Economic policy and administration

The Association of the Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, has chosen 2015 as the year to realize its economic integration as the ASEAN Economic Community. Yet, there are only several months left, ASEAN doesn’t seem​ to be ready. How can ASEAN realize this goal? Although ...

Garment and footwear industry, Cambodia’s largest income earner, reported a 16 percent surge in exports in the first three months of 2014, the figures of the Ministry of Commerce showed Monday. The Southeast Asian nation exported apparel and footwear products in equivalent to 1.56 billion U.S. ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al met with private firms with land concessions last week to gauge their compliance with government rules and regulations, and adherence to their own contracts. Amid mounting local and international pressure, Prime Minister Hun Sen in mid-2012 ordered a freeze on ...

Trade unions may have failed to get a stay-at-home strike for higher wages off the ground after the Khmer New Year earlier this month. But a strike for bonus pay is picking up steam in Svay Rieng Province, where some 20,000 garment workers protested at ...

An ice-skating rink, bowling alley, seven-screen cinema and a proverbial catwalk of high-end European and US labels will start vying for a slice of Cambodia’s rising middle class inside the soon-to-open AEON Mall, management with the firm overseeing it confirmed on Saturday. The Japanese-owned shopping centre’s ...

Eighteen sacked drivers for the Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation company protested in front of the company’s offices Friday morning calling for their reinstatement and a raise. The drivers say they were fired in mid- and late-April for leading strikes—in which they walked off with the keys ...

A would-be tripartite workshop intended to improve the garment sector’s minimum wage setting process closed Friday, with the industry’s most influential player, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), boycotting the talks at Phnom Penh Hotel. The two-day workshop would have been the first meeting between ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) is investigating a rise in fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes that prey on Cambodian investors, the market watchdog said yesterday. Unlicensed investment schemes operating inside Cambodia will go under the SECC’s microscope, while multilevel marketing firms that appeal to vulnerable ...

Government officials and union representatives met behind closed doors Thursday to start hashing out a better way to set the minimum wage for the country’s all-important but troubled garment sector at a workshop brokered by the International Labor Organization (ILO). But what was supposed to be ...

Union leaders say they expect upwards of 1,000 people to jam the streets around Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday in a show of support for 23 unionists, workers and bystanders who are on trial for their alleged part in violent protests in Pur Senchey ...

As much as $320 million is being lost annually as a result of Cambodia’s reliance on the US dollar, while a longstanding mistrust in the riel means there is less of the local currency in circulation, restricting the national bank’s ability to respond in times ...

Grand Twins International, Cambodia’s second stock exchange listing, will list at the lower end of its expected buy-in range, an announcement on the Phnom Penh Securities (PPS) website said yesterday. GTI is to begin trading on May 29 with nine million shares at $2.41 each, according ...

Garment factory owners failed to turn up for what was supposed to have been a tripartite meeting with the government and worker unions on Thursday to help break an impasse in negotiations to increase the minimum wage for workers, officials said. The International Labor Organization (ILO) ...

Twenty-one labor activists who have been detained in Kampong Cham province since their arrests in January were moved to the main prison outside Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Supporters say the 21 are being detained as a lesson to other would-be demonstrators, after a brutal crackdown ...

Cambodia’s trade deficit expanded to almost half a billion dollars during the first three months of the year, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce. Between January and March, Cambodia’s exports reached $1.99 billion, up 19 per cent compared to the same period ...

Southeast Asian countries are likely to miss a deadline for the economic integration of Asean in 2015, a leading economist says. Jayat Menon, an economist for the Asian Development Bank, told reporters in Phnom Penh Wednesday that Asean countries are behind on key targets for integration ...

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, a world heritage site, had attracted 778,740 foreign visitors in the first quarter of 2014, up 12 percent compared to the same period last year, official data showed Wednesday. The top five countries visiting the site are South Korea, China, Vietnam, Japan ...

Battambang Rice Investment Co Ltd says it has been certified as the first rice mill in Cambodia with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). In a statement, the company said it received confirmation of GMP and HACCP certification in a ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday ordered embattled union leader Ath Thorn to stay away from the SL garment factory and its workers and to avoid any public gatherings that could “damage public order,” drawing a tight circle around one of the country’s most ...

Imports of older cars and vans should be banned to help reduce pollution, Minister of Industry and Handicrafts Cham Prasidh said on Monday. Speaking to Cambodia’s business community at a Green Industry workshop in Phnom Penh on Monday, Prasidh said all countries had a role to ...

Cambodia’s trade volume with foreign countries has increased by 15 percent in the first quarter of 2014 even though the internal conflict between the ruling and opposition parties over July election results remains unsolved. The figures of the Commerce Ministry showed Tuesday that the Southeast Asian ...

Cambodian stockbrokers yesterday admitted to a disappointing level of investor interest in Grand Twins International’s (GTI) initial public offering. Garment industry unrest, distrust in the private sector and a lack of liquidity in the market were all said to be discouraging investors from buying into the ...

The China Railway Group’s planned $7.5 billion Cambodian north-south railway line has been delayed due to funding shortages, according to the company’s top official. Originally slated to begin construction last year, China Railway’s chairman, Li Changjin, told the South China Morning Post that work on the 400-kilometre railway ...

Small and medium-size enterprises (SME) have been urged by the Cambodian government to employ more environmentally friendly practices at a green industry workshop in Phnom Penh yesterday. Cham Prasidh, minister for the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, said SMEs and handicraft producers’ reliance on fossil fuels ...