The government issued a new sub-decree yesterday signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, Post Minister Chea Vandeth and Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak on December 31, on the use of national domain names.
According to the Sub-Decree, the national domain name “.kh” or can be used by any internet user around the world.
According to Article 5 of the Sub-Decree, the domain name ending with “.kh” or can be used by any individual around the world.
Whereas the domain name ending with “.com.kh”, can be used by companies and all types of enterprises registered with the Post Ministry and the domain name ending with “.org.kh” can be used by a Non-Governmental Organisation, an association or a union.
The domain name ending with “edu.kh”, is reserved for public and private educational establishments.
With regard to the domain name ending with “.net.kh”, it is reserved for companies providing service relating to the internet.
The Sub-Decree said the second degree of domain names reserved for the ministries and governmental institutions is that ending by “gov.kh”. This domain name is free and with an unlimited timeframe.
Article 5 also states that all domain names should be in Khmer language or in a foreign language but those names must be in letter, number, hyphen or the combination of all of them.
However, those names must be at the most 63 letters and/or hyphens, and should be identified as the name, operation or service of the people or companies owning the domain name.
To obtain a domain name, the sub-decree states that one must file a request to the Post Ministry.
Nevertheless, the sub-decree gives the right to the ministry to reject the request for domain names that already exist, or reserved domain names, or that are harmful to religious belief, contradict with tradition or do not conform to the laws.
The domain name is valid only for one year, starting from its registration date. As a result, owners of the domain are required to renew their domain names every year by paying a fee determined by the ministry.
After 60 days, if a domain name is not renewed by its owner, it will be deleted from the ministry’s control system. A domain name will also be deleted following the request made by authorities concerned.
According to experts, a domain name is a website address consisting of letters, numbers, hyphens, and dots, for example, khmertimeskh.com.
Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures determined by the Domain Name System (DNS)
One of the most important functions of a domain name is to be easily recognisable and remembered instead of the numeric address known as an IP address.
Domain names are usually web addresses used to identify websites belonging to individuals, companies, NGOs, ministries or institutions.
