People and government
Rate of water accidents still high

Domestic waterways play a critical role in passenger and cargo transport in the Mekong Delta, but the rate of accidents remains at a high level due to lack of attention from local and related authorities. Speaking at a seminar on waterway safety held in the Delta ...
Oil won't affect 2015 budget

Do Hoang Anh Tuan, deputy minister of finance, said reduction in the world crude price to US$36 per barrel in future transactions would not affect budget revenue this year. The budget revenue this year has exceeded the target to reach between VND65 trillion and VND66 trillion ...
Law amended to improve government performance

The amended Law on Government, which was passed by the National Assembly (NA) on 15 December, aims to improve the government’s performance through more transparent and frugal practices. Amendments to Article 4 on the performance principles to be followed by government stipulate that its performance or ...
Prison population swells

Cambodia’s badly overcrowded prison population leapt by nearly 20 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, government data show, raising serious health concerns. The figures, released by the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons on 15 December, show that there were 17,522 prisoners ...
Government must help homeless: UN

The United Nations on 15 December called on the government to do more to protect its homeless after years of so-called street sweeps and a lack of social care have left destitute Cambodians vulnerable to health risks and violence. “Cambodia is growing fast economically, and the signs ...
ADB boosts climate funds

The pool of climate finances available to Southeast Asia is set to expand following an announcement by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that it plans to double its climate funding to the region by 2020 – a move welcomed by the Cambodian government and climate ...
Land tensions rise after talks snub

Already tired of lengthy delays on the promised return of confiscated land, farmers in Pyin Oo Lwin district are now furious officials stood them up at a negotiation meeting. The farmers said they were summoned by the Township Farmland Management and Statistics Department to discuss a ...
Court rejects plea to free detained student activist
The Criminal Court on 15 December dismissed a petition filed by the head of a student activist group seeking to have the arrest of Thammasat University student Thanet Anantawong ruled unlawful. Keep reading ...
Prayut kills 'unnecessary' GMO bill

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on 15 December dropped a controversial bill regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), saying the bill currently was unnecessary. The legislation was initiated long ago and its consideration should stop as there was no pressing need for it, the prime minister said after the ...
Red-shirt arsonists' light jail terms upped to life sentences

The Supreme Court on 14 December handed a life sentence to the man who led red-shirt protestors to torch Ubon Ratchathani’s provincial hall in 2010, overruling a lower court’s sentence of only one year. The high court initially gave the death penalty to 60-year-old Pichet Thabutda, a ...