Sweet deal
Stevia Nutra Corporation, a Canadian agro-business company, has announced its decision to grow stevia in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province. The company will grow the plant, whose leaves are used as a sweetener or sugar substitute, on just over 20 hectares of land close to Phnom Penh. Stevia Nutra has incorporated Mighty MekongAgro Industries Co. Ltd, ...
Forum breaks ice, yet more time needed
Long-time foreign members of the Cambodian business community said the US-ASEAN Business Forum, held on Friday in Siem Reap, was largely successful in setting the country in the sights of America businesses, but multinational corporations will need more time in the Kingdom before nailing down ...
Cambodia inaugurates China-funded road in eastern part
Cambodia on Thursday inaugurated a 133-km China-funded national road No. 8 in Prey Veng province, hoping that the road will contribute to promoting social and ecoNomic development in the country’s eastern part. The road, which connects from Prek Tamak Mekong River Bridge to Vietnam border, cost ...
MTZ to set up Belarus-Mekong joint venture in Cambodia
Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ trademark) will make a monetary contribution to the authorized capital of a private company Belarus-Mekong that is being set up in Cambodia. Upon the suggestion of the Industry Ministry of Belarus, the Belarusian company will transfer 32 million Cambodian riels (about ...
Government salaries to no longer be paid in cash
The wages of 400,000 civil servants from 39 government ministries are to be paid via a new electronic banking system due to be rolled out next month. Secretary of State for the Ministry of Economy and Finance Chu Kim Leng announced the new payroll system on ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/government-salaries-no-longer-be-paid-cash
EU organizes a seminar on food security
The Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia in collaboration with the Council for Agricultural and rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and three of the EU-funded projects (CEDAC, HKI, WHH) on October 6 organized a Food Security Project Workshop “Improving Food Security—Lessons ...
Should Minimum Wage Be Market Driven or Government-Dictated?
Manufacturers and unions aligned with the ruling CPP yesterday said the current labor shortage inside the garment industry would act as an incentive for employers to increase salaries, and that there was no need for the government to impose a new minimum wage. During a meeting ...
Cambodia and China Ink Aid, Trade Deals
Prime Minister Hun Sen and a visiting top Chinese official on Saturday presided over the signing of 29 letters and memoranda covering a broad range of business and military deals, including a $195.5 million loan for Cambodia to purchase Chinese-made military helicopters. A summary of ...
Resume construction or refund us, Gold Tower buyers say
With no restart date in sight more than a year after construction halted on the $240 million Gold Tower 42, investors said yesterday they were forming an association to demand that their deposits be refunded if construction does not resume. Chhin Jintong, who put down a ...
Sar Kheng says parties must ‘reorient’ to save deal
Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Thursday that the ruling CPP and opposition CNRP must “reorient” and meet regularly to ensure they are not straying from the terms of last year’s July 22 political deal. In a joint press conference following a meeting with opposition leader Sam ...
Hul Reaksmey
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sar-kheng-says-parties-must-reorient-to-save-deal-77002/
No plans for more refugees from Nauru
Almost three months after four refugees arrived in Cambodia from Nauru as part of a controversial resettlement deal with Australia, the Interior Ministry said on Friday that it had no plans to receive more refugees being held in the South Pacific island nation. ...
Colin Meyn
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-plans-for-more-refugees-from-nauru-2-92886/
No improvement in 'Doing Business' report
With few reforms made in the past year, Cambodia ranked 138th out of 181 countries for the second consecutive year in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report released yesterday, a ranking that put it behind countries such as Syria and Sudan. The report ranks countries based ...
Try Pheap Firm in Talks to Replicate Timber Deal
Well-known timber magnate Try Pheap is preparing to expand cross-country with a scheme that already gives him exclusive rights to buy all the wood felled on economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, a spokesman for the businessman said. The Agriculture Ministry’s Forestry Administration in February ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/try-pheap-firm-in-talks-to-replicate-timber-deal-48511/
Manulife enters Cambodia's burgeoning insurance market
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 ...
No Power Leads to No Water In Sihanoukville
The water shortage that has led to tens of thousands of households in Sihanoukville without running water for the past week occurred after provincial officials decided to limit power to a water pumping facility operated by the tourist town’s privately-owned distributor, a manager at the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-power-leads-to-no-water-in-sihanoukville-16858/
Farmers fear deal has strings
Forty Kampong Chhnang villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute with KDC International, a company owned by the wife of a senior CPP official, farmed contested land without interference on Monday, prompting some to wonder if they were being coaxed to vote for the ruling ...
China’s ‘No Strings’ Aid Increasingly Attractive
The timing couldn’t have been better. After a week in which one NGO was suspended and others warned to “readjust their work,” and the World Bank was finally forced to reveal that it had stopped loaning to Cambodia, the government announced over the weekend that ...
Come floods or high waters, most MFIs continue to loan
After experiencing decades of floods, Cambodia’s microfinance institutions say they no longer have problems disbursing loans during the rainy season, according to the head of Cambodia’s Microfinance Association (CMA). A survey issued early this year by a coterie of international aid organisations, including Oxfam, Care, PACT ...
New start or sad end for Cambodia’s last free newspaper?
Saturday’s announcement of the sale of The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s oldest and most respected newspaper, came as no surprise to many who had been following recent events in the country. Rumors had circulated for months about the fate of the country’s last independent English-language ...
Alan Parkhouse
http://www.atimes.com/article/new-start-or-sad-end-for-cambodias-last-free-newspaper/
UN refugee agency wants no part of Cambodia resettlement
The United Nations agency responsible for refugees has washed its hands of Australia’s controversial deal to send refugees from the tiny Pacific island of Nauru to Cambodia. ...
The Sydney Morning Herald News Staff
http://bit.ly/1HbyCqc