News

With voter registration due to start in six weeks, independent election monitoring organisations said yesterday that the current political climate and recently enacted legislation has them fearing for the safety of their observers.   ...

In a statement last week, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature identified ongoing fires in flooded forests as a major threat to the Tonle Sap lake. ...

The specter of insolvency looms large over the businesses of rice millers in the Kingdom as the government drags its foot in providing emergency loans to bail out the sector, currently reeling from the aftereffects of a severe drought and facing stiff competition from low-grade ...

A Japanese firm, Gomi Recycle 110, plans to invest in a factory in Svay Rieng province to recycle plastic waste into finished products for local markets. Yusuke Okumura, director of Gomi, met with Cambodia’s Minister of Environment Say Samal on Tuesday seeking support from the government ...

Sixteen former staff members at the Sihanoukville provincial Multi-Technical Training Institute filed a sweeping complaint against the school’s married directors with the Ministry of Labor over the weekend. ...

Four members of a forest patrol were ambushed in Preah Vihear’s Cheam Pen community forest on Tuesday afternoon, according to deputy forest chief Ros Lim. ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) yesterday sent the newly-drafted petroleum law to civil society organizations and other partner institutions working in the extractive sector for consultations before submitting it to the Council of Ministers for approval by the end of this year. ...

Environmental DNA collection could be a “silver bullet” for tracking and protecting critically endangered fish in the Mekong, according to a new report.   ...

Smokers who light up inside bars, restaurants, hotels and other establishment where the public gathers will face fines of 20,000 riel (about $5) starting September 16, the Ministry of Tourism announced on Wednesday. ...

Cambodia and five other countries that share the Mekong River have agreed to open their borders to more commercial truck and tourist bus traffic as part of a transnational agreement aimed at promoting regional logistics and tourism, a senior transport official said yesterday.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has urged all the leaders of the 51 countries of Asia and Europe to use all their resources, especially China-backed funds, to improve connectivity between the regions. ...

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia could start raising capital from the public, through the stock exchange, if government efforts to amend financial regulations to allow SMEs to be publicly listed get off the ground. ...

A majority of the more than 2,500 children hospitalized by illnesses in the Kantha Bopha hospital network between Sunday and yesterday were critically poor and could not survive without free treatment, Kantha Bopha hospital founder and head Dr. Beat Richner said. ...

A visiting U.S. human rights envoy on Tuesday urged the government to release and drop charges against five current and former rights workers arrested in April amid what he called a deteriorating political situation in which the courts have disproportionately targeted state critics. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been in hot water since he told an EU parliamentary meeting on July 13 that he wanted them to consider decreasing garment imports from Cambodia in the hope it would pressure Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government into complying ...

With less than two months before voter registration is due to start for the upcoming commune elections, the delivery of vital computer equipment has reportedly been delayed by two weeks due to an import duty bungle, while only a fraction of the required workers have ...

NGO Forum director Tek Vannara yesterday called on the Ministry of Land Management to speed up collective land titling for indigenous communities. ...

The seeds of confusion in the rice industry have been sown further. After endorsing the Phka Romduol and Phka Chansensor varieties to be the Kingdom’s own umbrella brands for fragrant and premium rice last week, the National Standards Council (NSC) said yesterday it did not ...

Cambodia, along with six other Asean member countries, reached an agreement to form an alliance of sugar-producing countries ‒ or so the called Asean Sugar Alliance (ASA) ‒ to promote and support the regional sugar industry and make it more competitive globally. ...

Authorised dealerships of new cars and trucks have said a recent increase in the specific tax on vehicle imports has put a dent in profits, with some dealers claiming sales have slowed since the tax hike went into effect in April. ...

Australian mining firms Emerald Resources and Renaissance Minerals have agreed to merge in an all-stock deal that aims at creating synergies to develop gold projects in northeastern Cambodia, the companies said in a joint announcement yesterday. ...

International media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement released on Tuesday that it was concerned by what it characterized as a “surge” in threats against journalists and news organizations in Cambodia in recent weeks.   ...

More than $90,000 worth of luxury timber seized during National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) raids in Stung Treng province will be up for public auction until July 29, the Ministry of Economic and Finance announced last week. ...

Forestry officials in Preah Vihear province confiscated more than 1,100 kg of valuable rosewood early on Tuesday morning, while the two men suspected of transporting the wood were on the run, officials said.   ...