Economy and commerce

CIMB Bank announced over the weekend that it will enlarge mortgage loans provided to clients, going from 70 per cent last year to 80 per cent financing of the total purchase price of properties for 2013. Heng Thida, head of retail financial services for the Malaysia-based ...

Finance Minister Keat Chhon has signed a deal with China’s ambassador to Cambodia to secure a concessional loan of $121 million to fund irrigation and power projects. In the latest promise of cash from Cambodia’s biggest donor, Chi­na will fund a power transmission line con­necting Phnom ...

The governor-general of New Zealand, Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae, began a four-day visit to Cambodia on Thursday at the invitation of King Norodom Sihamoni to promote bilateral relations between the two countries. “The visit reflects the priority New Zealand attaches to its relations with the ...

On May 16, immediately after the ceiling of a shoe factory collapsed in Kompong Speu province, leaving two people dead, promises were made to prosecute those responsible for the tragedy and to conduct a nationwide in­spection of all factories. “We will have a committee investigate clearly ...

Trade volume between Cambodia and Japan had grown 19 per cent in the first six months of 2013 compared with the same period last year, figures from the Japan External Trade Organisation show. Cambodian exports to Japan were up 31 per cent in the first six ...

Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce and long-time ruling party stalwart Cham Prasidh said yesterday that post-election demonstrations could prevent growth and even result in small-scale looting. “If they want to destroy the economy, they have to protest more and more in order to destroy,” he said. Speaking ...

For the first time since a railway rehabilitation project was launched in 2006, Cambodian rice is now being transported from Phnom Penh to the Sihanoukville port along the country’s southern line for export, operators Toll said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Phnom Penh cargo loading station, ...

After two years of assembling Hyundai vehicles in Cambodia for the domestic market, South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Company is increasing its production to meet rising demand, aiming to reach 800 units in 2013, a company’s representative said. Located in the Koh Kong Special Economic Zone, ...

At least 20,000 tourists and travellers will participate in the so-called “sea festival” at the end of this year, officials at the Kep province tourism department said. The two-day event, which started in 2011 as a tourism booster for the country’s coasts and beaches, was cancelled ...

The 3rd international industrial machinery and garment fair kicked off at Cambodian capital’s Diamond Island Exhibition Center on Thursday with the participation of about 240 exhibitors from 16 countries and regions. A variety of industrial machinery for the production of textile and garment, footwear, plastics ...

Government officials began inspecting markets across the country yesterday in search of baby formula containing an ingredient from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra that could cause botulism, quality control representatives at the Ministry of Commerce said. “We informed all our officials directly to collect nationwide some ...

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and the United States has amounted to 1.44 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of the year, up 2 percent compared with 1.41 billion U.S. dollars over the same period last year, the figures of the U.S. Department of ...

Malaysian companies have been urged to venture into Cambodia’s agriculture sector especially in paddy planting and opening up rubber estates. In making the call, Raja Saiful Ridzuan, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Malaysian Embassy here, said Malaysian firms, with its vast expertise in agriculture sector, ...

The Cambodian government announced that it would increase the salaries of low-ranking civil servants to 320,000 Riel per month. The statement was issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen Tuesday. He said, 90,000 civil servants will benefit from the increase which will start in September. Recently the Ministry of ...

About 4,000 angry workers crowded National Road 6 for about 10 minutes yesterday morning The striking employees of the Chinese-owned Juhui Footwear Co, Ltd, who walked out on Friday, took to the street and blocked traffic after officials from the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic ...

Intercontinental Hotels Group, one of the world’s leading hotel companies and operator of InterContinental Hotels & Resorts – one of whose hotels is located in Phnom Penh – said first-half-of-year profits rose 20 per cent on strong gains in the Americas region. According to a statement ...

More than 100 families living in Koh Kong’s Kiri Sakor and Botum Sakor districts are on the clock, with an official government decree demanding they vacate their land in less than two months or face the bulldozers of the Chinese firm slated to build a ...

More than 60 villagers from Kampong Cham province’s Stung Trang district staged a protest on Monday at Arak Tnort commune hall, demanding answers for a massive price hike that has accompanied the installation of electricity meters ahead of a planned switchover to state-provided power. Private company ...

The Ministry of Health will investigate a baby milk formula sold in Cambodia that has been recalled over a risk it contains bacteria that causes botulism, an official said Tuesday. New Zealand dairy company Fonterra has advised eight companies that bought a whey protein concentrate produced ...

Cambodia’s Social Affairs Minister urged factory workers, employers and the public not to be concerned regarding the rumors of disorder and planned protests after the country’s recent parliamentary election. He appealed to all factories and enterprises within the country to proceed as normal. “The Cambodian government ...

Nun Vanak is an excellent example of how Cambodia’s garment manufacturing industry has helped to change lives of hundreds of thousands of people in this country. The 23-year-old is part of Cambodia’s half-a-million-strong workforce – mostly young women – that keeps these garment factories running. Her income ...

Lending at Cambodia’s commercial banks increased by 5.4 percent in the first six months of this year thanks to a better economic situation, a central bank official said Monday. Nguon Sokha, director general of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said that the kingdom’s 34 commercial ...

In late 2009, two months after graduating with a degree in economics, Heng Piseth found a job as a credit officer with a microfinance institution in Kampong Thom province. The story reflects a larger trend confronting young Cambodians entering the financial sector’s job market. While ...

Potentially contaminated infant milk powder that had been banned in China, Russia and Vietnam is now being recalled in Cambodia. The Cambodian distributor of a milk powder product that uses a suspect ingredient from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra is recalling thousands of units as a ...