The Cambodia Daily

Six prime government-owned properties in Phnom Penh and Battambang province have been reclassified as privately held state properties in order to pave the way for the land to be sold or swapped with private companies, according to a sub-decree signed November 8. Signed by Prime Minister ...

Well-known timber magnate Try Pheap is preparing to expand cross-country with a scheme that already gives him exclusive rights to buy all the wood felled on economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, a spokesman for the businessman said. The Agriculture Ministry’s Forestry Administration in February ...

Senior officials at the Military Court and Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that they have not received a request from Council of Ministers Secretary of State Phay Siphan to investigate an article published in an opposition newspaper. Mr. Siphan on Monday said he had submitted a ...

The website of the International Ship Registry of Cambodia (ISROC), a private company based in South Korea that bought the rights from the government to register foreign vessels under the Cambodian national flag for $6 million, is no longer operating. The shutdown means that foreign vessels ...

Banteay Meanchey province’s former governor got a surprise Monday when he attended a ceremony in Phnom Penh expecting to receive a donation of 200 power tillers from Chinese officials, but received eight small water pumps instead. Former Banteay Meanchey governor Oung Oeun and the governor ...

Customs officers along Cambodia’s border have been instructed to increase their efforts to properly inspect and tax products coming into the country, which has increased the cost of imports and led to a rise in retail prices for a host of goods, government officials, businessmen ...

Phnom Penh could have its first international-standard medical facility if a Japanese plan to construct a critical-care center equipped with state-of-the-art medical technologies and highly trained doctors, nurses and surgeons goes ahead, according to local officials and Japanese government documents. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced ...

Villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc on Friday, saying that they had discovered loggers illegally felling trees in their local community forest who claimed to be working for businessman Try Pheap. Mr. Pheap, who owns plantations, mining concessions and special economic ...

The opposition CNRP on Monday delivered a letter of notice to provincial authorities of its plans to hold a rally in Siem Reap City to mark International Human Rights Day next Tuesday, a party official said. Ke Sovannaroth, the head of the CNRP’s Siem Reap working ...

Two teenagers charged with intentional acts of violence, damage to public property and insulting public officials in clashes with police during a demonstration by SL Garment Factory workers last month were denied bail Monday. The suspects, 14-year-old Meas Non and 17-year-old Vanny Vanan, were charged by ...

The momentum toward large-scale dams on the Mekong River may be unstoppable, but governments must work fast to mitigate their effects on fisheries and biodiversity or risk long-term food insecurity for millions of people whose lives depend on the river and its tributaries, leading academics ...

Cambodia’s Apsara National Authority, which manages Angkor Archaeological Park, will this week unveil a “revolutionary” new concept for Angkor’s management that will vastly decentralize responsibility for the preservation of the temple complex, according to Anne Lemaistre, Unesco representative in Cambodia. The new Angkor Heritage Management Framework, ...

After nearly two years of silence on its draft NGO Law, the Ministry of Interior on Sunday said it was aiming to have the highly contentious piece of legislation ready for the Council of Ministers early next year and voted on by July. Meas Sarim, deputy ...

The deputy director of the Preah Sihanouk provincial tax branch who was arrested for corruption last week was on Friday charged with the misappropriation of public funds, an official confirmed Sunday. Phy Rith, who was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Wednesday, was charged by ...

In an effort to put a stop to land swaps in Phnom Penh, City Hall has called on state institutions with offices in Chamkar Mon district’s Tonle Bassac commune to register or re-register for land titles, a municipal official said Sunday. A letter signed by ...

In areas where electoral irregularities were the most pronounced during July’s national election, the ruling CPP saw a significant increase in its share of votes compared to that of the opposition CNRP, according to a report compiled by a coalition of human rights NGOs known ...

The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to stand down during an event attended by CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha in California on Saturday night. Speaking at a CNRP fundraising event, Ed Royce, a Republican ...

The European Union, Unicef and the Embassy of Sweden on Friday donated information technology (IT) supplies worth about $500,000 to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to enhance communication and administrative work, officials said. A total of 96 district education offices, 24 provincial education offices ...

A national legal aid system is imperative and must be established to offset a widening gap between those who can afford justice and those who cannot, the representative for the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia said on Friday. In ...

Cambodia must establish an independent, national human rights institution with the power to conduct investigations and sanction those guilty of violations, representatives of the country’s two leading local rights groups said on Friday. A consortium of rights groups met Thursday in Phnom Penh to discuss the ...

The Motion Picture As­sociation of Cambodia (MPAC), an independent body that aims to protect intellectual property, officially opened its doors Wednesday, vowing to put an end to the sale of pirated DVDs in Phnom Penh as its first order of business. “We are goingto serve everybody ...

As part of the investigation into the shooting of bystanders and unarmed protesters in Stung Meanchey two weeks ago, the weapons used by police officers at the protest will be collected and compared to the bullets extracted from victims’ bodies, municipal police chief Chuon Sovann ...

Malaysian telecommunications company Axiata Group Berhad reported Wednesday that its Cambodian brand Smart has seen strong growth in the first nine months of the year, with revenue increasing by 36 percent compared with the same period last year. In its third quarter financial report, Axiata said ...

Low-quality education is jeopardizing business growth in Cambodia, and local graduates will not be employable in skilled jobs if the government does not quickly implement educational reforms, business executives warned Thursday at the Cambodian Market Intel 2013 seminar in Phnom Penh. During an hourlong panel discussion ...