Despite so much excitement in the run-up to the inception of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, experts and activists on human rights and democracy are ambivalent about what AEC’s repercussions will be on human rights and democracy. They have expressed concerns about AEC’s negative ...

On his first foreign trip since Tuesday’s election, US President Barack Obama is planning a historic visit to encourage reforms in Myanmar – seen as a key success during his first term – and he’ll also go to Thailand and Cambodia. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ...

A large majority of Cambodian small and medium-sized enterprises are operating without conducting good market research, say experts in the field, and relying too heavily on informal information and networks. As a result, they are growing slowly and in some cases, falling behind their competitors. Market research involves gathering information about markets and customers. Laurent Notin, ...

Twenty-three workers at the M&V garment factory fainted yesterday morning in Kompong Chhang province, the second thime in a week that a mass faining has occured at the factory, a Labor Ministry official said. Meng Hong, a member of a workplace safety committee that the Ministry ...

Cambodia’s workforce must quickly improve its skills base if it is to compete with other countries in the region when the Asean bloc becomes a single market in 2015, officials said yesterday at a seminar held in Phnom Penh. When the Asean Economic Community goes ahead in ...

Officials at the Ministry of Commerce met on Friday to draft a sub-decree for the promotion and development of the Cambodian silk sector, but industry experts say the draft does not do enough for the local products used in the production of silk. The main ...

National energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) on Monday announced that a 50-MW coal-fired power plant in Preah Sihanouk province is ready to come online this week and will solve Phnom Penh’s chronic blackouts. The statement does not mention which power plant had been completed, ...

Cambodia could soon get its first Chinese-run digital television station, the latest local project hailing from a country that represents one of the Kingdom’s largest foreign investors. Yu Hua, deputy director of Yunnan Mobile Digital TV Corporation, based in China’s Yunnan province, met with Cambodia’s Minister ...

Cambodia’s stock exchange will receive a $2.5 million funding injection from the South Korean government in an attempt to draw more corporate interest from companies who may want to go public, according to a recent report on state media site AKP. The funds will go towards ...

A Chinese-owned company in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Mean­chey district stumbled across an 8th-century sandstone carving of the Buddha while excavating land there on Wednesday, the provincial culture department said yesterday. Oug Vireak, a deputy with the culture department, said the firm Lan Feng had been bulldozing ...

More than 100 representatives of Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries, development partners, international NGOs, and Lao and foreign media yesterday visited the site of the planned Don Sahong hydropower project. The two-day site visit provided an opportunity for participants to learn from experts how fish ...

Kampot province will be home to the Kingdom’s first wind farm – a step in the right direction in terms of Cambodia’s renewable energy movement, say experts. The first wind power project in Cambodia is approaching the construction stage. The Blue Circle (Cambodia), the company ...

Authorities are planning upgrades to effectively double the capacity of boats travelling from Phnom Penh Autonomous Port to Vietnam, according to port Director General Hei Bavy. A 2009 agreement with Vietnam authorities allows ships travelling down the Mekong from Cambodia to offload at Cai Mep ...

Cambodia has lowered its economic growth projection from 7 to 6 per cent for 2011 after more than a month of flood devastation in the Kingdom and continued economic turmoil in the United States and Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon said yesterday. The full impact ...

Echoing remarks made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier last week, economic experts agreed that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would reach US$ 1,000 ( Bt30,377) this year, up from the estimated $900 at the end of 2011. Managing director of Acleda ...

The US House of Representatives has renewed a trade law experts said could have a substantial effect on Cambodia’s exports to the United States, as well as the future of the Kingdom’s manufacturing sector. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program waived tariffs on about US$13 ...

Thailand’s ongoing recovery efforts from recent flooding have led to a resurgence in the country’s demand for labor, resulting in a record number of Cambodian migrants crossing the border in search of work, officials and experts said yesterday. Ouk Keorattanak, Banteay Manteay provincial deputy administration chief, ...

The postponement of two US internet piracy bills last week was met with relief by human rights and media experts in Cambodia, who say the overreaching grasp of the proposed legislation would hinder the internet’s progress and growth in the Kingdom. The US House of Representative’s ...

While tourism numbers in Cambodia are growing rapidly, visitors might increasingly have a hard time finding a restaurant to their liking since the country is experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel, especially waiters and chefs, accordingly to the Cambodia Restaurant Association. “The tourism industry needs at ...