VOA Khmer

The World Bank on Wednesday released an update to the biannual “Cambodia Economic Update”, which showed that the economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2018, but could drop to 7 percent this year. The updated growth numbers are the same as the ones released in ...

Worker unions criticized the National Assembly’s passing of 10 amendments to the contentious Trade Union Law on Tuesday, saying they were not aware of the exact nature of the amendments passed by parliament. ...

A Commerce Ministry official said on Thursday that initiation of talks with China for a free trade agreement were not linked to a potential suspension of the ‘Everything But Arms’ trade scheme. The Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh announced last week that the two countries ...

Cambodian Tourism Ministry statistics showed an increase in international tourists arriving in the country for the first nine months of the year, again bolstered by Chinese tourist arrivals in the Kingdom. The statistics show that nearly 4.8 million tourists arrived in the country from January ...

The United Nations has called on Cambodia to repeal its decision criminalizing surrogacy and asked the government to ensure that its draft law will not impose criminal liability on surrogate mothers. ...

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Koy Kuong said the government will attempt to address all the points of concern raised by the European Union but refrained from divulging any details. ...

The Cambodian government is abolishing a controversial “hotel” prison project, according to Ministry of Interior officials. The government had announced earlier this month that it would soon open the new prison facilities, in which inmates can pay to stay. The facilities are said to be ...

A middle-aged man was arrested and sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Court Wednesday while three other supporters of slain political analyst Kem Ley were also arrested as they were attempting to sell t-shirts with Kem Ley’s portrait and commemorating his assassination’s third anniversary. According to ...

Cambodian courts and police authorities have summoned a total of 140 ex-members of the opposition party in recent weeks, a local human rights group said, as government efforts to intimidate and suppress the opposition continue more than a year after the party was banned. Dozens of ...

US-based supporters of Cambodia’s former opposition party have launched a campaign to lobby US lawmakers to support legislation aimed at placing sanctions on the Cambodian government. The activists are planning to call and petition lawmakers to urge them to support the Cambodia Trade Act and ...

The UN Children’s Agency has called for a new policy to protect Cambodian children from bullying. In a statement released to coincide with Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, Unicef said young people between the ages of 15 and 25 years olds were particularly at risk. Natascha ...

Cambodian land rights activists have accused Chinese investors of fueling land disputes through unscrupulous land acquisition and development. The advocates made the comments during a two-day meeting in Phnom Penh earlier this month. ...

Local and international civil society groups operating in Cambodia face government-imposed restrictions on their operations and have been significantly hindered in their work in the lead up to Sunday’s general election, according to a recent report by a U.S.-based think tank. ...

Cambodia’s economic health remains strong at about 6 or 7 percent annual growth, but the country needs to harness its young population and invest in training and skills to ensure this trend continues, the World Bank said. ...

Fishing communities around the Tonle Sap Lake have called on Laos to scrap a controversial Mekong hydropower project after the consultation period for the project ended this week. ...

Cambodia has announced it will shutter the office of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission in Phnom Penh, relocating its functions to neighboring Laos. ...

Honeybees have a huge role in tropical ecosystems, but illegal logging and unsustainable honey harvesting are hurting their population. Honeybees have co-evolved with flowering plants and their overall health is an indicator of an ecosystem’s wellbeing. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen is pushing government institutions and businesses to improve the country’s rice production. Investment is required in machinery and warehouses to dry and store rice for export, something Cambodia is discussing with China, Hun Sen said. ...

A new traffic law will come into force on January 1 that is hoped to reduce the number of people killed on Cambodia’s roads each year.Road accidents cost the economy an estimated $300 million annually, and the death toll from road accidents keeps rising. According ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called environmental activists objecting to the construction of hydropower dams in Cambodia “extreme” insisting that such developments would benefit millions of people.His remarks came on Wednesday during the inauguration of a dam located on the Tatay river in Koh Kong ...