Ministries and other national bodies

Rice wine brewed with a toxic level of alcohol has killed at least 19 people and left 172 more in hospital in northeast Cambodia, the health ministry said Sunday.“Laboratory tests found the deaths were caused by the high methanol level in the wine,” Ly Sovann, ...

The Interior Ministry has re­sponded to remarks the chief of the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) made this week about graft among police officials, claiming that such comments belittle the work of civil servants who have dedicated their lives to the state. ...

Forty young environmental envoys began training on December 5 to become Young Eco Ambassadors, tasked with raising awareness of the need to protect the environment. ...

Revenue from ticket sales for foreign visitors to the Angkor Wat temple complex rose slightly in the first 11 months of this year to $53.5 million, a 1.15 percent rise over the same period last year, the government agency that manages Angkor Archaeological Park said ...

A U.S.-based Pentecostal ministry with an extensive network of “orphan homes” in Cambodia will be investigated by the Ministry of Social Affairs after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced at one of its centers in Kratie province, though the organization will be allowed three months to ...

The release of the anticipated draft petroleum law – expected by the end of this year – has been postponed until several technical issues are clarified, a senior official at the Ministry of Mines and Energy said. ...

The new Telecom Law recently approved by the Senate will open the sector for more investment as the government moves to ensure infrastructure for telecom services is provided nationwide by 2020, a senior official told a regional telecom forum yesterday.  ...

The Kingdom’s much-maligned drug rehabilitation programs may be getting a facelift, thanks to a new government-led push towards ‘community-based treatment’, according to officials and NGOs working in the sector.  ...

A Finance Ministry official said on Sunday that the government had yet to decide whether it would comply with Asian Development Bank (ADB) rules that families facing eviction from along the country’s old railway tracks be offered resettlement options better than the ones they have ...

The job of spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, long held by General Khieu Sopheak, has been split up and given to 22 different ministry officials, according to a statement released Friday, though contact details for the new point people have not been published. ...

After writing to Prime Minister Hun Sen in July asking him to order an investigation into the sand dredging taking place in Koh Kong province, CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay on Wednesday accused the prime minister of not fully addressing the issues in his letter of ...

Sixteen years after the Ministry of Environment and conservation groups began to protect the Prek Toal wetlands on the western edge of Tonle Sap Lake, the area has been designated a site of global importance. ...

Chinese Investors from Sichuan Province in Western China are seeking out investment opportunities in Cambodia, a senior official from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Sichuan Council said yesterday at a meeting in the capital. Investment would be focused on infrastructure ...

A newly-constructed two-storey building of Kampot provincial branch of the National Bank of Cambodia inaugurated this morning to welcome clients. ...

Cambodia’s Labour Ministry has denied rumours that factories would be closed in December and has called for the arrest of the “mastermind” for spreading the rumour, Cambodian newspapers have reported. ...

The Labor Ministry has called on authorities to find the source of rumors that the country’s garment factories were planning to close for the month of December and arrest those responsible, according to a statement issued Saturday. ...

The future of disposable packaging is banana leaves, according to the government and Unesco, which on Friday launched a campaign to “Make My Country Plastic Bag Free.” ...

A new draft of the proposed Telecommunications Law would give authorities the right to eavesdrop on any conversation, along with a host of other powers that a rights group has warned would effectively nationalize private service providers. ...

Officials with the Interior Ministry and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday that a fifth person from Australia’s refugee camps on Nauru had arrived in Cambodia, but declined to provide any details. ...

A commune chief in Takeo has taken responsibility for producing a birth certificate that incorrectly lists the southern Cambodian province as being in Vietnam, but claimed he had made an honest mistake, officials said, adding that he would not face punishment. ...

A freshwater Mekong dolphin was found dead yesterday morning on a river bank Prek Prosob district, Kratie province, where only only about 80 Mekong dolphins remain, according to officials. ...

Technological innovation is playing a critical role in the development of the country’s economy by making business operate faster, a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce told a seminar last week. ...

The Telecom Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) has urged 34 domestic telecom operators and ISPs to submit their business performance reports by end-November. The watchdog plans to ensure the companies comply with their licensing agreements, Khmer Times reports, citing Im Vutha, director of regulation at TRC. ...

The Interior Ministry is searching for a man who posted a doctored birth certificate to Facebook that lists his birthplace as Takeo province, Vietnam—reasoning that the suspect had “poisoned the environment,” officials said on Thursday. ...