The Phnom Penh Post
Despite gains, development lags
Between the years of 1990 and 2015, Cambodia saw the region’s highest rate of improvement in the UN’s Human Development Index, a metric that tracks wellbeing, though the country’s overall score remains well below the average for countries in East Asia and the Pacific, a ...
Dropout rates dropped in ’16, Education Ministry says
Significantly fewer upper secondary students dropped out of school in 2016 compared to the previous year, but Cambodian education authorities say they still want to halve the rate to improve graduation rates and students’ chances of success in life. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron reported ...
Villagers issue new calls to solve old land dispute
Villagers from Oddar Meanchey used a news conference on March 21 to appeal for government action to return land at the centre of a years-old dispute with sugar companies. The conflict erupted in 2008, when villagers were forcibly evicted from their land to allow Angkor Sugar, ...
Alternative to TPP shows no sign of activity: analysts
While Prime Minister Hun Sen has publicly expressed his distaste for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was dealt a critical blow by US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the agreement, economists say there has been little visible progress in cementing a ...
Exports of breast milk halted
The government on March 20 temporarily banned the export of breast milk from Cambodian women to the US market, citing fears that children’s nutrition may be neglected. The decision to halt exports from Ambrosia Labs – the only company currently collecting Cambodian breast milk to ...
King calls for vote free from threats or intimidation
A leaked statement from King Norodom Sihamoni circulated on social media since Sunday, nearly a month after he signed it, calls on citizens to vote for their preferred party in the upcoming elections without “worry of suppression, threats or intimidation”. The statement, signed by the ...
Ranger station razed by mob
A mob of some 60 men burned down an environmental ranger station inside Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary on Friday, allegedly as revenge against rangers who had previously stopped them from clearing forest, an official said yesterday. Keo Sopheak, provincial environmental department director, said the ...
Microlender in monster deal
Hong Kong financial giant, The Bank of East Asia and Sri Lanka’s LOLC announced on March 17 that they have jointly acquired a majority stake in Prasac Microfinance, Cambodia’s largest microfinance institution by assets, in what could be the largest acquisition of a Cambodian lender to ...
Study examines road safety
About 60 high school and university students experimented with an interactive tool for learning about road safety at Phnom Penh’s Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center on March 18, as part of an ongoing study by the Honda Foundation’s International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences. The study, ...
Probe finds high-ranking officials involved in smuggling timber to Vietnam
An official investigation has found that more than a dozen police, military police and army officials allegedly colluded with Vietnamese timber smugglers to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in bribes, according to a letter from National Police Commissioner Neth Savoeun. Signed by ...
