Economy and commerce

Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal has given the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) the green light to proceed with a plan to build coal-powered plants in Myanmar and Cambodia – providing Thailand with 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Egat has also been instructed to negotiate the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that he had ordered a Phnom Penh ice-making factory to shut down, after pungent chemical emissions from the plant in Russei Keo district caused more than 100 nearby residents to be hospitalized with breathing problems on Friday. At least 20 ...

The first three-day Koh Kong Investment and Trade Fair 2013 kicked off on Saturday, promoting trade and investment in the southern provinces of Cambodia with neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. “The [fair] is aimed at promoting trade and development in Koh Kong province and other border ...

Cambodia’s promising animal feed sector will soon see support from a big pharmaceutical manufacturer which is now studying local demand for animal healthcare – a nearly untapped market. “We intend to introduce animal health business in Cambodia for our farm products and feed mills,” Khalid Baig, ...

The government on Friday awarded CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat a $92.21 million contract to install power lines in Cambodia’s eastern provinces, the Council of Ministers said in a statement. During the weekly Cabinet meeting, senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on the ...

Satiating the demands of the global sugar industry is big business for Cambodia’s sugarcane plantations. Yet accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the Kingdom have left a bitter aftertaste for many on the ground as companies vie for a larger slice of ...

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will invest $1.5 billion for its airline venture in Cambodia, its top executive said yesterday. Cambodia Airlines will have about 20 aircraft in its fleet and add as much as $400 million revenues per year to Philippine Airlines (PAL), said ...

Srekor village has stood on the banks of the Se San River in northeastern Cambodia for generations. In a few years it will be gone, submerged along with more than 300 square kilometres of surrounding farmland and forest. For 37-year-old rice farmer Pa Tou, the ...

Cambodian lawmakers have passed a new law on agriculture, but critics say the law does not go far enough to protect the country’s farmers. The law passed on Thursday evening, but not before debate at the National Assembly. During the debate opposition representatives called on the ...

Following a considerable increase in Cambodia’s milled rice exports in the first four months of the year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said he was optimistic the Kingdom’s rice exports would reach the 2015 target of one million tonnes. With this year’s export figures notably higher ...

The National Assembly of Cambodia on Friday ratified the agreement on maritime transport between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, saying the agreement is essential to develop trade and economic ties between ASEAN and China. “The agreement aims to facilitate and foster ...

Since 1998, Phnom Penh’s population has doubled to more than 2 million. High-rise buildings have popped up in the city’s center and housing developments have been hastily erected. Yet the city’s antiquated, decades-old drainage system has undergone little improvement in that time and experts say the ...

About 100 people protested Wednesday evening outside a Phnom Penh ice-making factory owned by the daughter of deputy Kompong Spue governor Tong Seng, complaining that the factory causes a bad smell and that the health of residents in Russei Keo district’s Kilometer 6 commune was ...

The steady growth of franchises from overseas is likely to continue as young, moneyed Cambodians seize the opportunity to bring name brands into the country, a bank official said yesterday. Hoping to help its customers and others invest in franchises, Malaysia-based CIMB Bank yesterday organized ...

Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun yesterday appealed to landlords with properties close to garment factories not to take advantage of the industry’s minimum wage increase by raising rent prices. The minimum monthly salary in the garment sector – Cambodia’s biggest export industry – officially ...

The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month. Security forces evicted villagers from ...

Japanese Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) signed an agreement yesterday with local Canadia Bank to shore up Japanese growth in Cambodia and to demonstrate its confidence in the Kingdom’s financial sector. BTMU’s managing executive officer, Takami Onodera, and Pung Kheav Se, chairman of Canadia Bank, yesterday ...

Delta Electronics (Thailand), one of the world’s leading producers of power supplies and electronic components, plans to expand to Cambodia and Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday. “There is no indication of a specific timeframe for the expansion, but the company sees these countries . ...

Cambodia Airlines plans to spend $1.5 billion to acquire up to 22 planes, a move that might see the new airline’s eventual fleet size overtake that of national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air. “We [will be] starting to deploy 16 to 22 aircraft immediately once it’s ready ...

Cambodia saw a slow rise in trade volume with Vietnam and a slight decrease with Thailand in the first quarter of this year, according to the figures provided on Wednesday. The figures said Cambodia’s total exports to Vietnam was worth 221 million U.S. dollars during ...

Mark Moorstein knew little about Cambodia before he got involved in a lawsuit on behalf of land owners there. But as it’s turning out, the suit could end up affecting most every country in Asia. Moorstein is a land-use lawyer in Northern Virginia who, like many ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit Macau in September to participate in the Second Global Tourism Economy Forum. Prime Minister Hun Sen called for more investment in the country by Chinese and Macau entrepreneurs, and direct flights between Cambodia and Macau. According to Xinhua, the ...

While significant obstacles remain, the success of the rice sector is a potentially crucial driver in Cambodia’s prosperous and equitable development. Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements recently, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. ...

Australia’s Renaissance Minerals (Cambodia) Ltd. unveiled Thursday that it estimated that gold resource[s] at O’kvau area in Cambodia’s Mondolkiri province could be as much as 1.2 million ounces, the firm’s Managing Director Justin Tremain said. Speaking during a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and ...