News

National Assembly President Heng Samrin has refused to forward to Prime Minister Hun Sen a letter from an opposition lawmaker asking that a group of rubber plantations owned by Vietnamese Ar­my commanders be canceled because they violate the Constitution. ...

Cambodia’s “Economic Free­dom”—a broad measure of how well individuals and businesses can create and protect their wealth —was classed as “mostly unfree” in a new report released by the Washington-based Heritage Foun­dation, which identified corruption and bureaucracy as impediments to free markets. ...

Cambodian exports grew by 17 per cent last year, driven by increases in shipments of rice and footwear, with garment export growth easing to a little under 7 per cent, according to a new Ministry of Commerce report. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has thrown out a defamation case against Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong that was filed by Khmer Power Party (KPP) President Sourn Serey Ratha in December after Mr. Namhong called the politician’s supporters terrorists. ...

A recent forum highlighted a growing concern of Cambodian youth about Cambodia’s largest lowland evergreen forest, Prey Lang, and the impacts of deforestation caused by illegal logging. ...

South Korean investment in Cambodia’s agricultural industry, especially its food-processing sector, could result in the export of more value-added products that could help transform the Kingdom’s economy, a senior official at the Council for the Development of Cambodia and Korean officials told an investment forum ...

Cambodia’s national corruption watchdog has added two more firms to its list of private sector companies committed to stamping out corruption, a government news source said yesterday. ...

National Police Commissioner Neth Savoeun on Tuesday blamed weak border controls in Malaysia and Singapore for an influx of cocaine, methamphetamine and other dangerous narcotics into Cambodia. ...

Villagers in Cambodia’s Pailin province are accusing authorities of allowing a powerful local police officer to grab nearly two hectares of mountainous public land for his own use. ...

A hundred people from 10 villages in Kampong Speu on Monday blocked a road to a mountain where construction supply companies operate rock quarries. ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday that his decision regarding a request from the National Police to amend the drug law will depend on the results of a study by the National Authority for Combating Drugs on drug addicts currently serving ...

A group of Boeung Chhouk village residents being asked to vacate to make room for a new road met yesterday with a senior Council of Ministers official in a bid to resolve the long-running dispute. However, they walked away with nothing but the possibility of ...

Police officials yesterday called for tougher sentencing of drug dealers and for the government to make it “easier and faster [for police] to seize their property”, as the Interior Ministry’s annual drugs conference wrapped in the capital. ...

Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp Ltd. posted a net profit of $172.6 million last year, a 27 per cent increase over the previous year, attributing the surge to increased business volume across all gaming segments at its NagaWorld casino complex in Phnom Penh. ...

Only 80 Mekong River dolphins remain. Conservation efforts are underway in Cambodia but these unique animals are facing a new threat from a mega dam in neighboring Lao. ...

China is more closely involved in cross-border cooperation on hydropower and water management after the six countries that share the Mekong River signed a landmark agreement late last year. ...

The government has warned Mong Reththy Group (MRT), an investor in agro-industrial crops such as palm oil and cassava, that it must pay all outstanding back taxes on its economic land concession in Sihanoukville’s Prey Nop district within three months, according to a document received ...

The nation’s drug czar yesterday described a prison and rehab centre system in which drugs were being sold under the noses of the authorities and suggested police estimates of the number of drug users in Cambodia were “not enough” as he spoke at the Interior ...

Institution-based sex crimes against children and the threat of online pedophiles are a “growing concern” in Cambodia, child protection organisation APLE said in its annual report yesterday. ...

The total value of exports from the garment, footwear and other factories rose 17 percent year on year to $7.1 billion last year, according to a report from Ministry of Industry and Handicraft released yesterday.   ...

The number of people arrested on drug-related charges in Cambodia more than doubled last year, according to a report by the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD). About 7,000 people were arrested last year, compared to just 3,142 in 2014, an increase that authorities are ...

The government is refusing to release copies of letters it claims to have sent to timber traders Try Pheap and Lim Bunna giving them permission to collect already felled wood on a pair of canceled economic land concessions (ELCs) inside a wildlife sanctuary. ...

Growth in the country’s expanding microfinance sector slowed slight­ly in the last quarter of 2015, but both loans and deposits finished the year about 45 percent high­er than at the end of 2014, ac­cording to figures from the Cam­bodia Microfinance Association (CMA). ...

Roughly 30 villagers locked in a land dispute with Koh Kong Sugar protested at a construction site yesterday where they say the company was attempting to erect a concrete barrier on disputed land. ...