Economy and commerce

Less developed countries should promote domestic software development that meets local needs and capabilities, bringing development gains, a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report published last week says. Locally developed software is more likely to fit the culture, context and language where it ...

Cambodian and Vietnamese Defense Ministries on Friday signed two documents relevant to a joint venture for establishing a quarry and a rubber plantation project in Cambodia. According to a document briefed to reporters at the signing ceremony, the two deals included a quarry site establishment in ...

Cable Thai Holdings (CTH) says it is in talks with leading cable-TV operators and private broadcasters in Cambodia and Laos to grant sub-licence rights to broadcast the English Premier League for three seasons beginning in 2013-14. CTH is a group of more than 300 cable-TV operators ...

Cambodia’s inflation rate is expected to be less than 3 percent in 2012 thanks to stable food prices, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday. “This year, the inflation will be less than 3 percent, it is low and good if compared to 5.5 percent rate last ...

Airports of Thailand (AOT) regards possible co-operation with Myanmar’s Airport Authority as a first step for engaging in airport operations and investment in Laos and Cambodia, the Bangkok Post reported AOT’s acting president, Somchai Sawas-deepon, as saying. ...

Provincial authorities have reported an influx of people from Phnom Penh to the provinces over the three-day Water Festival celebration, while vendors who set up shops on Koh Pich in the capital during the holiday said that they had barely broken even. This year saw ...

Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand) plans aggressive business expansion both here and in neighbouring countries. The leading Japanese non-bank company is using Thailand as a centre to expand its businesses in other Asean countries. Aeon Thana Sinsap plans to offer more financial services in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and ...

Three projects of the six satellite cities around Phnom Penh that were originally approved by the government have been “significantly” developed, according to officials of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Lao Tepseiha, deputy director of the construction department of the Ministry ...

Cambodia’s total rubber latex exports rose by 12 per cent in the first nine months of this year, according to new figures. However, revenues from the exports saw a dramatic 27 per cent decrease due to a fall in rubber prices in the international market, ...

PTT, Thailand’s largest oil and gas conglomerate said it plans to conduct a feasibility study on petrochemical and oil refinery projects in three ASEAN countries – Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Pailin Chuchottaworn, PTT chief executive said, however, that Indonesia and Myanmar ...

Cambodia is aiming to persuade all of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) least developed country members to propose a further suspension of the opening of their service sectors to the WTO’s rich members as the 2013 deadline for the proposal draws nearer. The least developed countries ...

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) has requested the National Assembly to reduce by 75 percent the amount of new debt the government is allowed to take on next year under the latest draft of the 2013 national budget. Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay, who sent the ...

Chevron Oil and Gas Co has delayed offshore oil drilling in Cambodia until 2016 mainly because of the economic slowdown in the United States, a senior lawmaker says. Cheam Yeap, chairman of the National Assembly Commission on Economy, Finance, Banking and Audit, said inadequate human resources ...

Cambodia planned to allocate 3. 1 billion U.S. dollars, in equivalent to 19.8 percent of the country’s GDP, for national expenses in 2013, a 12.9 percent rise year-on-year, finance minister Keat Chhon said Friday. Speaking to reporters after a meeting at the National Assembly, the minister ...

The number of customers subscribing to the mobile operator Beeline has dropped by more than 100,000 in the last quarter, and its average revenue per user has sunk to its lowest in more than a year, the company announced in its third-quarter financial report. ...

Human rights groups in Cambodia fear a new south-east Asian declaration of human rights could conversely offer the government in Phnom Penh a figleaf to clamp down on dissent. Cambodia signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights declaration on Sunday, two days ...

Prudential Plc, the U.K.’s biggest insurer by market value, plans to begin selling insurance in Cambodia in the first quarter of next year to extend its presence in Asia across 13 markets. The firm is hiring sales agents and expects to gain a license to operate ...

The Kingdom’s consumer price index declined by 0.1 per cent in October for the first time in 2012 due to a decline in food and gasoline prices and a stable US dollar exchange rate, according to official data released by the National Institute of Statistics ...

Factory workers should get a reduction or exemption from paying income tax as the deductions are forcing them into poverty, the Free Trade Union (FTU) wrote in a letter to Finance Minister Keat Chon. ...

Siam Commercial Bank will begin expanding its footprint across the region in anticipation of greater business opportunities and competitive pressures with the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2016. SCB, Thailand’s third-largest bank in terms of assets, operates branches in Laos, Singapore and Hong ...

Microfinance institution Sathapana has increased its maximum loan size to US$200,000, a 300 per cent increase from the previous level of $50,000. The upgrade in loan size is a result of Cambodia’s good economic climate and the expectation that there will be demand among customers for ...

Cambodia on Thursday inaugurated a 133-km China-funded national road No. 8 in Prey Veng province, hoping that the road will contribute to promoting social and economic development in the country’s eastern part. The road, which connects from Prek Tamak Mekong River Bridge to Vietnam border, cost ...

Despite the fact that the Chairman’s Statement of the recently wrapped 21st ASEAN Summit welcomed progress on regional “connectivity”, a long-awaited joint visa for Thailand and Cambodia remains stalled. Koy Kuong, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that there is still no progress ...

An official at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy expressed concern that if the quality of Cambodian produced goods does not improve, Cambodia is likely to become largely a retailer of foreign goods when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is realised in 2015. Meng Saktheara, ...