Economy and commerce

Cambodia earned $2.5 billion from the tourism sector last year, a senior government official said Monday. Last year’s income from tourism accounted for around 16 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and provided jobs directly to about 400,000 people, Sok An said. The Cambodian government ...

Business International Monitor said Thursday that Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were expected to outperform their regional peers in terms of real economic growth in the longer term. In a statement, the London-based firm said the three countries would offer ” substantial opportunities for investors over the coming decade, ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) warned garment workers on Thursday that they risk losing their jobs if they extend their Khmer New Year vacation by joining a stay-at-home strike. Aiming to avoid police suppression of street protests for a higher garment sector minimum wage, ...

The Zongtex Garment factory off Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard looks like a nondescript residential compound, hidden down a dead-end road. There are no signs suggesting that it supplied to some of the world’s leading high street names – and the US military. Taiwanese-owned Zongtex Garment Manufacturing ...

Members of an ethnic minority in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley stood watch Thursday to block a road leading to the site of a proposed dam after they heard that Chinese workers would inspect the site, community representatives said. Villagers believe that the Chinese company Sinohydro ...

Agriculture tycoon Mong Reththy yesterday confirmed a second shipment of Koe Romeat mangoes, twice the size of the first, will be headed for China this week from his Preah Sihanouk plantation. ...

Eight families involved in a land dispute in Kompong Chhnang province with Chea Kheng, the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem, on Wednesday walked away from a meeting that was set up at their local district administrative office to resolve the dispute, an ...

In its latest Market View report, CBRE Cambodia Research concludes that Phnom Penh has well and truly put the fallout from the Global Financial Crisis – which saw many condominium developments in the city put on hold or even fail – behind it, and the ...

Phnom Penh has earned one of the top spots in a new report tracking prices of residential and commercial real estate across the region. The Knight Frank Asia Pacific Prime Asia Development Land Index, which the global real estate consultancy has hailed as a market first, ...

The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities. With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in three districts of Preah Vihear are ...

A new blueprint for the long-delayed Snake Island (Koh Pos) resort development off the coast of Sihanoukville will soon be completed, and investment of up to $1 billion is hoped to kick-start the project, which has a planned completion date of 2018, according to the ...

The International Monetary Fund is projecting further modest acceleration in Cambodia’s rate of economic  expansion over the next five years. In the latest World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, the IMF projects that Cambodia’s gross domestic product will grow from an estimated 7.0 percent last year to ...

The KeyBridge International (Hong Kong) Investment Company has acquired 65 percent shares of a Cambodian telecommunications company EMAXX in an amount of 15 million U.S. dollars, officials of the two companies announced Wednesday. “EMAXX has converted from a family business into a joint venture,” Ai Min, ...

Cambodian and Indian senior diplomats on Wednesday discussed ways to strengthen and expand bilateral relations and cooperation for mutual benefits of the two countries and peoples. The talk was made between Cambodian deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Indian Ministry of External Affairs ...

About a dozen Tuol Kok district security guards in Phnom Penh on Tuesday blocked three families involved in a long-running land dispute from building a fence around the disputed property in Boeng Kak I commune, an official said. Deputy district governor Saing Sopheak Vichet said the ...

Mobile network operator Beeline announced on Monday that it will launch a 4G service by the end of the year. Hout Vanthan, the chairman of parent company Sotelco, said the 4G network will be available in Phnom Penh by the fourth quarter of 2014. ...

Ath Thorn, the president of the union that led strikes at the SL Garment Factory last year, appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday for questioning over allegations of incitement. The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), headed by Mr. Thorn, spearheaded ...

Representatives of 50 families in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday alleging that a Vietnamese concessionaire is responsible for destroying about 50 hectares of cashew plantations. Sorl Penh, 58, a representative for the villagers from Nhang commune, said yesterday that ...

In their latest bid for a $160 minimum monthly wage for the garment industry, independent unions will lead a “stay at home” strike late next week. While the chances of that figure being approved anytime soon seem slight – the government has only just announced a ...

Cambodia’s 11-year-old investment law may be the most liberal in the region, according to the World Bank, but in practice, day-to-day business operations are far from simple, economists and business operators say. Mey Kalyan, senior adviser to the Supreme National Economic Council, said that despite a ...

About 200 workers employed by a sub-contractor of Kampot Cement Company went on strike for several hours Tuesday, demanding better wages as well as annual leave, a union representative said. “The reason they went on strike is that they want Banjamag company to implement five points” ...

The Ministry of Commerce is undergoing an internal shake-up to better position itself for the opening up of trade across the region. Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol told the Post yesterday that ahead of Asean Economic Community (AEC) integration in 2015, new divisions were being established and others realigned ...

Like mob deals and black market trades, the Cambodian school budget is dealt in suitcases of cash. Four times a year, the school operating budget is dispersed in stacks of cash transferred from the central bank to the Ministry of Education, eventually ending up with the ...

The government-backed Rural Development Bank (RDB) will lend $64 million to Cambodia’s agriculture sector in 2014, the bank’s top official said yesterday. Sun Kunthor, president of RDB, said most of the funding would be used to support growth in Cambodia’s rice sector as it strives to ...