Economy and commerce

More than 100 workers from Kingsland Garment Cambodia factory, which was a supplier to U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart, demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh yesterday, appealing for help in getting their severance payments. In December, workers found out the company had declared bankruptcy ...

Cambodia spent more than $1.6 billion importing fuel oil and petrol last year, a figure 14.3 per cent higher than for 2011, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. The money spent on importing 1.6 million tonnes of petrol and fuel oil – 100,000 tonnes more than ...

Despite the massive spike in development underway in Phnom Penh, a new report says that the public interest is becoming marginalised in favour of the political and business elite. The report, from NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), says that currently “commercial interests are driving the urban ...

South Korea replaced the UK as the largest investor in Cambodia last year, with about $287 million injected, 12.5 per cent of the total foreign direct investment, according to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). This represents 33 per cent ...

Thailand’s biggest convenience store operator, CP All, plans to apply for licences to open 7-Eleven stores in countries including Cambodia by 2015, according to a Reuters news report yesterday. The other two countries are Myanmar and Laos, and the plan is part of CP All’s expansion ...

The number of foreigners who bought condos in Cambodia increased by between 30 and 40 per cent in 2012 compared with 2011, a recent study showed, while 997 condo units currently belong to foreigners. Nuon Rithy, general manager of the Bonna Realty Group, said that according ...

A group of opposition lawmakers have written to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action against a sugar factory owned by a ruling party official accused of exploiting child labor and grabbing land from villagers. Six Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarians sent a letter dated Jan. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has urged public institutions to provide clear terms of reference for the services they provide, as part of an effort to attract investment in the Kingdom. Institutions that did not implement this policy would be punished under the law, he said. ...

The number of companies registering to become members of the Garment Manufacturing Association in Cambodia (GMAC) doubled last year, with more investment in value-added products. GMAC said the number of new members reached 120 last year, compared with 60 newcomers in 2011. “Labour-intensive industries in China ...

Fears of theft are on the rise among market vendors in a tourist district in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, the gateway to the world-renowned Angkor archeological site. Vendors at a market in Puok district said they had lost a lot of money following a slew of ...

Failed Cambodian telco Mfone owes at least $65 million to multiple creditors that sources say include the government. A court injunction to freeze Mfone‘s assets, obtained by the Post yesterday, shows Mfone owes Chinese telco provider Huawei Technologies more than $65 million. Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge ...

The government has publicly issued lists showing the costs of fees that businesses must pay to authorities for various services, in an effort to help companies avoid making informal payments made illegal by the anticorruption law. The lists were drafted during the past year after Cambodia ...

Cambodia had granted licenses to 157 domestic and foreign investment projects with a total investment of 2.28 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, according to a report of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Tuesday. Domestic investors topped the chart among all investors last ...

Almost 3,400 new businesses were registered in Cambodia in 2012, an increase of 9 percent on the previous year, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce. In 2012, the ministry’s business registration department recorded some 3,385 new companies, compared with 3,104 new companies in 2011, ...

The government yesterday asked the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to continue to help Cambodia’s troubled railway rehabilitation project, which is in desperate need of more funding in order to complete the network’s northern line. Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong met with the ADB’s recently appointed country ...

Mfone e-card holders are concerned that the cards can no longer be used after the change from Mfone’s SIM card to Cellcard’s SIM and, along with officials, are unsure of a solution. Wholesalers and retailers have expressed concern that they will lose money when the scratch ...

The National Assembly on Friday passed a law approving the government’s revenue and spending in 2011, drawing criticism from the opposition, which claimed the amount taken in by the government during the period was too low. All 77 CPP lawmakers present voted in favor of the ...

A Thailand-based technical university yesterday signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with technical training institutes in Cambodia to improve human resources in the technical sector. The MoUs were signed between the Thai Rajamangala University of Technology and the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia and the National ...

Cambodia’s export business is in the process of changing due to shifts in manufacturing in Asia. A business publication in the country has reported unexpected growth in the “machinery and transport equipment” sector and speculated it was as [sic] “probably bicycles.” But when Cambodia jumped ...

Cambodia’s Securities Exchange (CSX) on Monday broke ground for the construction of a 3-storey building in the heart of Phnom Penh, the country’s capital. “The construction of the building reflects the government’s firm stance in developing the stock market and the building will build ...

Peering out over the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh from a sixteenth-storey private balcony at the new Bellevue Apartments, one could watch for hours as cranes swing back in forth over all the new developments on the west side of the water. “Phnom ...

Exports of Cambodian fish and shellfish products reached 1,618 tonnes last year, worth $3.5 million, a 16 per cent increase from 1,391 tonnes in 2011, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce. “A major share of the total exports last year was from saltwater fish ...

Despite the inaugural train traveling between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville by a new rail link a month ago, no goods have yet been transported between the capital and the country’s largest port. Toll Royal Railways, a joint venture between Australia’s Toll Group and local conglomerate Royal ...

Officials at the Ministry of Commerce met on Friday to draft a sub-decree for the promotion and development of the Cambodian silk sector, but industry experts say the draft does not do enough for the local products used in the production of silk. The main ...