News
French bank set to enter Cambodia
French bank BRED Banque Populaire – part of the second-largest banking group in France – will start commercial operations in Cambodia later this year, marking the first foray for a European bank in the Kingdom since the late 1990s, sources in the banking sector said ...
Water shipped to parched Banteay Meanchey locale
At least 600 families in the remote Svay Chek district of Banteay Meanchey province are being threatened by a shortage of drinking water that began earlier this month, a provincial official said on 16 February. The water in the wells and rivers has been drying up ...
Koh Kong sand dredging impact studies due
The Ministry of Mines and Energy plans to release the environmental impact assessments of two controversial sand-dredging companies in Koh Kong “soon”, ministry spokesman Meng Saktheara said on 15 February. Activists from NGO Mother Nature – three of whom have been arrested for interfering with the ...
Voting abroad impossible: Cambodian PM
Prime Minister Hun Sen has dismissed calls to allow Cambodians living abroad to vote in the next election, claiming it would be impossible under the Kingdom’s proportional representative electoral system. But a vast string of other countries – including Indonesia and several European nations – operate ...
Tycoon Sok Bun to serve 10 months
Sok Bun, the real estate tycoon whose savage beating of TV personality Ek Socheata was caught on camera in July, was sentenced to three years in jail yesterday, with all but 10 months of that suspended. Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Sor Lina also ordered the ...
I’ll shake hands with protesters: Hun Sen
In an address to ruling party supporters in California on 15 February, Prime Minister Hun Sen wasted little time in taking several pot shots at US foreign policy and telling attendees he planned to confront anti-government protesters at the US-ASEAN summit head-on. Speaking at his hotel ...
Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar in line for US$180m loan
The Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project will provide a US$180 million loan to finance initiatives in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to boost the capacity of commercial production in the three countries. A senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr Vinoth Vansy, told ...
ANZ still owes villagers over sugar loan: Oxfam
Australian banking giant ANZ has come under fire for its response to a scandal over its financing of a sugar plantation previously linked to forced evictions and child labour in Kampong Speu province. Titled Still Banking on Land Grabs, Oxfam’s Australia branch released a report on ...
Fighting infant mortality with phone alerts
A new Cambodian maternal-health initiative is seeking to patch a persistent knowledge gap among new mothers by providing information via mobile phone alerts on optimal post-natal care during the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life. Cambodia’s national infant mortality rate, despite improvements, remains stubbornly high ...
Veggie farming to trim Cambodia's import bill
Government officials, economists and businesses discussed the implementation of a draft program to invigorate vegetable farming in Cambodia and cut imports from neighbouring countries in half by 2018. The workshop, organised by the Center for Policy Studies and Agriculture Ministry last week, revolved around the Cambodian ...
