News

National Police anti-drug chief Mok Chito yesterday said his officers need to begin inserting themselves into a stage of investigations until now the sole domain of the judiciary – drug testing.   ...

Dwindling donor funding for combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis could have a critical impact on low-income countries like Cambodia, a new study has found, with some health workers in the Kingdom saying that the squeeze is already being felt.   ...

The Ministry of Environment has given two NGOs the go-ahead to implement their proposed management plans for five protected community forest areas in Battambang and Pursat provinces, projected to cover 1,064 families and 2,761 hectares.   ...

National Election Committee (NEC) Secretary-General Tep Nytha said on Thursday that next year’s crucial commune council elections would likely be held in June but that the decision must ultimately come from the government.   ...

Container traffic at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP), which operates the country’s only deep-sea port, increased by almost 10 per cent during the first quarter of the year, compared to a year earlier, while tonnage rose by 11.5 per cent, a company official said yesterday. ...

Malaysia-based retailer Giant, one of the largest players in Asia, has launched its first store in Cambodia, opening in Phnom Penh’s Grand City Mall as part of a major expansion into the Kingdom. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture will ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to lift a ban on snakehead fish farms to reduce reliance on foreign food sources and raise the income of farmers, officials said on Thursday. ...

The United States promised to work with Cambodia on maritime security at a high-level meeting in Phnom Penh yesterday between senior officials from both countries. ...

The Cambodian government has agreed to a request from the Thai Labor Ministry to temporarily block migrant workers from traveling to Thailand for the next four months as it conducts a census into migrants in the country, according to a statement released on Thursday.   ...

Despite strong growth in investment in the construction sector, investors, builders and developers still largely neglect insurance on projects, industry and government officials say.​ ...

Hundreds of dead bats were found inside Siem Reap’s Phnom Bouk temple in Banteay Srey district after district police and environmental officers were notified by local residents on Tuesday. ...

The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide $36 million to the Commerce Ministry to help improve market access for poor farmers and small entrepreneurs. ...

Human rights group Licadho has criticised the Cambodian Telecoms Law that came into effect in December of last year, saying it “poses a severe threat to freedom of expression”. ...

Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company, announced it has signed a letter of intent with VIP Jets Ltd. for the first Bell 505 Jet Ranger X in Cambodia. This is also the first Bell Helicopter aircraft signed for in Cambodia. ...

A direct phone call from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen alerted Phnom Penh city hall deputy Long Dimanche to his new role as the country’s envoy to South Korea. ...

Lieutenant General Hun Manet has defended his father Prime Minister Hun Sen’s record, saying people should remember the role Hun Sen played in bringing peace and national reconciliation to the country. ...

Notorious former military police officer and purported illegal-timber trader Sou Marith was apprehended yesterday morning along with three other men while allegedly transporting timber in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district. ...

In 2001, a man with the same name and address as Tuol Kork-based computer salesman Thai Tino established the first of several shell companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.   ...

Unusually high yields of salt production in Kep and Kampot province have surpassed the market’s low demand, filling the nation’s salt storage facilities to capacity, the head of a local industry body said yesterday.   ...

Labor Ministry officials have filed a complaint to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court accusing four union officials of public defamation, insulting public officers and blocking public roads. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia will launch a new payment system to increase inter bank activity in a move to shore up confidence in the Kingdom’s rapidly expanding banking sector, it said in a press release yesterday. ...

The Kampot provincial authority started distributing clean water yesterday to drought-stricken villagers in several districts who do not have enough water for drinking and their basic daily needs such as cooking. ...

In 2008, British American Tobacco (BAT) was awarded its third straight “Gold Medal” from Prime Minister Hun Sen in recognition of good corporate stewardship, according to the company’s July newsletter. ...

European Union Ambassador yesterday criticized the slowness of the communal land title process introduced in 2001 to protect the ancestral forests and farmland of Cambodia’s indigenous groups. ...