The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia’s close ties to China will not compromise its relationship with other regional powers, an official said after a meeting between Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and a top Chinese diplomat yesterday.​ ...

A ban on the importation of chainsaws into Cambodia could be in the offing, after agriculture officials this week called for a nationwide crackdown on the illegal logging trade. ...

Just days after a dozen Montagnard asylum seekers returned to Vietnam having given up on being granted refugee status, 11 more arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, according to the United Nations. ...

Two Chinese shipping giants will soon sign agreements with Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP), paving the way for exporters to move cargo directly from Cambodia to China, according to a senior port official. ...

A government delegation yesterday told Tbong Khmum provincial and local officials it would resolve a border dispute with Vietnam in Memot district “very soon”, as villagers blocked from their farms in the contested area by Vietnamese authorities say they fear looming food shortages. ...

Protected areas and other biodiversity hotspots across Southeast Asia are increasingly under threat from expanding rubber plantations, with Cambodia at risk of losing more ecologically important land than any of its neighbours, a recent study reports. ...

Youth vocational training may be the key to curbing migration and combating poverty in Cambodia’s most vulnerable communities, according to child welfare NGO Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE), which is helping to roll out a technical skills program for high school dropouts. ...

Ruling party lawmaker Chheang Vun yesterday said opposition parliamentarian Um Sam An’s legal immunity could be suspended for criticising National Assembly President Heng Samrin, but refused to specify what law, if any, the Cambodia National Rescue Party member had broken. ...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has given Cambodian microfinance institute Hattha Kaksekar Ltd (HKL) a loan of up $10 million, aiming to boost access to finance to small- and medium-sized enterprises in Cambodia’s rural areas.​ ...

About 300 protesters from Svay Rieng and Preah Sihanouk provinces marched to parliament yesterday to file petitions urging the local authorities to intervene to resolve ongoing land disputes in their homelands. ...

The first half of 2015 has seen a nearly 50 per cent increase in illegal fishing busts, though the vast majority resulted in no punishment for offenders, a new report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries shows. ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Governor Pa Socheatvong yesterday accused civil society organisations of paying land rights demonstrators to protest against a controversial NGO law that recently passed the National Assembly. ...

Preah Vihear province Try Pheap wants to turn over a new leaf.In an exclusive interview with the Post at the opening ceremony of his vast plantation in Preah Vihear province on Sunday, the media-shy tycoon spoke of a desire to cultivate a new image – ...

The number of people arrested for drug trafficking during the first six months of this year has increased by 159 per cent, police officials announced on Friday. ...

Russia is looking to up its investment in agricultural products, mainly rice and seafood, and the tourism sector in the Kingdom, after Russian Minister for Communications and Mass Media Nikolay Nikiforov met with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol last week.  ...

Six activists from Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila and Boeung Kak communities were arrested on Saturday morning while handing out leaflets denouncing the controversial NGO law, passed by the National Assembly last week. ...

An endangered gaur – a species of wild bovine – was reportedly shot dead near a protected forest last Wednesday in Stung Treng’s Siem Pang district. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Sam Rainsy yesterday told unionists that his party supports a minimum wage increase in the Kingdom’s garment industry to $180 per month in 2016. ...

After the arrest of wanted tycoon Sok Bun this weekend, authorities are now searching for his bodyguard, police said yesterday, though a lawyer for the woman Bun was charged with assaulting has accused the disgraced real estate magnate of obscuring the man’s identity. ...

Forests and wildlife near Pailin province’s O’Tavao Waterfall are being threatened by local deforestation and hunting, officials said yesterday. ...

A Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor said yesterday that he has decided to charge prominent human rights monitor Ny Chakrya in a case that rights groups have described as a bald-faced attempt to suppress criticism of the Kingdom’s judiciary. ...

The Ministry of Commerce received more than 2,100 new business registrations in the first half of the year, surpassing the 2,020 registrations received at the halfway mark of 2014. ...

A former TV hostess savagely beaten by property mogul Sok Bun after intervening to stop his unwanted advances on her friend appeared in court yesterday as it emerged the friend has now filed a rape complaint against the tycoon for a previous alleged assault. ...

The National Assembly’s legal council is considering action against opposition lawmaker Un Sam An after he accused Assembly President Heng Samrin of failing to respect the constitution, according to a ruling party lawmaker. ...