Millions of dollars were set aside to pay for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s global meetings, while more than 1,000 workers received state compensation for companies abandoning their operations in Cambodia, book 78 of the Royal Gazette shows.
The gazette’s book No. 78 for 2022, publicly released by the Council of Ministers on May 17, compiles an assortment of 46 government documents signed from July 5 to December 27.
Among the book’s documents already highlighted by Kamnotra is a new permit for a sugar factory for Kim Heang, who is ruling-party Senator Ly Yong Phat’s wife and recipient of state land on Phnom Penh’s controversial Boeng Tamok lake.
Elsewhere, the book includes a sub-decree signed on December 27 that allocates $2.1 million to pay for meetings around the world by Prime Minister Hun Sen. In 2022, Hun Sen sparked regional controversy by meeting with Myanmar’s junta regime; flew to Europe and threatened to surveil the families of Cambodian protesters, while denying his words were threats; and held meetings in Indonesia and elsewhere as Asean chair for the year.
A separate sub-decree, also signed December 27, allocated $226,000 for the Finance Ministry’s policy and budgeting departments’ domestic and foreign missions in 2022.
Another document in the book allocated $600,000 for the Labor Ministry to compensate 1,129 workers at two companies that shut down without paying out their employees. The sub-decree, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on December 27, did not name the companies. However, during 2022, the Labor Ministry compensated hundreds of workers at Canteral Apparel, a sleepwear manufacturer that closed without notice, as protesters camped outside the factory for months.
Other notable documents in book No. 78 include:
- Revocation of a government circular of 23/06/2003 to prevent the export of rubber and unprocessed rubber trees.
- Measures to control the transmission of HIV through equipment, supplies and medical waste.
- A permit to open a garment factory in Bokor, among 12 business permits in the book.
- Registration of the Cambodian Filmmakers Association and Al Mahabbah Charitable Association of Cambodia.
Click on the links above to view these documents in The Gazetteer and search through Kamnotra’s index of Royal Gazette entries here.