News

Before departing for China to co-chair an annual meeting between the two governments yesterday, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong denied claims that their relationship was any weaker than that of Cambodia and the United States. ...

The Free Trade Union has sent a letter to police seeking the release of two union officials arrested on Tuesday over protests at the Cerie garment factory in Kampong Speu province. ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to provide financing totally about 880 million US dollars to Cambodia for 2016 – 2018. According to a press release from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which was released yesterday. ...

The government yesterday ordered all fences blocking public access along Independence Beach in Sihanoukville to be dismantled as part of a continuing campaign to remove private encroachments on the coastal city’s public beaches. ...

A Chinese-owned agricultural company will inaugurate a $360 million sugar mill in northern Cambodia next month, in what is being billed as one of Asia’s largest sugar processing facilities. ...

More than 220 ethnic Tompuon families in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district yesterday filed a complaint to rights group Adhoc over a 2,000-hectare land dispute against an economic land concession.   ...

The parent company of U.S. apparel giant Timberland has launched an investigation into claims that security guards at a special economic zone in Kandal province viciously attacked the workers that make the brand’s clothing and footwear, a company representative said Wednesday. ...

Eating fortified rice increases the risk of hookworm infections, a study in Cambodian schoolchildren shows, suggesting that the rice’s added nutrients inadvertently help parasites grow. ...

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. ...