A few years ago, Cambodia did not have a particular legal instrument to regulate construction sector some unfortunate events such as a seven-stories building collapsed in KEP Province as well as in Sihanoukville Province. Since then, the Royal Government of Cambodia had issued facilitate to fasten a Construction Law promulgation in November 2019 and a Sub-Decree on Construction Permit was issued the following year. In compliance with Chapter 8 of Construction law, this sub-decree determines the authority, terms & conditions and legal procedure in order to issues Construction Permit, Repair, Relocation, Open Construction Site and License renewals.

As a result, the Minister of Ministry of Land Management Urban Planning and Construction has the authority to issue a letter of approval with the construction covering more than 3,000sqm, building within more than 11 stories or a basement or underground space deeper than 5 meters. Moreover, the minister is also authorized to issue permits for high-risk storage facility construction and the construction of sport, tourism, and cultural buildings or structures, and a construction regards a structure of 10m in height or above.

Municipal and provincial Land Management Department Directors, on the other hand, are authorized to issue a license for construction and relocation permits on a land area of less than 3,000sqm and buildings within less than 11 Stories. For rebuilt construction works, the combination between the previous construction size in and the new construction size shall be between 500 square meters to 3000 square meters.

Last but not least, the district and town governors are bestowed with the jurisdiction to issue a license for any construction permit covering construction works with no more than 500 square meters of land area with no basement and building fences not more than 3 meters in height.