Economic policy and administration

When a group of six unions organized nationwide strikes in December demanding a $160 minimum wage, the opposition CNRP aggressively took up the cause. Opposition leaders rallied support outside factory gates around the country and tens of thousands of garment workers flooded into Phnom Penh’s Freedom ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen told business leaders and government officials Tuesday that he will not tolerate “illegal” labor strikes that harm investment, but avoided judgment on a request to withdraw ratification of a U.N. convention protecting workers’ rights to unionize. Speaking at the 17th Government-Private Sector ...

Cambodia needs to build qualified and competent human capital to prepare for competition when the ASEAN Economic Community becomes a reality at the end of 2015, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday. “The Cambodian government will focus its attention on strengthening education quality and technical vocational ...

Many small and medium companies of Japan are showing their interest in doing business in Cambodia, according to an assistant of Prime Minister Hun Sen. 99 percent of Japanese small and medium companies are interested in investing in Asia, especially in Cambodia, which is located ...

The Government-Private Sector Forum was held here on Tuesday after it has had a hiatus for two consecutive years because of Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2012 and general election in 2013.     The Tuesday’s dialogue was presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen with the participation of ...

The Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) and the Insurance Association of Cambodia (IAC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for “a bilateral collaboration to forge a beneficial business relationship to further enhance insurance knowledge and skills development for the insurance industry in Cambodia,” said a ...

British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Lord Puttnam will visit Cambodia from March 4 to 7 to strengthen bilateral trade and investment relations, according to a press statement from the British Embassy here on Monday. During his visit, Lord Puttnam will call on Prime Minister Hun ...

Auditors from the Coca-Cola Company visited Oddar Meanchey province on Friday to investigate allegations of land grabbing against sugar plantations that supply the global drinks giant, but called off a community meeting because of a heavy police presence, an NGO said Sunday. Chun Bora of the ...

As buyers swoop in to purchase Thai rice at garage-sale prices, Cambodian exporters are dealing with lower than usual rates, and the results are being felt all the way down the supply chain to the farmers themselves. New figures from rice industry publication Oryza show that ...

Two union representatives said that they were detained and “educated” Thursday for distributing leaflets calling on workers to participate in a nationwide strike next month. Yin Saroeun, secretary-general of the National Trade Unions Coalition, said police detained him and his colleague, Chuob Noek, at about 11 ...

Though an occasional mango or pineapple can be spotted on Eung Uy Kheam’s sleepy farm in Kampot province, it’s the 130 durian trees that the fourth-generation farmer calls his cash crop. In Kampot, on Cambodia’s southwest coast, a pilot project led by the provincial Department ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said that Cambodia’s economy remains strong with an expected growth of 7 percent this year. Hun Sen made the comments during the 2014 Cambodia Outlook Conference on “Cambodia the next five years – Reforms and Competitiveness in Integration Region. ...

Following a complaint from the Free Trade Union (FTU) over the Ministry of Labor’s refusal to register 10 local branches of its organization, a ministry official said Wednesday that the constitutional right to freedom of association has been suspended until a new trade union law ...

Cambodian manufacturers are at risk of being blocked from exporting to the United States for using pirated software, IT industry bodies warned yesterday. Speaking at a seminar that was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Michael Mudd, the secretary general of the Asia-Pacific Open ...

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam increased only about 3.4 per cent last year compared to 2012, data from the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh showed yesterday. An embassy official said the sluggish growth could be attributed to the political deadlock between the Cambodian People’s Party ...

Third-party auditors hired by The Coca-Cola Company are conducting an audit of Cambodian sugar suppliers, NGO and community representatives said yesterday. “Coke has commissioned them to conduct an assessment on their suppliers. They will talk to all parties, the community, NGOs and the company,” said Eang ...

The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems ...

Cambodia’s first coal-fired power plant, which is expected to fill shortages in demand by producing an additional 100 megawatts of electricity every year, commenced full-time operations yesterday. Representatives from Malaysian company Leader Universal Ltd (LU), which built the plant, joined Prime Minister Hun Sen and ...

Vietnam and China lead the pack of foreign companies granted economic land concessions in Cambodia for agro-industrial development by a wide margin, new data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries show. According to the ministry’s annual report, released last month, since 1993 the ...

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 coalition of 18 labor unions and associations is today set to begin the first phase of a nationwide labor strike in the garment sector by calling on workers in about 100 factories to boycott working overtime, according to union leaders. Despite efforts by the government ...

The high-ranking government officials and global clothing brand representatives who took part in a meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday both raised concern​s​ about the media coverage of last month’s lethal repression of a nationwide strike by garment workers and its aftermath. The meeting was called ...

Cambodia’s poverty rate fell dramatically between 2004 and 2011 – from more than 50 per cent to roughly 20 – but those gains are so precarious that a slight economic shock could send millions plunging back below the poverty line, according to a World Bank ...

Axiata, the Malaysia-based parent company of Cambodia’s second-largest telecommunications provider, Smart, posted a rise in total revenues for 2013 to $5.5 billion. The boost represents a 4.1 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of the previous year. Driven by its Malaysian, Bangladeshi and Cambodian operations, ...