News
National election body to start vote recount today
The national election body will today start recounting votes for communes across the country where the winners in June 4’s commune elections were decided by the narrowest of margins. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-election-body-to-start-vote-recount-today-131232/
Gaps in framework open mines to graft
The Ministry of Mines and Energy’s mineral exploration licensing process is vulnerable to corruption, an independent study has found, identifying 14 potential openings for graft. ...
Yesenia Amaro
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gaps-framework-open-mines-graft
With CNRP gains come risks: panel
The mixed results of the June 4 commune elections may have allowed both major parties to save face, but the opposition’s large gains show it has a serious chance of winning next year’s national election – and that could attract violent backlash from the government, ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-gains-come-risks-panel
Dredging protest in Kandal
Over 200 people held a protest yesterday morning in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district, demanding that provincial authorities halt sand-dredging operations on the Bassac River. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dredging-protest-kandal
Free pass to Thailand gets political in Poipet town
Local authorities in Poipet are grappling with a dilemma of their own making after the ruling party for months footed the bill to make day passes to enter Thailand free for Cambodian vendors – a populist move now complicated by the CPP’s apparent electoral loss ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/free-pass-thailand-gets-political-poipet-town
Thousands quit smoking
The number of men who smoke in Cambodia dropped by almost a third in the past decade, while women smokers nearly halved, according to a government report. Figures showed that 48.98 percent of men aged 18 and older smoked ten years ago, but that has now ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/39148/thousands-quit-smoking/
Environment code due this year
Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...
Yesenia Amaro
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/environment-code-due-year
Florican population faces extinction threat
The increase in commercial dry-season rice cultivation in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap floodplain is threatening the survival of the critically endangered Bengal florican, a new study suggests. ...
Phak Seangly and Jovina Chua
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/florican-population-faces-extinction-threat
Monks sell off public land
The chief of a Buddhist pagoda, a village chief and six laymen will appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday after accusations they sold public land worth $50,000. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/39143/monks-sell-off-public-land/
‘Hostages’ swapped with Thailand
Incensed by Thai authorities’ arrest of their family members, residents of Banteay Meanchey’s Thma Puok district took conflict resolution into their own hands on Saturday by holding Thai trucks hostage on their side of the border for days until Thai and Cambodian officials agreed to ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hostages-swapped-thailand
Not all paths to growth the same
Denis Hew, director of the policy support unit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat said that Cambodia and Laos, in particular, should seek to chart a different course in Asean rather than following growth models of more developed economies, such as Malaysia or Thailand. ...
Matthieu de Gaudemar
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/not-all-paths-growth-same
CNRP to push $500k per commune plan in national assembly
In what one observer said was simply an act of politicking, the opposition CNRP on Thursday said it would push its campaign pledge of giving $500,000 to every commune in the National Assembly. ...
Ben Sokhean and Janelle Retka
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/131182-131182/
Finland to help develop energy plants
Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn yesterday met with the newly appointed Finnish ambassador Satu Suikkari-Kleven, who is based in Bangkok. “Ms Suikkari-Kleven told the Foreign Minister that some Finnish companies are interested in cooperating with Cambodia to invest in energy and electricity from waste,” Foreign Affairs ...
Ros Chanveasna
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/39177/finland-to-help-develop-energy-plants/
Seaport debuts on stock market
Shares in Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS), the state-owned enterprise that operates Cambodia’s only deep-sea port, debuted on Cambodia’s stock exchange yesterday after an initial public offering that raised $27 million. ...
Brian Ng and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/seaport-debuts-stock-market
Recounts appear to change two results
With the National Election Committee (NEC) having released preliminary commune election results, parties have begun registering requests for recounts to the body, with one commune each in Svay Rieng and Battambang provinces appearing to have already flipped sides as of yesterday. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/recounts-appear-change-two-results
‘Grandma Proeung’ in court over timber rap
In the first and only day of her trial yesterday, prominent alleged timber trader Heng Samnieng claimed that Military Police officers had tried to sell off pieces of timber confiscated by authorities in Stung Treng, where she was arrested in October while allegedly attempting to ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grandma-proeung-court-over-timber-rap
Spinning the poll results
Already looking ahead to 2018, Prime Minister Hun Sen has told his Cambodian People’s Party that had Sunday’s commune elections been a national election, they would have won even more National Assembly seats than they did in 2013. ...
Alex Willemyns and Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/spinning-poll-results
Garment workers protest at Ministry
About a thousand workers from the Southland garment factory yesterday protested outside the Ministry of Labour to demand intervention from the authorities to force the company to reinstate 10 unionists suspended from work after a strike began earlier this week. ...
Yon Sineat
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-workers-protest-ministry
Dam resettlement site gets electricity
According to the Stung Treng Provincial Electricity Authority’s announcement yesterday, an electrical line was connected from the dam to a transmission network at the new site in Srekor. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-resettlement-site-gets-electricity
Consumer protection law still in draft stage
The Ministry of Commerce and other relevant ministries will meet later this month to review progress on the country’s first consumer protection law and formulate a plan to complete the draft legislation, a ministry official said yesterday. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/consumer-protection-law-still-draft-stage
Election body releases complete preliminary election results
The National Election Committee (NEC) posted complete preliminary results online on Wednesday evening after receiving missing forms from 344 communes, an official said, with the final tallies from Sunday’s commune elections expected before June 25. ...
IMF: Make youth a demographic dividend
The International Monetary Fund says Cambodia’s young population compared with other regional countries will be a driving force for financial development and contribute to the emerging finance technology sector, or Fintech. ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/39134/imf--make-youth-a-demographic-dividend/
Union reps suspended after more than a thousand strike in election day pay row
Ten union representatives were yesterday suspended from the Southland garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district after more than a thousand workers went on strike to protest the factory’s decisions about time taken off for voting in Sunday’s commune elections. ...
Post staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-reps-suspended-after-more-thousand-strike-election-day-pay-row
Cambodia says it regrets ‘irresponsible’ Trump decision to leave Paris climate accord
A Cambodian official has said US President Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement is “unethical” and “irresponsible”. Tin Ponlok, secretary general of the National Council for Sustainable Development at the Ministry of Environment, said it was “regretful” that Trump decided to abandon the ...