Cambodia’s 38 microfinance institutions reported a 44 percent increase in loan disbursements in 2013, according to a report of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), the regulator of banking and finance institutions in the country. The microfinance institutions had lent a total 1.17 billion U.S. dollars href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-micro-lenders-see-44-pct-lending-growth-last-year/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Violence against children cost Cambodia approximately $168 million in 2013, or just over 1 per cent of GDP, according to a new report from the government and UNICEF that explores the economic impacts of physical abuse.Titled The economic burden of health consequences of violence against href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/child-abuse-costs-kingdom-study/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are busily preparing for the ASEAN Economic Community’s free flow of goods in 2015 and are probably not that different from the other 10 ASEAN member states’ own SMEs.  Te Taing Por, president of the Federation of Associations for href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/small-and-medium-enterprises-prepare-for-asean/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — For an Internet start-up, Arjuni faces more challenges than usual. The e-commerce site that sells hair extensions operates out of a five-story building here that lacks elevators and, sometimes, power. Employees typically have to travel to remote villages by motorbike or foot href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-start-up-competes-with-india-in-natural-hair-market/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The International Monetary Fund has revised Cambodia’s economic growth projection to between 6.5 and 7 per cent, up from 6.2 per cent in April, saying the country could manage a sound macro-economy because of the growth in four main sectors: manufacturing, tourism, agriculture and construction. According to Ek href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/imf-revises-gdp-projection-for-cambodia-upward-to-7/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

President Hu Jintao today becomes the first Chinese head of state to visit Cambodia in 12 years, in a trip days before Southeast Asian leaders gather for talks that may touch on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Hu’s visit, which lasts until April 2, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/chinas-hu-visits-cambodia-as-asean-leaders-eye-sea-disputes/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Interior Ministry officials said Tuesday that Thong Sarath, a senior military officer wanted for coordinating the murder of a prominent businessman in Phnom Penh last month, has likely fled the country, leading police to call on Interpol to help track him down. Chhay Sinarith, director href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/interpol-joins-hunt-for-general-wanted-over-tycoons-murder/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The persistence of dangerous and demeaning forms of work remains a major challenge for the Kingdom’s development, according to the UN’s annual Human Development Report (HDR) launched yesterday by the United Nations Development Programme.Dubbed “Work for Human Development”, the 2015 report finds the Asia-Pacific region home href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/many-jobs-vulnerable-un-report/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Researchers have discovered a new population of banteng (Bos javanicus), a species of wild cattle, in northwestern Cambodia. The discovery was announced June 4, 2014 by Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and efforts are underway to implement conservation initiatives to protect the area and its newfound banteng, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/are-banteng-making-a-comeback-in-cambodia-researchers-find-new-population/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Svay Pak is an internationally known district for child sex in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh, where foreign men come to seek sex with young girls. According to a 2011 study by ECPAT Cambodia, around 75 percent of the victims of sex trafficking within Cambodia were children. The study also href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-ongoing-human-trafficking-problem/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Open source software is an important way forward and a useful impetus for development in Cambodia, according to attendees of the Kingdom’s first software conference this weekend. The conference, which centred on TYPO3, an open source content management system (CMS), was held this past weekend href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/software-licenses-debated/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Adding its name to a rapidly growing list of private companies, Tonlesap Airlines is gearing up for an initial public offering on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. And like many of these companies, the listing is still years off as Tonlesap prepares the tax and financial information href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/companies-lag-on-listing-rules/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

China’s Export-Import Bank officials proposed to provide loans of up to US$70 million for rice milling in an effort to aid Cambodia’s efforts to export a million tonnes of rice by 2015, government officials said yesterday. The bank’s officials visited Cambodia last week to met with Cambodian href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/chinese-bank-loans-seek-to-aid-rice-millers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Cambodian migrant worker has alleged that he and dozens of fellow migrants were arrested, beaten, stripped naked and shaved bald by Thai police, who then extorted money from them just because they did not have the correct location on their working visas. The allegation is href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-worker-alleges-thai-police-of-humiliating-treatment-abuse/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Throughout the drama this spring revolving around the dismissal of the ambitious Chinese official Bo Xilai and the investigation of his wife as a murder suspect, the most mysterious figure has been a French architect named Patrick Henri Devillers. When Mr. Bo href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-home-to-frenchman-in-bo-xilai-drama/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Women’s economic roles in Cambodia have made slower progress than in many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, World Bank economists said yesterday. The region as a whole has seen tremendous gains in the way of gender equality during the past 20 years, but increasing wages href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/women-slow-to-climb-cambodias-market/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Bangladesh and Cambodia have decided to set up a “joint commission” to promote bilateral ties as the two countries eye to deepen cooperation for regional peace, stability and prosperity. According to a joint statement issued after the talks between the two prime ministers in Dhaka on href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/bangladesh-cambodia-seek-new-areas-of-cooperation/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Cambodia Securities Exchange has seen a sharp decrease in action this week, with trading volume yesterday falling to 3,453 shares, down nearly 100 per cent from Monday. Despite the drop, which was accompanied by a strong shift from institutional to retail investors, experts have stressed the time href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/trading-volume-drops-on-new-cambodia-securities-exchange/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Cambodian economy faces major problems for its predominantly rural population in the event of more erratic climate shifts, according to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2011 Cambodian Human Development Report. “This is an agrarian economy that depends very much on weather. And we are among the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/climate-change-poses-major-threat-to-cambodias-rural-poor/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

(Reuters) – A deadlock over Cambodia’s disputed election hardened on Monday as the opposition rejected official results confirming a victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s long-ruling party and raised the prospect of further street protests. The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said it would not accept href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-election-crisis-deepens-as-opposition-rejects-results/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...