News

With few reforms made in the past year, Cambodia ranked 138th out of 181 countries for the second consecutive year in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report released yesterday, a ranking that put it behind countries such as Syria and Sudan. The report ranks countries based ...

NGO Friends International launched a government-backed campaign yesterday to discourage visitors from participating in “orphanage tourism” in an effort to protect children from being exploited, organizers said yesterday Citing an unreleased report by Unicef and the Ministry of Social Affairs, James Sutherland, international communications coordinator for ...

Thirteen construction workers have filed a complaint against the Banteay Meanchey provincial branch of T&P Co Ltd – the recruitment agency at the center of allegations involving illegal detainment of trainees – officials said yesterday. The workers, who had previously worked illegally as construction workers in ...

Following a dip in 2009, new land disputes increased last year by more than 50 percent to 28, while the total number of ongoing cases is now 282, according to a report released yesterday by the NGO Forum. Culled from media and field reports, each recorded ...

The Minister of Labor yesterday defended his ministry’s much-criticized interpretation of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ban on sending maids to Malaysia, after it allowed about 3,000 young women to still be sent abroad despite the serious risk of abuse and exploitation. Minister of Labor Vong Sauth ...

Ruling party Senator Ly Yong Phat has kept a promise to stop his company’s dredging operations on Koh Kong province’s Tatai river, relieved business owners and residents living along the waterway said yesterday. But provincial officials confirmed that as the senator’s dredging boats moved on to ...

Representatives of 32 families living in the capital’s Chamkarmon district staged a protest yesterday in Tonle Bassac commune, pleading with Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene on their behalf against the Thai Bun Roong company, which they say is forcing them to sell their land ...

Scores of crying women who said they had been forcibly detained and girls who claimed to have received fake documents to conceal the fact that they were as young as 16-years-old were discovered at a centre owned by the SKMM Investment Group labour recruitment firm ...

While sovereign debt crises in Europe and a lagging US economy have yet to curtail cheap Cambodian exports, industry watchers said domestic producers should diversify their target markets to avoid a future slow down. Exports saw a more than 40 per cent increase year-on-year between January ...

The Kingdom’s cassava exports soared 94 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2011, despite the recent flood devastation the agriculture sector has experienced, according to Ministry of Commerce figures. The statistics showed that Cambodia’s export of dry and fresh cassava hit about 22,652 ...

Cambodia’s banks should be largely spared the heavy damages already seen in many parts of the Kingdom’s economy, officials said yesterday, though microfinance lenders will feel some impact. Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon last week revised downward the government’s gross domestic products for 2011 ...

Cambodian garment makers are filling orders for the 2012 London Olympics in what insiders say is the first time the country has supplied the Games. ShenZhou International Group Holdings Ltd, one of China’s largest apparel exporters, makes shirts and other sportswear for Adidas that will supply ...

More than 200 residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake gathered outside Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday as four villagers who filed complaints after their homes were demolished by real estate developer Shukaku Inc last month responded to summonses for questioning ...

China’s dam-building ambitions and alleged lack of transparency were front and centre yesterday during a roundtable discussion on Mekong River development held in the capital. Representatives from the Chinese embassy defended their country’s record, claiming that China was “eager to participate” in regional cooperation mechanisms. “We aren’t ...

A new lobster-breeding program could generate up to $600 million in revenues over the next five years, according to Nao Thuok, director of the Fisheries Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture Mr Thuok first mentioned the new breeding program at a meeting in Phnom Penh hosted ...

Industrial pollution ‘hot-spots’ have been identified in waterways in Phnom Penh, Kandal and Kompong Cham provinces following a five-month period of research as part of a UN-backed effort to encourage companies to adopt cleaner practices. The hot spots – defined as a source of pollution where ...

Residents involved in a long-running land dispute in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district have been prevented from registering to vote in next year’s commune elections, village representatives said yesterday. The village, Oambel, is not recognized by authorities as it forms part of a conservation area ...

Cambodia is unlikely to meet even half of its 2015 goal to export 1 million tons of milled rice unless export and production costs are greatly reduced and more private investment goes toward the agriculture sector, according to a new World Bank study obtained Monday. The ...

Depending on who you believe, the South China Sea could be the next Persian Gulf due to its untapped oil and gas deposits. It’s also a key shipping lane that the US Navy has guarded for decades. That’s why so many countries are sparring over remote ...

Cambodia firm Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Singapore-based company to develop a high-output rice seed factory in the Kingdom. The cooperation between major investment firm OCIC and agriculture research company Smah Prum Royal International Pte Ltd is set to ...

Although a Thai minister claimed recently that delays in resolving the disputed overlapping claims area with Cambodia would result in an energy crisis, experts said yesterday the statement had been politically motivated. Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said last week Thailand would run out of gas ...

Despite signs that demand is starting to come back to the real estate sector, an oversupply in the market has kept prices for commercial and residential properties in Phnom Penh flat over the past 12 months, according to data from Bonna Realty Group. Prices for commercial ...

Seventy-one out of 89 National Assembly lawmakers yesterday voted to approve the construction of a coal power plant in Preah Sihanouk province by a company run by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and his daughter, and licensed the plant to sell electricity to Electricite du ...

About 250 villagers who turned out in Preah Vihear province’s Srayong commune to protest against alleged land-grabbing by rubber firm Siladamich Company yesterday found themselves blocked by company security guards and police, though arrests threatened a day earlier failed to materialise, villagers said. Villager representative Meas ...