News

Cambodians spent over $100 million on imported meat last year, further widening the gap of domestic supply as local producers failed to capture the lucrative protein market, a government official said yesterday. ...

Inmates at Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh will no longer be able to listen to the radio, according to a social media post by a jailed opposition member, which is an apparent violation of the law. ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy collected $20.3 million in non-tax revenue last year, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, it said yesterday. ...

Thai authorities withdrew a 700 percent import tax increase on Cambodian fish vendors on Thursday after the angered cart-pushers formed a wall of baskets teeming with fresh fish along a border checkpoint on Thursday in protest, according to Poipet authorities. ...

Investigators have arrived in Kompong Thom province to pursue allegations that the provincial police chief and two of his deputies routinely accepted bribes of up to $7,000 in exchange for jobs or promotions, officials said on Thursday. ...

Cambodia’s lagging agriculture and nascent manufacturing sectors need to diversify as the threat of regional competition heats up, a World Bank economist warned yesterday, while enumerating the challenges the Kingdom faces after having officially graduated into a lower-middle income country last year. ...

More than 300 ethnic villagers at two separate locations in Preah Vihear province conducted traditional ceremonies yesterday beseeching the spirits for an end to their ongoing land dispute with the Chinese-owned Rui Feng sugar company. ...

Seven Vietnamese nationals were arrested during a timber bust on Wednesday when Mondulkiri authorities intercepted eight trucks loaded with illegal timber in the Keo Seima protected area. ...

US investments in Cambodia increased 15-fold last year, due mainly to the construction of a new Coca-Cola plant in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone, according to a statement from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). ...

At least three women – one pregnant – and a man were hurt in a clash with security forces at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday after land rights activist Tep Vanny was jailed for two and a half years over a 2013 protest. ...

High-ranking Laos officials said on Wednesday that the proposed Pak Beng hydropower dam will not have a major impact on downstream communities, claiming that they would take time to study its potential impacts. ...

The Cambodian government and UNICEF yesterday released results of a clinical trial on new locally produced food supplements to tackle the country’s persistently dismal malnutrition figures, with at least one of the two products proving effective.   ...

Fifteen national and international organizations representing 38 civil society groups met with the National Assembly’s first commission yesterday to discuss eight major land dispute cases in an effort to find a solution for those affected.   ...

Two more foreign banks—one French and one Vietnamese—announced plans earlier this week to open branches in Cambodia.   ...

Illegal miners in the remote reaches of Cambodia are repelling government inspectors with armed middlemen, the Mines and Energy Ministry said on Wednesday as it hosted its annual meeting in Phnom Penh.   ...

More than 3,500 foreigners committed immigration offenses last year and more than 800 were banned from returning to Cambodia, the Interior Ministry’s report for 2016 said yesterday. ...

The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Frederica Mogherini, yesterday released a letter outlining Europe’s continued concern with what it perceives as a deteriorating political situation in Cambodia. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday launched a not-so-thinly-veiled attack on the US over its recent public airing of concerns over the newly amended Law on Political Parties, arguing that its past bombing of Cambodia left it no moral high ground from which to criticise the ...

Besieged by color revolutionaries, agitators and criminal politicians, the Interior Ministry kept the country safe from encroaching instability—at least, that was the ministry’s boast on Wednesday at its annual meeting. ...

Cambodia’s already swollen prison population leapt by more than 20 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Interior’s annual report, which acknowledged the influx has caused “serious challenges” with overcrowding, and revealed one-third of inmates are in pre-trial detention. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday pulled the country’s mobile operators into his aggressive campaign to clear up any confusion about the relationship between the government and microfinance institutions (MFIs), ordering them to send audio and text messages telling subscribers that MFIs were private entities. ...

A two-year income tax exemption is being offered to small and medium-sized enterprises that register with the Ministry of Economy and Finance before the end of 2018.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered microfinance institute (MFI) Prasac, one of the largest in Cambodia, to change its logo immediately for fear that the public may confuse it as representing the government. ...

In 2016, the ministry reported 52 cases of sexual exploitation involving 87 victims who were rescued and 64 perpetrators who were arrested, of which 27 were foreign nationals. ...