News

The Supreme Court has requested that the owner of Phnom Penh’s shuttered Renakse Hotel deposit $200,000 with the court as proof that it is able to pay compensation to the hotel’s former manager, a lawyer said yesterday. In 2008, the ruling CPP sold the French colonial-era ...

Nine non-governmental groups issued a statement late last week urging the country’s National Election Committee (NEC) to enforce laws that bar political parties from using state resources. “The NEC has to punish the politicians and parties who use the state resources,” said Yong Kim Eng, ...

The ruling CPP is misusing state properties to further its political agenda, said the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel) in a report that will be released today. The report said Comfrel monitors had documented 200 instances in which state properties and resources had been ...

The auditor who submitted a report used to convict a husband and wife of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from a company owned by the wife of a tycoon senator admitted yesterday that the quality of his audit was “poor”. The report was used ...

When Chhin Theang picked up the long-awaited title to her Boeung Kak home during a low-key ceremony at the Daun Penh district office on Monday, the moment was bittersweet. “We always had hope because we protested. We had to get land titles,” Ms. Theang said ...

More than 1,000 villagers in Prey Veng province’s Prey Veng town blocked traffic on national road 11 outside the office of the Cambodian People’s Party yesterday to demand the price of water be lowered from 1,800 riels per cubic metre to 1,200 riels. The protesters, who ...

Armed troops that were deployed last month to quell a land dispute protest outside the Kompong Speu Provincial Court were ordered to do so by a court prosecutor, a commander in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) said yesterday. On Feb. 9, a detachment of ...

The ruling CPP recieved nearly twice as much television and radio airtime last year than any other political party, and access to the broadcast media continues to be constrained by bias toward Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party, an election-monitoring group said in its annual report. ...

The former deputy director general of Anco Groups and his wife yesterday defended themselves against convictions handed down by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for embezzling nearly $60 million dollars from the firm – owned by CPP Senator and tycoon Kok An – during the ...

The World Bank said yesterday that it is continuing to search for a new country manager following the departure of Quimiao Fann last month for a new role in the former Soviet Union. A Chinese national and economist by training, Mr. Fan has been ...

With a focus on the NGO draft law and allegations of government interference in the Khmer Rouge tribunal, international rights group Human Rights Watch blasted Cambodia’s rights record in its annual report yesterday. The government was quick to hit back at the criticism, saying that HRW ...

The government yesterday lashed out at a letter sent by opposition lawmakers to the World Bank that urged the bank to increase pressure on the government to end forced evictions, land grabbing and threats against community members involved in land disputes with well-connected companies. Council ...

Following a decision in March to give land back to residents of 13 communes in Pursat province from a vast economic land concession belong to the conglomerate Pheapimex, boundaries have yet to be drawn, and ownership of the land still remains unclear, residents and a ...

Officials working in Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary and in nearby communities said yesterday that they were receiving new motorbikes and digital cameras from businessman Try Pheap, who in recent months received large-scale rubber concessions in the Preah Vihear province sanctuary. Earlier this week, it was ...

Businessman Try Pheap, who in recent months received large-scale economic land concessions in Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary in Preah Vihear province, has donated $130,000 to the sanctuary’s environmental management and the local CPP office,  officials said yesterday. Recipients of the funds denied that there was ...

The government has postponed a top-level meeting with its foreign donors scheduled for November, a move that comes just over a week after a displeased World Bank revealed its decision to freeze all future loans to Cambodia. In an Aug 17 letter to World Bank ...

For the first time since Phnom Penh municipality slated some 4,000 mostly poor families for forced eviction in 2007 to make way for a CPP senator’s controversial real estate project, City Hall yesterday promised them what they have always wanted most: titles to their land. ...

Government officials yesterday dismissed the World Bank’s recently revealed decision to freeze funding for new projects in Cambodia to protest a Phnom Penh real estate project that has forced thousand of families out of their homes. A housing rights group closely following the evictions said ...

The World Bank has frozen funding to Cambodia, making good on its threat in March to reconsider aid levels to Cambodia in response to the ongoing eviction of thousands of Phnom Penh families from Boeng Kak lake, a Bank official confirmed yesterdaySome 3,000 families have ...

Mong Reththy Group has suspended a $115 million sugar plantation project that has been three years in the works, CPP Senator Mong Reththy said yesterday. According to Mr Reththy, the suspension is due to “internal” issues facing the French partner in the project, Groupe Sucres ...

Roads, bridges, schools, sanitation and other forms of basic infrastructure are still top priorities for many rural citizens of Cambodia. Comfrel has done a study of issues that voters are concerned with and found that infrastructure is a key area. Traditionally the rural areas have ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has called corruption a “fundamental concern” for Cambodia even with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) celebrating 10 months since its inauguration. The ADB’s Country Governance Risk Assessment Report and Risk Management Plan which is to be released soon calls for capacity ...

CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin was joined by his wife as they broke ground on the controversial project taking place at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak Lake. They unveiled the architectural renderings of the towers to be built on what used to be the site of ...

1,300 hectares of land in Phnom Penh and Kandal province have been privatized and conceded to the LYP Group in order for them to be developed into a satellite city. LYP Group is owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat. Prime Minister Hun Sen signed ...