Economic policy and administration

The Cambodian government should construct an effective annual review system for the minimum wage to ease worker unrest, according to clothing retail giant H&M. The Swedish company’s comments came after CEO Karl-Johan Persson visited the country in mid-October, meeting Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and other ...

Maybank Cambodia Plc, with 12 branches in the Indo-Chinese country, is optimistic over Cambodia’s medium-to-long-term prospects with its four additional branches opened today, bringing its total network there to 16 branches. With the opening of the branches, the bank expects them to boost its total deposits ...

National insurance broking firm MGA Insurance Brokers is opening a new office in the developing market of Cambodia. The Cambodian operation was being set up as a joint venture with two local brokers, Chantol Seng and Sophat Meas, who had extensive international experience. “Cambodia has a ...

Cambodia ranked 137 out of 189 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2014 report released Tuesday, the first drop in at least two years that shows conducting business in the country is becoming more difficult. The report ranks countries in 10 categories, including starting a ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday urged Chinese companies to focus their investments in processing plants for agricultural products in order to help increase the country’s productivity for exports. The premier made the suggestion during a meeting with a visiting Chinese delegation led by Wang ...

Despite the disputed territory near Phra Viharn Temple, Thai-Cambodian border trade is still normal as 150,000 billion baht cash flow is expected by the end of 2013. According to the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC), border trade along the disputed area around Phra Viharn Temple ...

Cambodia has seen a trade deficit of 1.48 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2013, according to the Commerce Ministry’s data on Friday. The total import and export volume was valued at 11.82 billion U.S. dollars during the January-September period this year, up ...

More than 55,000 people have joined an online petition set up by a pair of French nongovernment groups urging the European Union (E.U.) to immediately launch an investigation into local sugar plantations accused of illegally evicting hundreds of Cambodian families. At the center of the dispute ...

Environmental groups and a local community leader in Stung Treng province have called for a nationwide boycott of the popular Angkor Beer brand to protest the beverage company’s links to a controversial hydro­power dam to be built in Laos. Laos announced earlier this month that it ...

Cambodia appears unlikely to meet its target of becoming a high middle-income nation by 2030 and years of gains it has made reducing poverty could be erased by even a modest shock to the economy, according to the latest World Bank data. World Bank senior country ...

Cambodia’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have received a total investment of 1.65 billion US dollars since their inception in 2006, according to a government report released on Friday. Since 2006 to now, the zones have attracted 172 investment projects, mostly from China, South Korea and Japan, ...

Cambodia’s GDP growth was projected to reach 7 percent in equivalent to 15.65 billion U.S. dollars in 2013 despite a challenging global economic environment, the World Bank said Monday. Overall macroeconomic outlook remains positive, having sustained agricultural growth, continued strong performance of the tourism sector, a ...

The World Bank said Monday that the impact of Cambodia’s political uncertainty was “unclear” but left its growth forecasts unchanged for this year and next year.  “The Cambodian economy remains robust amidst a challenging global economic environment,” the bank said in its East Asia and Pacific ...

Officials, business professionals and political analysts have mixed opinions on the leadership of the single-party Cambodian government and what the future hold for the next five years. Sok Touch, a professor of political science at Khemarak University, said the political deadlock won’t help the nation become ...

Cambodia’s economic growth rate is expected to exceed 7 percent both this year and next, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday. The ADB maintained its forecast for this year’s economic growth at 7.2 percent, supported by strong exports and robust construction and service sectors. The ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday urged the Ministry of Economy and Finance to eliminate the practice of bribery or greasing the palm to facilitate development projects funded by the Ministry itself or the National Treasury. New Finance Minister, Oun Porn Monirath, successor of Keat Chhon, ...

With the long-ruling CPP sworn in to govern for another five years despite the opposition CNRP abstaining from sitting in the National Assembly due to election irregularities, a new report argues that imminent threats to Cam­bodia’s future development can only be overcome with significant government ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday announced his new government’s five-year strategy, vowing to deepen reforms in all fields to ensure sustainable growth and poverty reduction. “Reforms are the top priority for Cambodia and the country will continue deepening reforms in all fields in order ...

Cambodia’s per capita GDP was projected to hit 1,036 U.S. dollars in 2013, up from nearly 1,000 U.S. dollars in a year earlier, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday. The premier said the country has enjoyed full peace and political stability in the last 15 ...

ANZ Royal Bank has transacted a landmark commodities hedging deal with a local oil importer, officials at the bank said yesterday. The deal allows the company, whose name ANZ Royal would not disclose, citing confidentiality agreements, to lock in an agreed price for the future sale ...

Some of these ASEAN economies are not like the others. Singapore is 80 times richer than Myanmar and its population lives 20 years longer than Cambodia’s, while Myanmar ranks 50 places behind Cambodia in terms of global competitiveness, according to a wide-ranging analysis from the World ...

A new project by the government and Japan’s aid agency seeks to assist small companies in Cam­bodia that are in need of specialist advice in order to develop and keep up with competitors in neighboring Asean countries. The aim of the two-year program, called “Strategic Strengthening ...

Shallow draft, lack of rail connectivity, uneasy relations with Vietnam, and the general slowdown may leave LM 17, Cambodia’s brand new $28-million container terminal near Phnom Penh, up the strait. Even if the terminal achieves the targeted throughput of 110,000 TEUs (it has moved 70,000 so ...

Cambodia has imported 871,000 tons of petroleum in the first six months of the year, a 5.6 percent decline compared with the 922,800 tons at the same period last year, the figures of the Ministry of Commerce showed Monday. During the January-June period this year, the ...