News

The National Bank of Cambodia announced on Monday that it would set an annual interest rate ceiling of 18 percent for all microfinance institutions (MFIs), sparking concerns that lenders would stop offering smaller loans that often keep the most financially vulnerable afloat. ...

The head of Cambodia’s largest demining operator cited Monday’s disposal of a pair of decades-old American bombs as part of the government’s mounting efforts to shame the U.S. into canceling the country’s ballooning war-era debt, which now stands at about $500 million. ...

Two images on the back of the 500 riel banknote depict bridges, with the one on the left showing the Kingdom’s longest and most modern bridge, the Tsubasa (“Bird’s Wing”) Bridge linking Kandal and Prey Veng provinces. ...

Four senior officials for rights group Adhoc will remain behind bars after the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Court of Appeal’s ruling that they should be held in detention while awaiting trial, but gave no reason for the decision. ...

About 40 families asked the government last week to review road expansion plans at Phnom Penh’s Prek Pnov Bridge, saying the proposed dimensions would force them to lose property and even parts of their homes. ...

Plans to pay garment workers twice a month will be difficult for employers to implement, industry representatives have warned. The Labor Ministry is amending laws so companies will be required to pay staff twice a month, in a bid to protect workers from being abandoned by ...

Civil servants and factory workers will be required to wear helmets when riding their motorbikes to work under a government plan to stem traffic fatalities. ...

Retired civil servants and military veterans are to get a pension rise next month, along with the same 50,000 riel Khmer New Year allowance as serving civil servants and armed forces members. ...

Cambodian mining firm Angkor Gold has agreed to accept payment by instalment on Mesco Gold’s final tranche for the purchase of its Phum Syarung gold mine in northeastern Cambodia, the company said in press release. ...

Officials broke ground on Saturday on a new mental health center in Kandal province that will house detainees from the notorious Prey Speu detention center in Phnom Penh, among others, government and city officials said on Sunday. ...

More than 600 workers from the capital’s Bodykids Fashion Wear factory protested on Friday and Saturday after management failed to pay them their February wages. ...

A lack of diagnostic equipment in Cambodia is causing cases of tuberculosis to be both over- and under-reported in children, a new study finds.   ...

During the inauguration of a pagoda in Prey Veng on Friday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced he will send several advisers to Myanmar to share lessons from his “Win-Win” policy, which he credits with ending Cambodia’s civil war. ...

Industrial insiders and experts on the Kingdom’s nascent stock market have suggested the government set up a fund as an investment vehicle designed to broaden the local public investor base, based on The Thai Fund (TTF). ...

A quarter of Cambodian students want more access to books and other reading materials, a study by World Vision revealed yesterday. Of the 4,000 students surveyed by the global NGO, 25 percent said they sought “more amount and variety” of books, while 12 percent wanted “better ...

Sathapana Bank has pre-emptively removed its signature golden lion logo from all 162 branches nationwide as the private bank aims to deflect government criticism and avoid confusion as being identified as a state-owned institution, a bank executive said yesterday. ...

Cambodia is handicapped by the dollarization of its economy in three ways, according to Kith Sovannarith, Deputy Director General of Banking Supervision at the National Bank of Cambodia. ...

More than 40 rice millers have applied for quality checks to allow for export to China but most have not yet reached a high enough standard, the Agriculture Ministry said. ...

Cambodia currently faces significant foreign policy challenges amid great power rivalry in the Asia-Pacific. Against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s uncertain and unpredictable foreign policy in the region, China’s economic, military, and strategic influence over Cambodia continues to grow. China is now Cambodia’s ...

Over the last few years the Director of the Statistics Department at the National Bank of Cambodia began observing an unanticipated development while conducting field observation studies of trade at border crossings – the riel is being accepted for purchases in neighbouring counties. ...

South Korea’s state-run deposit insurer opened its first overseas branch in Phnom Penh yesterday in a move to sell off the bank and property assets of Korean banks that went belly up in 2011. ...

Villagers from Stung Treng whose homes stand to be flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam met with representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy at an NGO Forum-sponsored meeting in Phnom Penh yesterday, in hopes of establishing a dialogue towards a long-awaited compromise. ...

Mobile World Investment Corp (MWG) – one of the largest mobile phone and electronic products distribution chains in Vietnam – will open its first store in Cambodia, operating under the name BigPhone.com, according to Vietnamese state media. ...

Mines Ministry officials yesterday announced a project to shore up sections of the Mekong river affected by erosion that threatens families in Kandal province’s Mok Kampol district.   ...