Economy and commerce

U.S. fast-food chain Burger King will open its second location in Phnom Penh in Boeng Keng Kang I commune by the end of January, the restaurant’s manager said Thursday. Located at the corner of streets 51 and 310, the restaurant will take over the building that ...

The economic fallout from garment worker protests and the industry’s response is expected to cost the key sector millions of dollars while tarnishing the country’s reputation among international buyers, interviews with suppliers and figures from previous periods of labour unrest show. Disputes over wages came to ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) on Thursday asked all its members to temporarily stop production operations this week due to concerns over security and safety after thousands of workers walked out of work in protest against the 19 percent wage hike in the ...

While the European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht never told the Ministry of Commerce that Cambodian rice was “30 per cent” mixed with the same product from Vietnam, he did say Cambodia had to better ensure that its harvest was homegrown and not from ...

Economic growth has a close correlation with the quality of education, and not its quantity, a graduate student at the University of Chicago says. While education for all has been introduced in Cambodia, more needs to be done toward offering equal access to quality education, ...

A rice trader on Monday filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet and three ministries alleging that officials in Kompong Cham province had wrongly fined her for an overweight truck after using improperly weighted scales. Saing Darlin had her truck impounded ...

A subsidiary of the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) opened its seventh branch in Mean Chey District, Phnom Penh, on Sunday. The new branch is also expected to meet local demand and boost the development of trade and investment ties between ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Monday visited thousands of workers from two special economic zones (SEZs) in Svay Rieng province who have been on strike over wages and working conditions since December 16. More than 25,000 workers from 36 factories in the Manhattan and Tai Seng ...

The Asean Economic Community (AEC) will cut red tape and allow freer trade between the bloc’s 10 member states. But many companies in the region aren’t even aware of the AEC blueprint, a sobering report from the Asia Development Bank has found. The bank also ...

Preliminary results of a new survey show a steady rise in the price of land in Phnom Penh since the country’s property boom in 2008 and spectacular bust in 2009. The initial findings of the survey by VTRUST Property Co. Ltd. examine land prices during the ...

The Cambodian government and rice exporters have dismissed allegations that rice exports to the European Union (EU) countries are contaminated with rice from Vietnam. Commerce Ministry representative told local sources that while it is true that some Cambodia rice is processed in Vietnam to match ...

To capitalise on a rising demand for pork, a state-owned Chinese company is pouring $200 million into ruling party senator and tycoon Mong Reththy’s pig farm in Preah Sihanouk province. ...

A pilot cashew-peeling factory in Kampong Thom province aims to make business easier for farmers who have traditionally relied upon sending their raw harvest elsewhere for processing. With $130,000 from the Asia Development Bank, the building went up in May on 3,600 square metres in Kampong ...

The Council of Ministers has nullified a 2009 law that set minimum prices on telephone calls, paving the way for regulators to reset the country’s telecommunications prices, which industry executives say are too high. The law, Prakas 232, which has been widely flouted, set a minimum ...

A union official at the center of a strike that started last Monday and involves an estimated 30,000 workers from two special economic zones (SEZs) in Svay Rieng province said Sunday that he has no control over the strikers, and does not know when or ...

Cambodian lawmakers on Friday endorsed the setting up of a new ministry specifically in charge of mines and energy, in the hope that oil and gas production will finally get under way in the next couple of years. The new Ministry of Mines and Energy will ...

CPP lawmakers including Prime Minister Hun Sen unanimously voted Friday for their party members, Suy Sem and Cham Prasidh, to become heads of the newly created Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, respectively. The 67 ruling-party parliamentarians present also approved ...

Cambodia’s nine phone service operators plan to establish an independent body to debate issues within the industry, according to a statement yesterday from the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia (TRC). Forming the Association of Telecommunications Operators in Cambodia, or the ATC for short, was agreed upon in ...

Police briefly detained 13 garment factory workers on Thursday after about 20,000 workers, some throwing rocks, continued a strike that began Monday in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City over wages and working conditions, a union official and police said. Union leaders had on Wednesday evening agreed ...

The Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) has proposed a “Code of Conduct” for rice exporters of the country to prevent contamination of rice from other origins in rice exports to EU member countries. Under the Everything But Arms (EBA) trade ...

Garment industry, Cambodia’s largest foreign currency earner, reported a 22 percent surge in exports in the first 11 months of 2013, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. The Southeast Asian nation exported apparel products in equivalent to 5.07 billion U.S. dollars during ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to maintain the robust growth of over 7 percent this year even though the country is still trapped in political dispute and recovering from the aftermath of recent floods, senior officials and bankers said. But some analysts predicted that political trouble, coupled ...

An estimated 30,000 garment factory workers will resume work this morning after three days of strike action ended Wednesday when Svay Rieng provincial officials promised to help the strikers achieve their demands from factory owners. The mass strike led the owner of the Tai Seng Special ...

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Temple, one of the world heritage sites, had received some 1.98 million international visitors in the first 11 months of 2013, up 8 percent from 1.83 million tourists over the same period last year, a tourism report said Wednesday. During the January-November ...