Cam News Book

Cambodian authorities issued health protocols on Sunday to prevent the spread of monkeypox and initiated contact tracing after Thailand’s first case fled Phuket and was located in Phnom Penh. The 27-year-old man of Nigerian nationality, who had been living in Thailand since last year, went to a hospital on the tourist island of Phuket on the 16th where blood samples were collected before he was discharged. A laboratory in the following days confirmed he was carrying the virus. Authorities could not contact or locate him.

  In the jungles of Cambodia, Sopheap Meas is lifting old curses. She’s an archeologist working for the Cambodian government and her job is to find ancient Khmer artefacts stolen from her country. To many in Cambodia, the artworks are not just stone artefacts but “living” gods. To them, these sculptures weren’t stolen, they were kidnapped.

  Cambodian authorities have begun tightening regulations on anything deemed “fake news” in relation to COVID-19, following Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Friday warning to jail those responsible for spreading them. “Please do not take the COVID-19 issue as a joke, it is not acceptable. This is not a right of expression. The world is against fake news, why can Cambodia not do it?” Sen asked. The premier’s remarks came after a member of the opposition Candlelight Party was arrested for allegedly posting pictures of dead people on social media and “falsely claiming” that they were bodies of people who had just died of COVID-19 in the Southeast Asian nation. “Anyone who uses COVID-19 to destroy public safety will face legal action,” Sen warned.

  A special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was unable to meet with Myanmar’s ousted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a visit to the country. Prak Sokhonn, who is Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, traveled to Myanmar last Wednesday. The Cambodian government reported on Monday that Prak Sokhonn met with Myanmar’s top military general and the junta-appointed foreign minister during his stay.

  Cambodia has invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to annual Asean-related meetings slated for early August, with the decision likely to cause concern among the international community which has been split in its response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at a briefing to the foreign diplomatic corps on Wednesday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said he asked the Russian minister to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum and other related meetings. Cambodia, this year’s Asean chair, has also invited Myanmar to the meetings although only as a “non-political representative,” according to Prak Sokhonn, who recently made a trip to the Southeast Asian country where a military junta ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

  At the time of writing, it’s rather unclear what the Cambodian cabinet is trying to achieve by amending the constitution again – the third time in four years. The government is tight-lipped. Because we know what articles are under review, it seems they are trying to change how prime ministers are appointed and how they can be removed from office. Possibly, this will remove certain powers from the National Assembly. Most likely, the changes are being made because of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s succession plans. In December, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) selected Hun Manet as its next prime ministerial candidate once Hun Sen, his father, resigns. Sar Kheng, the interior minister, took exception, but Hun Sen appears to have now put him in his place. Talk of a Sar Kheng putsch is fanciful; he’s lost even more power after two new party vice presidents were appointed in December. The CPP itself easily won last month’s commune elections, and we can expect another rout at next y...

  Religious ceremonies were held in Cambodia to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the death of prominent political analyst Kem Ley. Kem Ley was killed at a gas station on July 10, 2016, in Phnom Penh. Many suspect the murder was linked to his work as a commentator and political analyst. He was murdered days after he gave a radio interview about a Global Witness report detailing corruption under the Hun Sen government, which has ruled the country since 1985. Since 2016, civil society groups have been calling on officials to properly investigate the murder and determine the person(s) behind the killing.

  The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) on Saturday held an extraordinary conference of its Central Committee on Saturday to set out an action plan for 2023, the year in which the country’s next general elections will be held. The party’s honorary president Samdech Heng Samrin said, in his opening speech, that the CPP’s landslide victory in the commune election last month clearly reflected people’s confidence in the party’s leadership and political programs. “We will strive to make our party even more victorious in the seventh National Assembly election in 2023,” he said.

  The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) achieved a landslide victory in the commune elections in June 2022, gaining 80 per cent of the 11,622 commune council positions. Yet there is speculation that Cambodian Premier Hun Sen is unlikely to stand as the prime ministerial candidate in the 2028 national election. That much became clear on 2 December 2021 when Hun Sen declared support for his oldest son, Hun Manet, to be the next prime ministerial candidate for the CPP. Supportive posts from CPP members swamped Hun Manet’s Facebook profile after the announcement, but the absence of congratulatory messages from Sar Kheng, a senior CPP member, led to speculation that some senior party members did not favour the new candidate. While there may be a little friction within the party, it is unlikely to pose a challenge to the CPP’s potential new leader. Hun Manet’s rise to key positions within the party suggests that Hun Sen has sufficient support to overrule any opposition to his son’s candidac...

  Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific is buying Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in Vietnam and Cambodia, a move which will expand the group’s presence in the rapidly growing Southeast Asian beverage market. Swire Pacific will pay Coca-Cola Indochina, which prepares, packages, distributes and sells Coca-Cola’s beverages in the two countries, US$1.015 billion in cash, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday. The deal is subject to anti-trust approval and will take place within six months of the signing of the agreement. Swire will buy Coca-Cola Indochina through its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Swire Beverages Holdings and Swire Coca-Cola, from Coca-Cola (Japan).

  There are a number of reasons why the Cambodian government has long sought to achieve “rielization” – limiting the use of the United States dollar and promoting the circulation of the local currency, the riel. First, as Chea Serey, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), has put it, widespread use of the riel “could enhance the effectiveness of conducting monetary policy to maintain price stability and support economic growth.” Second, the NBC cannot be a lender of last resort – offering loans to banks or other eligible institutions that are experiencing financial difficulties – if it cannot get people to hold the local currency.

  Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp Ltd has reported a net profit of US$52.7 million for the six months to 30 June 2022, reversing a US$77.2 million loss recorded a year earlier on the back of higher business volumes across all business segments at its Cambodian integrated resort, NagaWorld. According to information filed overnight, average daily business volumes in the lucrative mass and premium mass segments have recovered to 80.3% and 71.8% of 2019 levels respectively since Cambodia eased COVID-19 restrictions, while all segments also showed sequential growth in 2Q22 when compared with the March 2022 quarter. As a result, NagaCorp reported US$130.1 million in EBITDA for the first six months of this year, up from US$4.5 million in 1H21.

  Cambodia reported 40 landmine and explosive remnant of war (ERW) casualties in the first half of 2022, up 54 percent compared with 26 over the same period last year, said an official report released on Tuesday. During the January-June period this year, 10 people were killed, 23 injured, and seven amputated, said the report of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authorities (CMAA). The victims included 27 men, one woman and 12 children.

  The United States on Tuesday added Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Macau to a human trafficking blacklist that already counts Malaysia, alleging weak efforts to stop forced sex work or assist migrant laborers. In an annual report, the United States also added authoritarian-ruled Belarus to the blacklist and, in a rare criticism of a Western ally, put Bulgaria on a watchlist over concerns it is not taking trafficking seriously. “If you look at the report, you’re going to see a mixed picture of progress,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he presented it.

  For as long as he can remember, Vannda Mann has always wanted to sing. Six years ago, he said goodbye to his parents and siblings, hopped in a taxi, and embarked on a journey to become a musician. “It’s time for me to search for my dream. I am a person who loves music. Since I was young, I have lived with music. I’ve been everywhere with music. It’s an inspiration for me. It’s a path that I chose, a path that I love,” he told VICE. VannDa grew up in Sihanoukville, a coastal city in Cambodia with breathtaking scenery of the beach. To VannDa, leaving home to find himself was a journey he had to take.