Economy and commerce

More than 250 ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, after local officials demanded that the villagers apply for private land titles to protect their property from two Vietnamese rubber companies currently clearing their land, ...

Maybank, one of the largest banks in Cambodia, has officially launched an internet banking service to provide a convenient service to its more than 10,000 customers and says it hopes to increase that number by around 10 per cent. The service, called M2U, will enable customers ...

Stock trading at the Cambodia Securities Exchange of the only publicly listed company, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, slightly fluctuated in terms of both trading volume and price in the last five trading days from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5. On Nov. 26, one day before ...

Cambodia is ramping up efforts to attract US investment, especially because it benefits from trade preferences due to its status as a least-developed country, Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh says. Cambodian products can be imported duty free to a number of markets, including Europe and ...

Axiata Group Bhd is set to strengthen its foothold in Cambodia through a merger between Hello Axiata Company Ltd and Latelz Company Ltd, which it acquires for a consideration of US$155mil (RM473mil). In a statement, Axiata announced that its Cambodian arm had entered into a sales ...

While the Cambodian real estate market has still not fully recovered from its steep decline during the 2008-2009 economic crisis, its slower but steady growth is more sustainable than the rapid ascent seen in the years leading up to the fall, experts say. although growth ...

A 22.8 percent increase in the value of imports to Cambodia this year is partly due to a high demand for construction materials, a Commerce Ministry official said yesterday. In the first 11 months of 2012, total trade in and out of Cambodia reached $12.31 billion, ...

The open-source mapping website Urban Voice launched a campaign yesterday against a government order banning Internet cafes withing 500 meters of schools that will effectively make it illegal to operate such businesses in much of Phnom Penh. “Implementation of this order would mean the closure of ...

Popular Japanese hotel chain Toyoko Inn has embarked on a joint-investment with Cambodian company OCIC to build a three-star hotel on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich, to cater to the growth of foreign investors and visitors to Cambodia. The groundbreaking ceremony for the 22-storey, 304 unit Toyoko ...

As the lure of Thailand grows increasingly attractive for cash-strapped and under-employed Cambodians, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday made a public appeal for workers to stay in the country, simultaneously urging the Cambodian market to up its competitive edge. In a speech at the inauguration of ...

Respecting labor standards in Cambodian factories will benefit the garment manufacturing industry in the long-run as more international brands will be tempted to source from the country, labor experts said yesterday at a round-table discussion in Phnom Penh. ...

Battambang, Bavet, Neak Loeung and Poipet are among several towns that will benefit from a $37 million loan from the the first quarter of next year after funding was approved at the 18th Greater Mekong Sub Region (GMS) meeting in Nanning, China. The loan comes from ...

Officials expressed optimism that microfinance institution Prasac would be able to attract more deposit placing clients, after the inauguration of its new headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tompun district yesterday. Representatives from the National Bank of Cambodia  and Prasac expect the new 10-storey building to enhance ...

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines is eying flights to Kuwait, Turkey, and Cambodia starting next year amid its refleeting and expansion program, the Civil Aeronautics Board said Wednesday. PAL has filed petitions with the industry regulator for flights to Istanbul in Turkey, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and ...

Cambodia has great potential in hydropower development and the country could build and tap up to 10,000 megawatts from hydropower dams, said an energy official on Thursday. “At the present, about 10 percent of the hydropower potential is under construction,” Heng Kunleang, chief of the energy ...

About 1,000 workers at a bicycle factory in the Tai Seng Special Economic Zone went on strike Wednesday for a second day, sources said. The sources said the striking workers at Smart Tech (Cambodia) Co Ltd threw rocks at factory windows and threatened to continue ...

Christmas shoppers stand to be taken by surprise this month as campaigners take action in shopping centers around Europe to raise awareness of poverty wages of Cambodian garment workers. With these ‘fashion mobs’, they pressure H&M, Inditex (Zara), Levi’s and Gap to introduce a living ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Wednesday officially launched the country’s national clearing system in order to increase efficiency and expand clearing and settlement services for inter-bank transactions. A central bank statement said that the central system can clear and settle payment instruments such as ...

The Ministry of Commerce will host the 7th Cambodian Export-Import and One Product One Province Exhibition at Diamond Island from December 15-18. ...

As Cambodia’s rice harvest gets into full swing, the government said yesterday that it expects this year’s crop to exceed last year’s, despite fears that drought would limit the yield. Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said that farmers had already harvested more than 3 million tons ...

Last week, the crane on the top of Gold Tower 42 was removed, adding to the sense that the completion of the Korean-owned skyscraper is ultimately a distant hope. The owner of the unfinished skyscraper, sitting at the corner of Sihanouk and Monivong Boulevards entered into ...

Potential real estate investors in Siem Reap are being advised to look towards retail strips rather than hotels, according to Cambodian real estate professionals. Knight Frank’s Cambodia chief, Sunny Soo, said that while the hotel industry is well supplied, the town lacks an organised retail strip. ...

Siam City Cement and the Chip Mong Group will co-build a new cement plant in the Toukmeas district of Kampot by 2015 in order to take advantage of the “huge” demand in Cambodia. The plant will cater specifically to the Cambodian market, although they will also ...

The Alliance of Rice Producers Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) will release US$2 million after December 15th to its members in nine provinces so they can buy paddy rice before the harvest season ends and stocks been depleted. He said the pay out is being drawn from ...