The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) deplores the apparent decision by the Ministry of Commerce to substantially reduce the amount of information about companies that it publicly discloses through its website. After a recent website upgrade by the ministry the only information now available on companies is the company name, the chairman’s name, and a phone number. Coming so soon after LICADHO’s request for greater transparency in relation to economic land concessions, this development is particularly disappointing.

“In this day and age, there is no reason for the government not to offer a fully accessible and searchable companies register,” said LICADHO Director Naly Pilorge. “While advocates around the world are calling for greater transparency by states and governments, Cambodia perversely chose to take action to reduce the amount of information to which the public has access.”

For many years, the Ministry of Commerce made available through its website a searchable database of its companies register. This allowed users to access basic information on companies such as the chairman's country of origin, addresses of registration and later amendments, resolutions on shareholders, and more. This information was invaluable to many groups, including journalists and organizations reporting on Cambodia. For example LICADHO made use of it for its own land concessions analysis published last month as did Global Witness when researching their investigative report Rubber Barons published in 2013.

However, in April 2015, the ministry upgraded its website and in doing so downgraded the transparency of its companies register. The new site placed the register database behind a restrictive, no cost, user registration and log in process, and reduced the information given on search results to three details: company name, chairman’s name, and phone number. In doing so, the ministry did away with one of the few exceptions to the government's overall lack of transparency.

A companies register should always be public and easily accessible. Companies are legal entities which interact with and affect society and as such individuals should be able to find out where they can be reached and who is behind them. Similarly, groups doing public interest research often need basic details about companies to judge the legality of their activities. Furthermore, the ministry's decision to decrease its level of transparency will not only affect the non-profit sector, it also risks pushing away private sector investors committed to due diligence investigations.

LICADHO wrote to the Ministry of Commerce on May 27, 2015, asking why the data had been removed. So far LICADHO has not received any written response.

“The decision by the Ministry of Commerce to reduce public access to its companies register is a lose-lose situation, with impacts on the non-profit and private sectors,” said Am Sam Ath, Technical Coordinator for LICADHO. “Less oversight, transparency, and accountability of companies facilitates abuses in land, labour, and other sectors and reduces the likelihood of investment by properly-managed companies.”

LICADHO urges the ministry to reconsider its decision and at the very least to return to previous levels of transparency and disclosure.

For more information, please contact:
▪ Mr. Am Sam Ath, LICADHO Technical Supervisor, 012 327 770
▪ Ms. Naly Pilorge, LICADHO Director, 012 803 650

PDF: Download full statement in English - Download full statement in Khmer
MP3: Listen to audio version in Khmer