Economy and commerce

Blackouts in Phnom Penh will no longer be a problem after an energy source near Sihanoukville starts providing an extra 50 megawatts of coal-fired power to the city next month, the director-general of Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) said. Keo Rottanak said by mid-June at the latest ...

For Meach Mean, a veteran campaigner against hydropower dams in Cambodia’s northeast, this year has brought a double dose of bad news. First, he says, two Chinese hydropower companies have begun feasibility studies into a pair of dams planned for tributaries of the Mekong River ...

Cambodia’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is wearing thin – and yet the country is a rising star when it comes to attracting foreign investment and increasing exports. There are many reasons to deter brands and retailers from sourcing clothing in Cambodia. The Kingdom ...

As Cambodia assesses its development goals, a study has found that many Cambodians want to see an improved judicial system, better education, improved agriculture and more human rights. A broad consortium of local and international development agencies spent the early part of the year conducting conferences ...

International pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking to sell their products to Cambodia, although the market is full of obstacles, according to experts. After several big international players announced sales expansion plans, two companies from Indonesia, a major manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia, are planning to follow. Kalbe ...

The family of a worker who was killed when a ceiling collapsed at Kompong Spue province footwear factory lasts week has accepted 9,000 in compensation, and in return has agreed not file a complaint against the company, the deceased’s wife said yesterday. Rim Sarouen, 22, ...

Co-operation on the exchange of electricity will be very important in making the 10-country ASEAN bloc move forward to a single market by 2015, experts said, but a shortage of power supply in each country remains a challenge. Speaking to reporters yesterday after the opening of ...

About 5,000 garment workers from a factory in Kompong Speu province, which manufactures clothing for U.S sports giant Nike, yesterday blocked National Road 4 demanding additional allowances, such as transport and maternity bonuses, a union representative said. The protest at Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment MFG Corp., in ...

A massive power outage that left large areas of Phnom Penh without electricity and water and plunged southern Vietnam into darkness on Wednesday was caused by a crane operator knocking a tree onto a high voltage power line, Vietnam’s state-owned energy provider said yesterday. “A ...

Leaders of ASEAN power utilities and authorities gathered on Thursday to follow up the progress of the ambitious ASEAN power grid action plan, which was set to inter-connect power lines in the 10 ASEAN member states by 2020. Speaking to reporters after the opening ...

The ILO is preparing to name Cambodian garment factories failing to comply with local safety requirements. The International Labour Organisation says Cambodian garment factories refusing to comply with safety requirements have one last chance before they are named and shamed. Jill Tucker, chief technical advisor for ...

ACLEDA Bank, the largest locally owned commercial bank in Cambodia, said it has raised its current registered capital by $72.5 million, to $185.6 million, for business expansion domestically and internationally. It is the tenth time the bank has done so. ...

About 20 people protesting their pending eviction from their homes near Phnom Penh International Airport blocked people from leaving or entering the airport for about half an hour yesterday, before a large force of police broke up their protest. In July, authorities told 182 families ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday told landowners in the coastal province of Kep to pay their taxes on unused land and increase the amount of investment in the area to attract more visitors. According to the law, unused land is subject to a 2 percent ...

Several days of rain have finally brought relief to hundreds of families in Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City who had been without water for two weeks because the reservoir that provides their supply dried up during hot season. LYP Group, a company owned by ...

AEON Microfinance (Cambodia) Co Ltd says it has expanded its installment payment services into the agricultural sector, a new business type industry insiders say could be successful, but will still not be enough to strengthen one of Cambodia’s most crucial economic sectors. “We will co-operate with ...

A massive power outage Wednesday in Southern Vietnam brought rolling blackouts that lasted for hours to Ho Chi Minh City, the entire southeastern region of Vietnam and large sections of Phnom Penh. Vietnam’s state-owned Southern Power Corporation said Wednesday that the problem occurred around 2 p.m. ...

A 555-metre tower planned for Diamond Island is to go ahead, and expert engineers from China and Vietnam are studying the river bank and calculating the strength of the foundations needed to support the building. The building plan will not be changed and now the company ...

Cambodian milled rice exports are gradually lessening their dependency on a single market by expanding their shipping destination in Asia, a sign insiders say is good news for the industry. Kim Savuth, president of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters, told the Post yesterday that milled ...

Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second-biggest clothing retailer, said some H&M garments were produced without its knowledge or approval at a factory in Cambodia where workers were injured in a partial building collapse this week. A supplier of the Stockholm-based company placed two minor orders with ...

Cambodia’s insurance industry earned a total premium of 12 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2013, up 30 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the industry’s report released Wednesday. The main sources of the premium were from fire insurance ...

U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi on Tuesday received a thorny reception from hundreds of students at a Phnom Penh university, who angrily questioned his impartiality and unfurled banners calling for him to end his work in Cambodia. Special rapporteur Subedi delivered a lecture to about ...

Officials are seeking expert firms to implement projects on so-called contract farming and the enhancement of the involvement of farmers’ organisations in paddy collecting and processing, officials said. Contract farming is an agreement on agricultural production carried out between a farmer and buyers, which establishes conditions ...

When a 100-metre-long section of a Phnom Penh garment factory crumpled in on itself like a cheap pup tent, Sen Sok district officials promised an investigation. The results of that investigation, which was to have taken place more than a year ago, in March 2012, ...