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The Ministry of Commerce has overhauled its public business registration database, removing information on former company directors and making it more difficult to search for firms, a review by CamboJA News found.
The changes, rolled out in stages over recent months without public notice, have raised concerns among researchers and due diligence professionals, who say the registry is an important tool for tracking corporate ownership and holding companies accountable.
In February, a staff member on the ministry’s business registry hotline told CamboJA News the system was being updated and directed users to a temporary version of the database hosted at an alternative web address. A review of dozens of company records on the temporary site – which remains active, though it is unclear whether it receives regular updates – showed historical information, including details of former directors, remained available.
By May, the ministry had launched a new version of the registry on its website. The updated search function is case-sensitive, requiring users to enter a company’s exact legal name to retrieve results. Information identifying former directors was no longer available in a review of dozens of firms with known leadership changes.
The changes were reflected in both the Khmer and English language versions of the registry. CamboJA News was able to access the website from Cambodia, but attempts to access it through VPN connections routed through several foreign countries redirected users to a page stating the site was under maintenance.
Ministry spokesperson Pen Sovicheat said he could not comment on the matter, describing it as a “technical issue” and referring questions to the business registration hotline. Repeated attempts to obtain further clarification on the removal of records from the hotline were unsuccessful.
The ministry also introduced two decrees aimed at simplifying business registration procedures, one in December and another in May. One amendment removed the requirement for companies to notify the ministry of changes to a branch director. It was unclear whether the decrees were related to changes in the public registry, including the apparent removal of some firms that have yet to complete re-registration.
Lindsey Kennedy, research director at The Eyewitness Project, a group that investigates conflict and corruption globally, said the timing of the changes had raised concerns because they coincided with efforts to dismantle online scam networks.
“The database kept going offline for months without any warning or explanation before this update,” she said.
Cambodian authorities have widened crackdowns in recent months on the multibillion-dollar online scam industry, which has drawn growing international scrutiny. Several prominent Cambodian business figures, companies and politicians have faced allegations or sanctions over alleged links to scam compounds.
A 2024 investigation by CamboJA News found that more than a dozen firms linked to the U.S.-sanctioned Cambodian senator and tycoon Ly Yong Phat had disappeared from the registry, despite no public indication that they had been dissolved.
Kennedy said previous versions of the registry had been transparent and easy to use, but that the removal of former directors’ records made her less confident in relying on it. She also cited translation problems and the requirement to know a company’s exact legal name before conducting a search.
Others said it was too early to assess the impact of the changes.
Tassilo Brinzer, chairman of EuroCham Cambodia, said it remained unclear how the updates would affect business in Cambodia.
“If this is in line with international practice there should not be a problem as most investors look for the current leadership of a company, and due diligence of course includes multiple aspects of an existing business,” he said.
But a due diligence specialist said historical director information was often critical to identifying links between businesses and individuals.
“Much of our work over the past few years has involved foreign firms getting involved with local Cambodian partners only to find out later that these partners were involved in online fraud or money laundering,” said a researcher at a due diligence firm focused on Cambodia, who asked not to be identified due to security concerns.
“Removing this information from publicly available records will only make it harder to distinguish between legitimate and criminal enterprises,” the researcher said. “I certainly can’t think of a legitimate reason to make these changes.”
