of economic diversity, faith in the banking sector and slow growth in vocational training and education topped the list of concerns among economists and investors yesterday at a meeting organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government. According to data released ...

Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino, NagaWorld, has agreed to build a brand-new 15-story tower for the National Election Committee (NEC) as part of its plans to invest $369 million in expanding its current operations over the next three years, an official at the casino said ...

The private sector and industry professionals were engaged yesterday in the first consultation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government in an effort to understand the factors affecting Cambodia’s economy, and ultimately determined that human capital, infrastructure, innovation and regulatory issues as the key areas ...

Delegates from the Import-Export Bank of China will visit Cambodia next week to discuss loans for the rice-processing and exporting sector, according to government officials. Son Kunthor, president of the state-owned Cambodian Rural Development Bank, said yesterday that Chinese delegates will come to study the feasibility of ...

Former residents of the Borei Keila community who are embroiled in a land dispute with the Phanimex firm gathered yesterday for  prayer service in an appeal to the government to resolve their dispute. The residents claim the company failed to provide replacement housing or land to ...