Economy and commerce

Despite growing exports, freight companies say profits are being hit because most firms still use old, inefficient trucks and are often forced to pay custom officials informal fees at border checkpoints and ports. Transportation costs in Cambodia are already some of the highest in the region, ...

Police and Phnom Penh municipality officials yesterday halted construction on a seven-story high-end apartment complex on Street 240 in Daun Penh district. Phnom Penh Municipal Governor Kep Chuktema was accompanied by police officials who entered the 240 apartment complex, which has been under construction for several ...

The five-star, 17-story Mittapheap Hotel in Sihanoukville province, being constructed by Khouch Asia Company, is on track to be completed in 2014 as planned, according to the project manager. The company is aggressively developing the project and the first floor has just been completed. The numbers of ...

An Australian company working towards mining gold from the Okvau deposit in Mondulkiri province, currently estimated at 729,000 ounces, expects to employ more than 1,000 local people during the mine’s construction phase and 500 in the   longer term. Renaissance Minerals managing director Justin Tremain told the ...

Aeronautical fees imposed at airports in countries which are members of the U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)- including Cambodia- must be uniformly and transparently applied to all airlines, a spokesperson for the ICAO said yesterday. Last week, airline officials  said that a $1,000-per-landing royalty fee ...

The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court questioned two well-known human rights workers yesterday in an incitement lawsuit brought against them by a CPP commune chief, one of those questioned said. About 200 ethnic minority Tumpuon villagers, embroiled in a land dispute with the DM Group rubber company, protested ...

More than 150 businesses and associations from around the world gathered on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich yesterday for the launch of the country’s annual food and hospitality exhibition. Two events, the International Food, Drinks and Wine Show and the Cambodian International Hotel, Restaurant and Catering Industry ...

Danish marine fuel company Go4 Bunker Denmark yesterday launched the first company in Cambodia to supply ship fuel to  vessels traveling through Cambodia’s waters, according to officials. The launch ceremony for the newly established Go4 Bunker Cambodia Co Ltd yesterday was presided over by Danish Princess ...

The Cambodian government has developed six prakases related to a controversial sub-decree that regulates the recruitment of migrant workers, but it cannot yet release the details, a Labor Ministry official said yesterday. On the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Siem Reap aimed at curtailing migrant worker abuses, Seng Sakada, ...

Tens of thousands of garment workers will enjoy an early start to the Pchum Ben holiday today as they trek back to their homeland. Their excitement, however, is not shared by their bosses, who will be left to rue a week-long halt in production. Enterprise and establishment ...

Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has called on neighbouring Cambodia to consult with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on its reported plan to develop a nuclear power project. General Prayuth said the Cambodian nuclear power project has “pros and cons” ...

Tiger Airways has launched two new routes from its Singapore (SIN) base, using its single fleet of 180-seat A320s. On 27 September, the low-cost airline began operating five times weekly to Hyderabad (HYD) in southeast India – the airline’s sixth destination in India ...

The Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association in Battambang province will establish a biomass-generated electricity plant in Battambang, an insider said. The plant will cost up to US$10 million and generate 10 megawatts of electricity. Phou Puy, president of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association (CRMA) and the ...

More investment is needed as well as additional assistance for farmers if the government wants to meet its export goal of 1 million tons of rice a year by 2015, according to experts at a recent rice sector meeting in Phnom Penh. Participants said rice millers would need substantial access ...

A Commerce Ministry official yesterday denied that Cambodia was exporting luxury wood logs to China, insisting that any wood leaving the country was in a “processed” form. The China Customs data also states that each year, just under 10,000 cubic meters of “logs” and about ...

Cambodia’s branded Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) market might double in value to US$1 billion over the next seven years, according to Unilever Indochina. Factors influencing this are the increasing urbanization of Cambodian society and the desire for more choice, said Maks Mukundan, Unilever Indochina’s managing director. Cambodia’s open ...

Thailand has committed to supplying additional energy to provinces on the Thai-Cambodia border, an official says. Tun Lean, director of the General Energy Department at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said on Monday its Thai counterpart would supply an additional 40 megawatts of energy. For ...

The IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecasts that uncertainty surrounding growth in advanced economies will slightly affect the growth of some ASEAN nations, particularly low-income countries such as Cambodia. A senior IMF official told reporters on the sidelines of the fund’s annual meeting yesterday that some ASEAN economies relying heavily ...

Cambodia’s service sector has seen significant growth in recent years, but the sector remains hampered by challenges, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) However, inadequate supporting infrastructure, such as transport and basic utilities, the high cost of electricity and inadequate implementations of ...

The import flow of bicycles (excluding e-bikes) into the European Union is changing rapidly between countries What is in particular striking is the massive upswing in imports from Cambodia. In 2011 the European Union imported 366,000 bikes from Cambodia which took the country to the 9th ...

Economic growth in the East Asia and Pacific region – covering 14 countries, including Thailand – may slow by a full percentage point to 7.2 per cent this year, before recovering to 7.6 per cent next year, according to a World Bank report Excluding China, the ...

The Taiwan Cooperative Bank will become the third bank from Taiwan, which has no diplomatic relations with Cambodia under the “one-China” policy. National Bank of Cambodia officials say the bank has been provisionally approved, but that the central bank needs time to look over the fine ...

Cambodians are starting to learn about insurance, thanks to Canadian company Manulife, which held a press conference on the topic on Friday. Low awareness and a limited pool of skilled talent are challenges facing insurers in Cambodia according Prudential representative Pankaj Banerjee. Despite this, he said Prudential ...

Cambodia’s service sector has seen significant growth in recent years, but the sector remains hampered by challenges, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The service sector’s real GDP share has expanded to 39 per cent in 2011, compared to 23.7 per cent ...