Economy and commerce

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has arrested two employees of a local company linked to a British biofuel firm currently under investigation by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), an official said Friday. ACU President Om Yentieng said that International Green Energy (IGE) director Oum Sam­nang, and ...

More than 8,000 hectares of land was cut from economic and forest land concessions owned by some of the country’s biggest tycoons and awarded to villagers last month, according to documents from the Council of Ministers. Four sub-decrees signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen order that ...

Cambodian and Thai officials are having trouble resolving tensions over border checkpoints in Oddar Meanchey, Cambodian authorities said yesterday. Following a verbal request from Thai border police that their Cambodian counterparts rejected last week, Thai officers submitted a letter last Friday asking Cambodian authorities to move ...

Factory workers complain that their low salaries are not keeping track with the price of goods and services. Phoeun Sreyleak, 20, said she gets $70 a month including bonuses for health care and rent. “My basic wage is only $58,” she said. “My friend gets 2,000 riel ...

Representatives of the ten ASEAN nations met on Sunday in Laos’ capital of Vientiane to launch the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), where they pledged to expand tourism cooperation and discussed creating a pan-ASEAN tourist visa. The ATF, which was first held in 1981, is designed to ...

Cambodia’s inflation rate decelerated to 3 percent last year, down from 4.9 percent in a year earlier, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) Chea Chanto said Saturday. “This is a remarkable drop and the 3-percent rate last year is low and controllable,” he said ...

Cambodia recorded a 17 percent rise in rubber latex exports in 2012; however, the revenues from the exports went down by 21 percent due to declining rubber prices in the international market, the government’s statistics showed Friday. The country had exported 54,530 tons of rubber latex ...

The exports of garments and textiles from Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia grew to US$ 4.61 billion, up nine percent over total textiles and garment exports worth US$ 4.24 billion made in 2011, according to The Phnom Penh Post report. However, the rise in garment ...

Khmer Resources Investment, which is backed by the Cambodian government, aims to list in Hong Kong within two years, chairman Cao Yunde said. “We intend to leverage the capital market of Hong Kong to finance our growth through a public listing so as to maximise the ...

Transport Ministers of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate road transport cooperation. It will facilitate the transportation of goods and passengers among the three countries, including via sea ports, and boost socio-economic development in each country, especially the ...

Looking to compete with Chinese influence in the region, the U.S. government is making plans to help American companies win large-scale infrastructure projects in Cambodia, U.S. officials said yesterday in Phnom Penh. The plans, which come as part of a strategic and economic embracing of Asia ...

A prolonged court case between two French investors in Siem Reap’s landmark Victoria Angkor hotel is at a standstill after auditors ordered by the Supreme Court to examine the hotel’s finances were denied access to the books this week. In a dispute that goes back to ...

One hot day in June, 2009, Ven Samin, a member of the ethnic Suoy minority in Kampong Speu province, grabbed her digital camera and headed out of the house. The 44-year-old arrived at a collection of damaged rice paddies in Oral district and began taking photos. ...

Mesco Gold, an associated company of India-based Mesco Steel, will sign an agreement with Angkor Gold to mine the Phum Syrang prospect on one of its economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province. “We’ve been exploring the area since 2006. We’ve been drilling holes and there’s ...

Two protesters and three factory officials were injured in a clash at a garment factory in Kampong Speu province yesterday as a report revealed that more than 60 unionists and workers were injured in such incidents in 2012. Vann Bun, a Free Trade Union activist, said ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday signed up to provide 230 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for six development projects, aiming at promoting inclusive growth and reducing poverty in Cambodia, according to the bank’s media statement. The financing agreements were inked between Eric Sidgwick, country ...

Cambodia exported more than 200,000 tons of milled rice in 2012, the greatest yield on record, though well short of the government target to export 1 million tons by 2015. Speaking at the Ministry of Agriculture’s annual meeting in Phnom Penh, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said ...

An Australian businessman who once fronted a telecommunications firm in Cambodia has been sent to Prey Sar prison on fraud charges in a case one of his associates said was triggered by a disgruntled partner in a failed business venture. Frank May, 63, the former chief ...

Representatives of a dozen large Japanese companies arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday looking for business opportunities in the kingdom. Hidetoshi Nishimura, executive director of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, led the delegation, whose members represent firms in industries such as technology, ...

Police in Phnom Penh yesterday raided nine DVD shops at Tuol Tom Poung market in Chamkar Mon district, confiscating hundreds of illegally reproduced movies at the joint request of the Ministry of Culture and local movie distributor Westec Media Limited. Sao Bunthoeurn, deputy director of ...

Cambodia’s largest bank is ready to launch its first micro-finance institution (MFI) in Myanmar, but one final barrier remains: an operating licence from Myanmar’s government. Acleda Bank’s chief executive, In Channy, expects the licence to be granted by the end of this month. Once that is done, ...

Office rental growth in Phnom Penh increased 10 to 15 per cent by the end of 2012, said an official of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association, as the number of local and international companies have risen significantly. Chrek Soknim, deputy director of VTrust property ...

China has become Cambodia’s biggest investor, putting some $8.8 billion into the country over nearly two decades, according to online data from the government’s lead investment agency. Those investment numbers, from the Council for the Development of Cambodia, from 1994 to 2011, do not take into ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 6.7 percent in 2013 thanks to anticipating increases in agriculture, foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism, the World Bank said in its latest outlook Wednesday. “The growth is based on achieving the dividends from focus on higher rice ...