Government

Private firms say costs, delays and bureaucratic red tape have increased since an obscure private company took over the government’s work-permit application and issuance system in September. The Ministry of Labour announced in August that it had outsourced work permit application processing to E-Solutions (Cambodia) Co ...

Education Ministry officials said yesterday that there will be greater participation by disabled children in schools, announcing a plan that would allow disabled youngsters to attend schools with the rest of the country’s children by early next year. Im Koch, a secretary of state for the ...

Construction will start next month on a project to build affordable public housing for the lower middle class, low-income earners and state workers. Urban Planning and Land Management Minister Chea Sophara said the price of a home in the project would be between $20,000 and $25,000. ...

The government created a national commission last week to prevent and crack down on crimes involving natural resources. National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha will head the commission and Hou Sakun, the deputy commissioner general of the National Police, will be second in command. Environment Ministry and ...

Acting opposition leader Kem Sokha has promised to use his new dialogue with Prime Minister Hun Sen to push for migrant workers to get a vote in the 2018 national elections. Celebrating Human Rights Day on Saturday at the CNRP headquarters, Mr. Sokha spoke to supporters ...

The National Assembly’s anti-corruption commission has asked Suy Sem, the minister of mines and energy, to appear for questioning on December 15, as villagers in Koh Kong province cast doubt on government claims that it had temporarily banned sand mining there. Mr. Sem will answer questions ...

A leading Chinese manufacturer of power transmission and distribution equipment recently visited Cambodia to explore opportunities in the Kingdom’s rapidly growing energy sector, including a proposal for a factory to produce equipment for the electricity sector. ...

Cambodia and Thailand will be linked by a railway by the end of 2016 as planned, according to senior official, but some sections of track from Phnom Penh to Banteay Meanchey province remain unrestored. Minister of Public Works and Transportation Sun Chanthol said this week that ...

The Environment Ministry has started it’s process of recruiting 300 new forest rangers to work in select provinces next year in a bid to fill staff shortages and reduce deforestation.​ Ministry spokesperson Sao Sopheap said yesterday that the existing 960-strong ranger workforce was insufficient to guard ...

Local garment sector stakeholders failed to find common ground at a meeting on supply chain safety protocols, with the government and employers expressing reluctance to take on an additional level of responsibility. ...

Opposition lawmakers have requested Health Minister Mam Bunheng appear at the National Assembly to answer questions over graft, irregularities and poor services within his portfolio, including claims that officials from the National Malaria Centre misappropriated cash from the Global Fund. ...

A railway linking Phnom Penh to its international airport is being planned, with passengers getting the chance to check in baggage and get boarding passes before they get on the train. The line would join the Phnom Penh to Preah Sihanouk track which runs past the ...

The 2017 national budget, with more than $5 billion in expenditures, was passed by the Senate yesterday without any changes despite opposition from the CNRP. Expenditures in the 2017 budget are up 15.6 percent compared with 2016 and include more than $1 billion in foreign loans. ...

Customs authorities should work quickly to adopt an envisioned online registration system for cross-border cargo shipments that would expedite delivery and cut out pesky middlemen who tack on unofficial fees, Transport Minister Sun Chanthol said yesterday. ...

Land Management Minister Chea Sophara led a veritable battalion of ministry officials in a survey of Phnom Penh’s iconic White Building on Saturday morning in preparation for a proposed development project on the site. ...

Freshly pardoned CNRP deputy leader Kem Sokha yesterday claimed the pardon that exonerated him on Friday was made without any conditions or concessions from the opposition party. The acting president of the opposition, who had been under de facto house arrest since May and had been ...

China is considering setting up an industrial zone in Cambodia and says it will announce new areas of cooperation with Asean nations in line with Cambodia’s industrial development policy. The issues were discussed on Saturday when Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak met Xu Ningning, executive president of ...

The Labor Ministry says that it is investigating fresh allegations of widespread child labor at the country’s brick-making factories, but claims to have found no evidence as of yet. The ministry made the announcement on Friday, hours after the release of a new report by local ...

With voter registration wrapping up last week, the National Election Committee over the weekend issued a call for the public to submit their evaluations of the rules that will govern the June 4 commune elections – the first popular ballot since the disputed 2013 national ...

Just under 7.9 million Cambodians enrolled to vote in next year’s commune elections during the registration period that closed on Wednesday, results released yesterday show, with the figure well short of the goal of 9.6 million people older than 18. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday hit back at opposition critics of his efforts to seek French expert help in modernising old colonial maps of Cambodia’s border with Vietnam, rejecting their claims that such an effort would require a constitutional amendment. ...

The National Assembly’s anti-corruption commission will summon Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem to answer questions about an apparent $700 million discrepancy in sand exports to Singapore. ...

The government will offer three-year, multiple-entry visas to Chinese and South Korean investors in an effort to make doing business easier and increase investment in the Kingdom, the premier said during the first Cambodia-China Business and Financial Development Forum in Phnom Penh yesterday. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni ordered last week that the Phnom Penh boundaries be expanded to include portions from neighboring Kandal province in a bid to improve the city’s development. In a royal decree dated November 11, but only released on November 21, King Sihamoni ordered the government ...