News

While financial inclusion is a top priority for emerging economies, new research suggests more stringent enforcement of anti-money regulations in recent years has resulted in major Western banks disconnecting from these regions, leaving local businesses without access to the international financial system. ...

Authorities intercepted four trucks carrying 81 pieces of illegal luxury timber at a checkpoint in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district last Friday, District Military Police Commader Sok Min said yesterday. ...

The Interior Ministry announced yesterday it had recently deported 46 foreigners from six countries and was holding 87 it believed had entered Cambodia illegally or overstayed their visas. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen returned to Cambodia yesterday after an urgent medical examination in Singapore due to exhaustion. The premier was forced to cancel diplomatic meetings and ceremonies last week and was rushed abroad for treatment. ...

Japan-based company Metawater will provide its power-saving inverter technology to a water treatment plant in Cambodia’s capital through an arrangement that will help the Japanese government earn carbon reduction credits, according to a Nikkei Asian Review report. ...

Provincial tourism department director Soy Sinol said a construction study of the Asian Development Bank-funded project had been completed.The $18-million tourism seaport is due to come into service by 2019.​   ...

The Mekong River Commission held its second stakeholder meeting on Laos’s controversial proposed Pak Beng dam on Friday, giving involved parties the opportunity to hear responses to concerns raised at the first meeting in February. ...

Speaking at a pagoda inauguration on Saturday, Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong said City Hall is looking to move warehouses and automobile repair shops out of the city centre to the outskirts to reduce pollution and traffic congestion – a move Hun Sen’s sister Hun ...

Reacting to criticism from the CNRP and other organizations, Cambodia’s top election body on Sunday defended its support of a ban on election marches along prominent public areas of Phnom Penh, saying it was for public safety. ...

The Mines and Energy Ministry on Friday defended sand exports reported last week by an environmental NGO, saying Cambodia’s sand ban did not include the type seen in a video being loaded onto vessels off the coast of Sihanoukville. ...

The government has lashed out at the U.S. and E.U. over their criticism of the detention of five current and former rights workers in Cambodia for more than a year, adopting the language of its critics by calling their statements “politically motivated.” ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has publicly announced that companies can bid for four mining exploration permits in both Kratie and Kampot provinces, marking the first time since the ministry was formed in 2013 to issue fresh licences for private companies to investigate mineral ...

Half of the residents of Mondulkiri’s Norng Buor village fell ill during a mass flu outbreak this weekend, prompting a rapid mobilisation of the province’s health authorities, who ascribed the flu’s rapid spread to poor hygiene. ...

Cambodia has been asked to more than double its yearly contribution toward the fight against HIV/AIDS to at least $3.2 million in each of the next three years, an official from the National AIDS Authority said yesterday. ...

Some 100 villagers in Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district removed warning posts put up by environmental rangers and a conservation NGO around land that had been allegedly cleared by the residents since 2013 for farming, filing a complaint against the NGO for allegedly destroying ...

Cambodian and Vietnamese officials have received millions of dollars in bribes from Vietnamese timber traders as part of a cross-border “conspiracy” to log vast swathes of Ratanakkiri province and funnel the timber to Vietnam, according to a damning report by the Environmental Investigation Agency released ...

Nearly 100 residents living along a stretch of land running from a railway in Boeung Kak to National Road 5 have gathered again outside City Hall to demand information about the development of a new road threatening to destroy their homes. ...

Several international and local coffee industry representatives gathered yesterday for the start of a three-day event promoting partnerships and franchising opportunities to satisfy Cambodia’s growing coffee cravings. ...

More than 30,000 police officers, military police and soldiers will be deployed to ensure no one can “destroy” next month’s commune elections, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said on Thursday. ...

Villagers in Preah Vihear’s Choam Ksan district confronted a group of soldiers, preventing them from felling timber in their community forest by confiscating one of their trucks, a local official said yesterday. ...

The National Election Committee yesterday defended its decision to print 1.5 million extra ballots for the upcoming commune elections, saying the chances of misuse were minimal given better identification systems – though the opposition and civil society remained unconvinced. ...

After years of delays and setbacks, the Cambodian firm set to operate the Kingdom’s landmark oil refinery finally broke ground yesterday on a $1.62 billion project with an updated completion date set for the middle of 2019. ...

Cambodia wants Unesco recognition for Kampot, Kratie and Battambang cities and hopes they would be considered by the UN organisation to be recognized as World Heritage sites when the kingdom files its application next June.​ ...

A businessman is appealing his conviction for smuggling more than three tonnes of ivory into Cambodia, the largest haul ever seized. ...