Canadian insurance and financial services company Manulife Financial officially launched its Cambodian country office on June 28, one of several new players seeking to enter one of Southeast Asia’s still-untapped markets. Britain’s No.1 insurer Prudential said last week it had approval from the Cambodian government to open a wholly foreign-owned life insurance operation. Manulife, the world’s ...

Phnom Penh: “Cambodia is needing $ 1 billion over the years or at least 100 million annual investment to develop renewable energy projects for rural electrification in order to reduce its dependence on diesel consumption,” said Mr. Toch Sovanna, Director of Departmemnt of Energy Technique, ...

Authorities have partially backed down on an order forcing 196 residents in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district to move their homes, but refused to scrap the plan completely when confronted at Chaom Chao commune hall yesterday. Phuong Sopheap, one of about 20 residents that congregated ...

Global brands Levi’s and Gap had slashed their orders from the Tai Yang and Camwell garment factories by 20 per cent, the factories’ boss said yesterday, amid the longest strike in the industry’s recent history. Tai Yang Enterprises manager Wu Minghuor said his company had shuttered ...

More than 2,000 workers demonstrated in front of Phnom Penh’s Gladpeer Garment Factory yesterday, demanding a higher minimum wage and several other concessions. The workers decided to strike after the Por Sen Chey district factory did not respond to repeated requests to raise their monthly minimum ...

Four families who were violently evicted from Borei Keila in January last year built shelters yesterday in the rubbish where their houses once stood, claiming the land still belonged to them. The evictees erected small frames on the land, in the capital’s Prampi Makara district, irritating ...

The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) is calling all mobile phone operators to attend a meeting next week in order to reconsider the costs for within-and across-network calls, after disputes over bonus promotions in Cambodia’s crowded telecoms market. TRC director Mao Chakrya said that for the ...

An online petition has been launched calling on English Premier League football club Arsenal to break its ties with a Vietnamese rubber company accused of land grabbing and deforestation in Cambodia. A report by London-based Glob­al Wit­ness this month named Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) as ...

Cambodia is still a way off implementing World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on intellectual property rights, despite a deadline to do so in just over a month. At the end of June, the group of the world’s 49 least developed countries (LDCs), including Cambodia, run out ...

The wizened cyclo driver, cigarette in mouth, muscles taut from pedalling up and down French-style boulevards, is one of Indochina’s enduring romantic images. But cyclos on the streets of Phnom Penh are now outnumbered by another means of transport: the luxury car. But with the urban ...

When the garment factory that employs her opened its doors yesterday for the first time since Sunday’s election, Chan Neoun was about 130 kilometres away, at home in Svay Rieng province. Intense rioting and a military crackdown were just some of the rumours flying around ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday rebuked the opposition for urging foreign donors to refrain from signing any new agreements with the government until after the election and boasted of a new $26 million handed over last week by the European Union (E.U.) E.U. Ambassador ...

A garment factory’s alleged efforts to wipe workers’ contract histories clean could be a “test case” for how much international buyers tolerate factories negotiating outside of legal requirements, a labour-rights advocate has said. After effectively being bought out of their contracts, about 300 employees of USA ...

A Cambodian rights group said Wednesday that impunity is on the rise in Cambodia, hitting out at the authorities for failing to resolve a number of high-profile killings and bring the perpetrators to justice. Ahead of International Day to End Impunity on Saturday, the Cambodian ...

Phnom Penh City Hall issued a letter Monday banning a group of monks who have marched cross-country to mark International Human Rights Day from completing the final leg of their journey, in which they had hoped to hand petitions to lawmakers at the National Assembly ...

As Vietnam takes steps towards legalising gambling for its own citizens, analysts warn of a threat to the bottom line at Cambodia’s premiere casino, NagaWorld, whose patronage depends largely on gamblers from neighbouring countries. Local Vietnamese news agency Thanh Nien reported on Tuesday that the Vietnamese ...

Cambodian strongman Hun Sen met leaders of the country’s main opposition party again on Tuesday, the second day of crucial talks aimed at finding a way out of the country’s post-election deadlock. After demonstrations over the weekend triggered clashes with security forces that left one man ...

A man suspected of robbing and shooting two foreign nationals late last month was shot four times on Monday night during a shootout with police before being taken into custody. Police also apprehended a second, uninjured suspect after the shootout. Chea Sovann, 32, and Sa Ravan, ...

The Council of Ministers has nullified a 2009 law that set minimum prices on telephone calls, paving the way for regulators to reset the country’s telecommunications prices, which industry executives say are too high. The law, Prakas 232, which has been widely flouted, set a minimum ...

One of the most significant and memorable aspects of the fiercely cOntested July 28 natiOnal electiOn was the explosiOn of youth engagement during the campaign seasOn, with hordes of young Cambodians driving through the streets On motorbikes calling for change. The youth vote has been widely ...