Economy and commerce

CBRE Cambodia’s latest MarketView report sees strong growth in Cambodia’s international tourism sector, with particularly strong in international arrivals resulting in growth in hotel occupancy rates and durations of stay. According to the May report, international arrivals in 2013 increased 17.5 per cent, to a total ...

Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) will delay the launch of its planned direct flights to Beijing, Tokyo and Singapore due to unrest in neighbouring countries, the airline said yesterday. Originally slated to open the new routes before the end of the year, tensions in Thailand and Vietnam ...

Sales of the SOHO (small office and home office) component of The Bridge condominium project, which will have 54 floors and will be built with an investment of $300 million, officially launched last week. Sear Rithy, director of World Bridge Land, said he was proud and ...

Laos will push ahead with its ambition to become the “battery of Southeast Asia,” planning a Mekong River dam that has drawn opposition from neighbors and threatens to involve China and the U.S. Four Mekong River nations are scheduled to meet June 26-27 in Thailand to ...

In what looks to be a concerted push into the Southeast Asian energy sector, Japanese import and export conglomerate Marubeni Corporation has acquired a large stake of Cambodia’s power generation infrastructure. In a Tokyo Stock Exchange filing dated June 2, Marubeni announced it had purchased a ...

Being placed on consecutive short-term contracts in Cambodia’s predominantly female-staffed garment sector is forcing many women to choose between a family and a factory job, unionists and rights groups said yesterday. Ken Chenglang, acting president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, said many ...

A private utilities company owned by wealthy businessman and ruling Cambodian People’s Party Senator Kok An is fulfilling only about half of Poipet’s demand for clean water, despite being contracted to supply the whole town, according to the city governor. With priority for the distribution of ...

Member of Phnom Penh’s lake communities who stand to have their lives uprooted by development projects filed complaints yesterday. Representatives of 260 families who live near Boeung Tamok in Sen Sok district’s Ponhea Pon commune filed a petition with City Hall asking for intervention over 200 ...

Police yesterday morning blocked more than 1,000 garment workers as they tried to march from their Por Sen Chey district factory to the Ministry of Labour to plead for intervention. Management at the Ocean Garment factory informed staff on May 24 that it would close for ...

Foreign and domestic investment in construction projects skyrocketed in the first four months of the year, government data suggests. Ministry of Land Management and Urban Planning data revealed last week shows total investment in new construction projects reached more than $1.4 billion at the end of ...

Indigenous villagers in Mondolkiri province say relevant authorities that are supposed to crack down on forestry crimes instead collude with logging companies and powerful businessmen, allowing them cut down trees. That has put their forest tribal traditions and livelihoods, which are dependent on forests, in ...

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated Cambodia’s 2014 rice exports to increase slightly to 1.2 million tons over that in 2013 due to increased production. The FAO reports that its exports estimate includes unofficial exports of milled as well as paddy rice ...

The South Korean ambassador to Cambodia, Kim Han-soo, on Monday denied having asked the Labor Ministry to stop a strike at a South Korean-owned garment factory last week, but said the dispute has put a $40 million investment from the parent company on hold. On Sunday, ...

The Council of Ministers last week approved a raft of changes to the country’s insurance laws, a move that industry insiders hope will better reflect the sector’s current state. The draft law, which was prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, has an additional 14 ...

Villagers who claim a development project in Russey Keo district has already taken a bite out of their land said yesterday that they fear the plan will swallow the rest of their property, as they filed petitions and met with local authorities. Members of 80 families ...

Three months pregnant at the time, Sam Ath doesn’t remember collapsing two months ago at the crowded, muggy garment factory where she works at the southwestern edge of the Cambodian capital. The 30-year-old woke up in a hospital bed, only to be told that she had ...

Two Vietnamese men appeared in Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Monday for allegedly selling bottles of fake shower lotion. Nguyen Yang Nhik, 24, and Lam Thai Chou, 36, were arrested with 31 boxes of fake shower lotion at the Kompong Tralach district market on Saturday, police ...

About 30 workers at Ghin Yi factory fainted on Monday noon after learning that their colleague fainted at the factory in Chamkar Svay commune of Samaki Meanchey district of Kampong Chhnang province. ...

Prey Lang is one of Cambodia’s few remaining large forests, covering approximately 3,600 square kilometers across four northern provinces. The forest is home to about 200,000 mostly indigenous people, who depend on it for their livelihoods, according to the Prey Lang Community Network. But, the ...

South Korea on Monday signed up to provide a grant aid of 21 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia to support four projects for rural development, waterway improvement, health and the stock market. Speaking after the signing ceremony, Hor Namhong said 8 million U.S. dollars of ...

Cambodia Association of Travel Agents says good connections and airline service from other ASEAN member countries will be the main driver to push tourism forward. The association president, Ang Kim Eang, said the increase in ASEAN travellers to Cambodia was driven by an expansion of direct ...

Marubeni Corp. said Monday that it would acquire a 20 percent stake in a Cambodia-based electricity generation and transmission business owned and operated by Malaysia’s Leader Group, marking Japan’s first foray into Cambodia’s power market. Leader Infrastructure Ltd. operates two 50 megawatt coal-fired power stations in ...

In the wake of last month’s Thai military coup, an uneasy quiet has fallen over official checkpoints in Oddar Meanchey province, leading many on this side of the border to fear for their livelihoods. Sitting on a motorbike in the queue for O’Smach international border checkpoint ...

With some people eating lunch off a tablecloth on the ground as children played in the distance, the scene in a small village in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district yesterday afternoon looked somewhat like a picnic. But villagers had gathered there, a few metres from a ...