Economy and commerce

The UN Children’s Fund in Australia has warned volunteers and tourists to avoid visiting Cambodian orphanages following critical reports from the press in recent weeks. In a post on its website, UNICEF Australia said “these types of tours exploit children and their families for the financial ...

Cambodia exported 204,000 tons of milled rice in the first seven months of 2014, down 1.6 percent from 207,370 tons over the same period of last year, according to official data released on Tuesday.  Sixty-four companies have brokered Cambodian rice for 54 countries and regions around ...

The sixth Chinese-built hydropower plant, located in the Koh Kong province of   southwestern Cambodia, has begun producing electricity after more than four years of construction, the China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) said in a  statement  on Thursday. CHMC started to develop the 246-megawatt Tatay River Hydropower Plant in 2010. The dam comprises three generators, each capable of producing 82 megawatts, the statement said. ...

A Thai sugar company with major shares in Cambodian sugar cane is being investigated for human rights violations in operations along the border between the two countries. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand recently investigated allegations that villagers were forced from their homes to make ...

Cambodia has received 230,100 Chinese tourists in the first six months of 2014, an increase of 19 percent over the same period last year, according to a tourism report released on Wednesday. The report shows that China is the second largest source of tourists to Cambodia ...

About 3,000 garment workers in Kompong Chhnang province agreed to end their protest and return to work Wednesday after confusion over their monthly salaries was cleared away. Workers from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory in Samakki Meanchey district went on strike Monday after picking up ...

Unions representing garment workers have pledged to reignite protests if the minimum wage for the industry is raised to only $115 next year, a sum they say was offered by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia during a meeting on Friday. The Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) ...

Trade data from the US shows Cambodian exports to the world’s largest economy increased 6 per cent during the first six months of the year. As of June 30, Cambodian exports to the US totalled $1.4 billion, up from $1.32 billion recorded during the same six-month ...

Roxy Casino in Cambodia has made a “modest profit” since its soft opening on May 26, parent company Cell Aquaculture Ltd said in a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange. It did not provide figures. The profit was attributed to its sports betting activities during FIFA World Cup 2014 ...

China Duty Free Group (CDFG) announced Monday that it has invested in a downtown duty free store in Cambodia’s cultural Siem Reap City and the store will be launched in December. “CDFG’s Cambodian subsidiary will firstly start its downtown duty free store of 4,500 square meters ...

The Chinese government-run China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) will today formally agree to import 100,000 tonnes of rice from Cambodia, local officials say. Representatives from COFCO and Green Trade Co, a Cambodian government-owned agriculture firm, today met in Beijing to sign the agreement, ...

Singapore-based upstream oil and gas firm KrisEnergy Ltd said on Monday it has agreed a $65 million deal to buy out Chevron Corp’s interest in an offshore oil block in Cambodia and take over as the block’s operator. KrisEnergy said in a statement it plans to ...

This tourist town counts itself among the Most Beautiful Bays in the World Club and more than 1 million tourists each year are drawn to its tropical water and sandy shore. Yet when the U.S. Embassy last month warned its citizens to avoid some beaches ...

Former bus drivers are set to stage a protest today outside Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation Company in the capital’s Daun Penh district, calling on its management to respect an arbitration ruling to reinstate most of them.   ...

The Tourism Ministry will announce a new “Green Hotel” standard later this month in an effort to make the industry more environmentally friendly, senior officials say. Tourism Minister Thong Khon said on Friday that while it will not be immediately compulsory for all hotel venues to ...

Unions and factories remained at odds over where to peg next year’s minimum wage for the garment sector after a meeting between representatives for both sides on Friday, though they agreed to resume the talks later in the month. Earlier this year, the Labor Advisory Committee, ...

Nagacorp, owner of Cambodia’s largest casino, NagaWorld, is on track to begin flying in high-rollers from China on a fleet of its own commercial aircraft, according to the company’s latest earnings statement and government officials. In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, ...

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that hydropower development along the Mekong River could conflict with other benefits. “You have this tension between the purposes, unless they’re approached thoughtfully and correctly,” he told foreign ministers from the Lower Mekong Initiative gathered in Nay Pyi ...

Most of the infrastructure required for enhanced connectivity in the Greater Mekong Subregion has been put in place, particularly the transport links that form the base of the envisaged economic corridors, Bindu Lohani, vice president of the Asian Development Bank, said yesterday. He made the remark ...

The number of people seeking for jobs has been on the rise each day. However, companies, organizations and institutions are relentlessly complaining that human resource is both scarce and of low quality. Many students who have just graduated for about a year or two say they ...

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Sunday reiterated their continued commitment to the realization of ASEAN Community by 2015 and beyond. They pledged their commitment in the joint communique issued on the final day of their 47th annual meeting in Nay ...

Driven by garment and improved agricultural export markets, Cambodia has bucked the wider trend of slowing Southeast Asian economies, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ESCAP’s semi-annual Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, published ...

The government’s long-pledged health insurance scheme for private sector employees, including factory workers, is just around the corner, officials promised yesterday while refusing to name a more specific date. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Labour held a public forum on the insurance plan, which is expected ...

Nascent insurance markets in Cambodia, Cuba and Myanmar offer “significant opportunities” to foreign insurers, according to a US market research company. In a statement released Wednesday, Dallas-based Market Reports Store praised Cambodia’s “bold economic reforms and economic liberalisation” since 2000. ...