Economic policy and administration

Trade between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand reached 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, up 12 percent from 4 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Sun Chanthol said Thursday. Of the amount, Cambodia’s export to Thailand was equivalent to 351 million U.S. dollars, ...

The director of a CPP senator’s sugar plantation accused of stealing land from hundreds of families said Wednesday that most locals were happy with the new jobs the plantation has generated, a week after a visiting European Union parliamentarian renewed calls for an investigation of ...

Insurance providers sold far fewer motor vehicle and personal accident policies in 2013 than in the previous year, sparking concern among some in the industry that the importance of being covered in case of a road accident isn’t getting through to drivers. According to the General ...

Cambodia’s strong economic growth and foreign investment are subject to “considerable” downside risks, the International Monetary Fund has warned. A staff report released in Washington late Tuesday said “economic activity remains strong driven by robust exports, with garment exports helped by preferential access to European Union.” At ...

The Cambodian government recently awarded the operator of its three international airports more than $100 million for upgrades in an effort to accommodate strong passenger growth driven by the country’s nascent tourism industry. Cambodia Airports—the subsidiary of Italian firm Vinci, which serves as the concession ...

Compared to the bustling tourist center of Siem Reap, Phnom Penh has long stood in second place as an investment destination for international hotel operations. But as infrastructure slowly improves and the number of visitors to the capital continues to grow, international hotel chains are taking ...

Slapping Khmer song lyrics over international hits or ripping off the creative content of foreign-produced music videos is a practice in the Kingdom that must end within one year, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts officials said at a conference in the capital yesterday. A crackdown ...

Operating revenue at the partly state-owned mail service, Cambodia Post (CP), rose more than 10 per cent last year compared to 2012, according to a senior government official. Ork Bora, CP’s general director, said that revenue reached $4.56 million, an increase of 12.54 per cent from ...

Starting later this month, 10,000 small and medium-sized businesses will be queried as part of a Japanese government-backed economic census intended to take a snapshot of activity across the private sector. Beginning on February 23 and running through to March 31, Cambodia’s National Institute of Statistics ...

Meeting for a minimum wage workshop on Tuesday, the country’s independent and government-aligned unions argued over reforms to the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), the body in charge of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs some 600,000 workers. The LAC, which is composed ...

Moc Bai Border Gate Economic Zone is located on the Trans-Asia Road that starts from Myanmar, goes to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and ends at Quangxi, China. It was built with three border gates on an area of 21,283ha, covering the communes of Long Thuan, ...

About 100 monks, activists and workers returned on Saturday evening to the Canadia Industrial Park, where garment workers clashed with military police on January 3, to pray for the five protesters who were shot dead in the violence and call for the release of 23 ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 7.2 percent this year, and pick up to 7.5 percent next year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The IMF hailed Cambodia for making good progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and reducing poverty substantially. It said ...

Sugar plantations that benefit from the European Union’s Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, which allows preferential access to the E.U.’s market, have further impoverished Cambodia’s poor, and an investigation needs to be launched, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) said on Friday. Patrice Tirolien, MEP ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday that the country wanted to see more British investors in order to further contribute to developing local economy and reducing poverty. The premier made the remarks during a meeting with visiting British Minister of State at the Foreign and ...

At the end of a well-paved road just past the city’s airport sits a cluster of factories. Each one is barely discernible from the next – grey concrete walls and blue aluminium roofs. But one factory in the lot, MAG (Cambodia), is different. In a country ...

Cambodia’s aviation sector doesn’t need a second domestic carrier, according to a new report from the Australia-based Centre for Aviation (CAPA). The report, published yesterday, is the latest instalment in a two-part analysis of the country’s aviation industry, and focuses on Cambodia Airlines, the Royal Group ...

A member of the European Parliament is in Cambodia investigating agri-business firms accused of evicting hundreds of families while benefiting from a free-trade scheme with Europe worth millions of dollars, according to the NGO Equitable Cambodia. The visit from France’s Patrice Tirolien follows a resolution the ...

Capitalising on booming travel from Vietnam and China, the domestic aviation sector has enjoyed 18 per cent passenger growth for the second year running, according to a new report, which describes Cambodia as having one of the fastest-growing markets in Southeast Asia. The report, by the ...

Commerce Minister asked officials at all border checkpoints to prevent and crackdown on expired products. Thong Thira, Banteay Meanchey’s head of Department of Commerce, said that about 71 percent of 700,000 people living in Banteay Meanchey are farmers. He said the province has big 20 ...

Japanese investors will put $56 million into a joint venture with local company Sanco Investment Group (SIG) to build a new special economic zone in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town, officials said yesterday. Chhour Vichet, executive director of SIG, said Thailand’s labour shortage, Cambodia’s ongoing political ...

The Interior Ministry has summoned six union representatives for questioning following a complaint from Jack Liu, director-general of Tainan Enterprises (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., alleging that they incited violence at his Kandal province garment factory in late December. A letter dated Thursday, signed by the Interior Ministry’s ...

Cargo shipments entering and leaving Cambodia through the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port rose by 16 percent in 2013 thanks to better economic situation, according to a port’s data on Friday. The kingdom’s 2nd largest port received 110,500 twenty-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs (standard-sized containers), last year, up ...

Shareholders will want answers from ANZ bank after it was revealed this week that the banking giant’s joint venture in Cambodia financed ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation, the Responsible Investment Association Australia (RIAA) said yesterday. Environmental audit documents obtained by the Post on Tuesday ...