Cambodian News

Svay Rieng provincial court has issued a summons to opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who is facing charges for allegedly leading a group of villagers to pull up demarcation posts near the Vietnam border in October.
Sam Rainsy has been asked to appear on Dec. 28, according to a summons issued Wednesday and obtained by VOA Khmer.
Sam [...]

King Norodom Sihamoni issued a royal pardon on Friday for a Thai citizen sentenced to seven years in prison for alleged espionage, a government spokesman said Monday.
The pardon of Siwarak Chothipong, a 31-year-old Thai engineer, came after an official request from the Pheu Thai Party, which is affiliated with former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the [...]

Government officials are increasing tax policies but continuing with irregular expenditures at a time when they should focus on dampening the effects of the global economic downturn, an opposition official said Monday.
The passage of the 2010 national budget earlier this month includes taxes that will make difficulties for people already struggling in the depressed economy, [...]

The National Assembly on Tuesday passed the draft law for the 2010 budget, with overall spending reaching nearly $2 billion.
Defense and security spending increased by more than $50 million, while health and education spending rose nearly 20 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
The overall budget of $1.99 billion was an increase of more than $100 million [...]

National Assembly President Heng Samrin on Wednesday praised Cambodian soldiers deployed to the Thai border, as he marked the 31st anniversary of the formation of a front that helped oust the Khmer Rouge and led to the creation of today’s ruling party.
Speaking at the Chaktomuk Theater in Phnom Penh, Heng Samrin said soldiers were defending [...]

As Cambodia undergoes a review at the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday member states should be concerned over recent deteriorations of basic freedoms.
Under the Human Rights Council, member states are reviewed every four years. In a submission to the council, Human Rights Watch underscored political violence, impunity for senior [...]

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved the long-awaited draft of an anti-corruption law, but critics worry they will have little chance to change it when it comes up for parliamentary debate.
The law will attempt to rein in the country’s endemic corruption, which starts with traffic police taking bribes from overloaded trucks and ends with [...]

Post-war Cambodia only saw its first insurance agency in 1990, when the state-owned Caminco opened. Nearly 20 years later, a number of private companies have established themselves, but experts say they still face challenges in a market where few understand the benefits and many can’t afford premiums.
“Compared with other countries, our market is very small, [...]

[Editor’s note: VOA Khmer recently spoke with specialists in the field of natural resource management in developing countries and learned that Cambodia is not alone in struggling to use natural resources to benefit its citizens. The resource curse, where natural riches fail to help the poor, is a worldwide scourge, the global experts told VOA [...]

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said Cambodia must go ahead with its law governing non-governmental agencies, lest the country become a haven for terrorism and human trafficking.
Speaking before a gathering of NGO officials in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen downplayed concerns the law would be used to restrict the work of rights groups and other organizations.
“We [...]