City Hall issues deadline on signboard language
3 September 2018
City Hall on Friday issued a two-week deadline for all businesses in Phnom Penh to prominently advertise their services in the Khmer language instead of foreign ones by September 14.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Hout Hay said that action will be taken against businesses which do not comply with the requirement from the Tourism Ministry.

Speaking during a meeting at City Hall to find ways to weed out drug trafficking and distribution in hotels and other tourist spots in the city, Mr Hay warned that authorities will take legal action against business owners who continue displaying signboards advertising services in foreign languages such as English, Chinese, and Korean.

“After this deadline expires, we will send teams of inspectors to check out business premises in the city,” he said. “If a business owner is found to have failed to comply with the ruling, we will take legal action and take down the signboards.”

Mr Hay said the ministry and City Hall have previously appealed to business owners to use signboards with the Khmer language in large letters and other languages in smaller letters.

He noted that some owners have refused to comply and this has forced City Hall to issue the deadline.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50529995/c ... anguage-2/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:44 am City Hall issues deadline on signboard language
3 September 2018
City Hall on Friday issued a two-week deadline for all businesses in Phnom Penh to prominently advertise their services in the Khmer language instead of foreign ones by September 14.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Hout Hay said that action will be taken against businesses which do not comply with the requirement from the Tourism Ministry.

Speaking during a meeting at City Hall to find ways to weed out drug trafficking and distribution in hotels and other tourist spots in the city, Mr Hay warned that authorities will take legal action against business owners who continue displaying signboards advertising services in foreign languages such as English, Chinese, and Korean.

“After this deadline expires, we will send teams of inspectors to check out business premises in the city,” he said. “If a business owner is found to have failed to comply with the ruling, we will take legal action and take down the signboards.”

Mr Hay said the ministry and City Hall have previously appealed to business owners to use signboards with the Khmer language in large letters and other languages in smaller letters.

He noted that some owners have refused to comply and this has forced City Hall to issue the deadline.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50529995/c ... anguage-2/

The efficiency of meetings in any city hall can be questioned, but how one gets from a crackdown on drugs to the language used on signboards is beyond me.

Next time when they have a meeting about language on sign boards they will probably come up with a directive about the price of the city bus tickets in 2020.

Wow, I think that is the same deadline as the no parking and business blocking the footpaths. I can see they are really getting serious now and I welcome their actions.

The idea is that if Khmer people can’t read the signs they don’t know what’s going on inside. It’s unwelcoming.

I think it’s a good idea to enforce sign legislation. Foreign owned businesses should cater to foreigners but also Cambodians, in Cambodia.

IraHayes wrote: ↑Tue Sep 04, 2018 7:21 am I have a feeling this is targeting the chinese businesses. Maybe they have seen what is happening in SHV and are preemptively enforcing rules here before it gets out of hand.
Does anyone have any examples of western businesses that are flouting this law in PP?

Cafe Amazon. Nice TV had a "news" piece on this yesterday.

Drive down 172, all you see are English signs in the larger lettering

Good idea, imo

This is Cambodia after all. I don't mind one bit.

The part I do mind about it is the rather arbitrary enforcement of the law. Let us see if they get it right this time.

great opportunity to raise revenue

when i first started to do biz in KoW i was surprised that signboard tax was efficiently enforced yearly, then i realised that it is due to to the ease enforcement, as signboard is displayed prominently and easy to calculated as compared to sales tax, witholding tax, income tax etc etc

low hanging fruits, apply that to almost all aspects of bureaucracy in KoW n u get the picture on how to navigate the system