News
Mong Rethy group given deadline to pay ELC back taxes
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 ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20867/mong-reththy-group-given-deadline-to-pay-elc-back-taxes/
Official details kingdom's drug problems
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 ...
Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/official-details-kingdoms-drug-problems
Institution-based sex crimes raise concerns
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. ...
Vong Sokheng and Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/institution-based-sex-crimes-raise-concerns
Footwear kicks in as factory exports surge 17 percent
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. ...
Sok Chan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20849/footwear-kicks-in-as-factory-exports-surge-17-percent/
Drug seizures triple in 2015
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 ...
Taing Vida
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20866/drug-seizures-triple-in-2015/
Government blocks alleged letter granting logs to try pheap
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. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-blocks-alleged-letter-granting-logs-to-try-pheap-107118/
Microfinance growth slows in final quarter
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). ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/microfinance-growth-slows-in-final-quarter-107138/
Protesters put sugar firm’s wall on hold
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. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protesters-put-sugar-firms-wall-hold
Agro giant denies rent overdue
Mong Reththy Group, one of the Kingdom’s largest agro-industrial conglomerates, insisted yesterday that it had settled arrears on its palm oil concession more than six months ago, contrary to local media reports stating the company owed concession rental fees dating back nearly 20 years. ...
Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/agro-giant-denies-rent-overdue
Public input touted for access to information draft law
Public officials and stakeholders drafting new access to information legislation listened yesterday as speakers underlined the importance of incorporating public feedback into the long-awaited law. ...
Lay Samean
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/public-input-touted-access-information-draft-law
Meet Cambodia’s first 'real estate personality of the year'
Having managed various businesses in Cambodia for more than two decades now, Rithy Sear has earned a reputation for being ambitious, and rightly so. ...
Property Report Team
http://www.property-report.com/meet-rithi-sear-cambodias-first-real-estate-personality-of-the-year/
Committee unaffected by Kith Meng’s appeal
Cambodian tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group failed to persuade a high-level meeting of government and Preah Sihanouk officials to resume construction of a 40-metre port at Otres Beach, and will instead have to explore the use of other locations along the coastline. ...
Cheng Sokhorng and Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/committee-unaffected-kith-mengs-appeal
Casualties from UXO drop in 2015
Landmines and other old ordnance killed or injured 111 people in 2015, according to figures from the state-run Cambodian Mine Action Authority, as many as in 2013 but nearly a third less than last year, when casualties jumped to 154 people. ...
Ouch Sony and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/casualties-from-a-drop-in-2015-106967/
Pheap denies link to timber at Mondulkiri ELC
As a national crackdown on illegal logging rumbles on, Try Pheap, Cambodia’s most prominent timber tycoon, issued a public denial of reports that he was linked to an economic land concession (ELC) where authorities found hundreds of cubic metres of potentially illegal timber. ...
Phak Seangly and Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pheap-denies-link-timber-mondulkiri-elc
Health centres lag on NCD treatments
A study of the Kingdom’s district health system has found it “unable to manage” non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, which are estimated to be responsible for more than half of adult deaths. ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/health-centres-lag-ncd-treatments
Interior ministry takes aim at illegal guns
Following a nationwide spate of violent gun crime over the past few months, the government has called on City Hall for help in its crackdown on illegal firearms, a problem one Ministry of Interior official laid at the feet of authorities themselves. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/interior-ministry-takes-aim-illegal-guns
Election monitors say voter registry is an urgent priority
Election observers are urging the National Election Committee to move quickly on updates to the voter registry, as commune elections in 2017 approach. ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/election-monitors-say-voter-registry-is-an-urgent-priority/3168222.html
Gov’t recommends precautions against Zika
Amid fears that the Zika virus could jump to Southeast Asia after its rapid spread through South America, the Cambodian Ministry of Health has asked citizens to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites. In a press release sent Friday, the ministry urged people to wear ...
Jonathan Cox and Phun Chan Ousaphea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20818/gov---t-recommends-precautions-against-zika/
Price wars to subvert gains made by SMEs
Cambodian entrepreneurs and business leaders on Saturday stressed the challenges for firms in the hospitality and retail sectors that adopt an aggressive pricing policy, suggesting a more value-added approach instead. ...
Ayanna Runcie
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/price-wars-subvert-gains-made-smes
HRW says PM’s bodyguards beat lawmakers
In a report released last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) came to the predictable—and mostly well-supported—conclusion that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government was failing in its duty to protect its people. ...
Ben Sokhean and Colin Meyn
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hrw-says-pms-bodyguards-beat-lawmakers-106974/
Election-focused NGOs get big slice of EU grants
The European Union (EU) last week announced this year’s recipients of 8.2 million euros ($8.9 million) in grants to civil society, with much of the money going to nongovernmental groups whose stated goal is to make the country’s elections more open and inclusive. ...
Maddy Crowell
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20817/election-focused-ngos-get-big-slice-of-eu-grants/
Minister orders diplomats to step up efforts
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has called on Cambodia’s ambassadors to lift their professionalism and pay greater attention to the needs of workers abroad. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minister-orders-diplomats-step-efforts
Women’s issues underfunded: report
Efforts to empower women at a sub-national level are drastically under-funded, according to research released yesterday. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/womens-issues-underfunded-report
Top of the class – the minister who rebuilds systems
After almost 15 years working at various economic-related agencies, primarily the ministry of economy and finance, H.E. Hang Chuon Naron has been at the forefront of transforming Cambodia’s broken economy into one that is more open and competitive. Since 2013 he has been minister of ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20804/top-of-the-class-----the-minister-who-rebuilds-systems/