Economy and commerce

The SET-listed Bangkok Insurance (BKI) is stepping up its local branch expansion and plans to sell its products in Laos and Cambodia. The move prepares it for the region’s economic integration in 2015. President Panus Thiravanitkul said BKI will open one branch each in Prachuap Khiri Khan,Trang ...

INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the Washington-based World Bank, has invested $US805 million ($770m) in Australian projects around the world These projects are in 24 countries and in sectors ranging from financial services to infrastructure. IFC is an investor in three Macquarie Group-sponsored infrastructure ...

With renovation work on the country’s dilapidated railway at a standstill, the Ministry of Public Works has entered into talks with a regional consortium backed by one of the largest firms in China to replace the railway’s current operator, officials said yesterday. Faced with a ...

The Minister of Social Affairs has sent a letter to the management of the Tai Yang and Camwell garment factories, suppliers to Levi’s and Gap, requesting it reinstate 37 workers involved in a strike that has dragged on for almost two months. “In order to ensure ...

Rice exports this year had been flat compared to last year because of the many challenges growers were facing, insiders said this week. The data shows exports were no better than last year for the same period, as exports for the first eight months of ...

Cambodia’s government yesterday announced it had chosen the largest local bank, Acleda Bank Plc, to be its partner for vehicle tax stamp sales. Acleda will operate for the General Department of Taxation of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in all 23 provinces and Phnom Penh.   Sim Eang, royal ...

A company with ties to one of China’s top state-owned firms will look to push Toll Royal Railways and its local partner Royal Group of Companies out of a 30-year railroad concession with pledge to invest nearly US$850 million to revamp existing lines and build an additional ...

The number of mobile subscribers (SIM cards sold) increased 25.28 per cent during the first half of the year as a result of an expansion in the telecommunications market, according to officials. Mobile phone service subscribers increased by 3,963,734 or 25.28 per cent to 19,642,563 compared ...

Petrol prices have jumped by 150 riel (US$0.03) a litre, much to the dismay of Cambodia’s poor, as NGOs appealed to the government to take action. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), issued a letter dated August 16 appealing to Prime Minister Hun ...

Government officials met with more than 200 Phnom Penh families on Friday to lay out the state’s case for ownership of their land and the compensation they can expect when they are evicted from their homes situated along the city’s railway tracks. The $142 million project ...

The United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, President Obama’s Chief Trade Advisor, will be visiting Cambodia’s Siem Reap province on Aug. 30-31 to participate in the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ meetings and the ASEAN-U.S. Business Summit, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy ...

Renaissance Minerals announced Friday it has discovered a high-grade gold deposit in an area in Mondolkiri province that lies within the Australian firm’s Cambodian Gold Project. The new find is located about 500 meters to the northeast of the company’s Okvau exploration zone. The announcement comes ...

The Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC), a subsidiary of the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), has been named as one of the five biggest banks in Cambodia after three years of operation BIDC general director Nguyen Van Hien said ...

A Chinese academic with close ties to China’s state security apparatus has claimed that Beijing coordinated with the Cambodian government to influence the outcome of the Asean meeting in Phnom Penh, according to the Financial Times. In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Chen ...

The Cambodian government has approved 53 new garment and footwear factories, worth an estimated US$338 million, during the first half of this year, compared with 38 last year valued at $180 million, despite the increase in the number of strikes affecting the industry. Officials and industry ...

More than 180,000 hectares on 28 of Cambodia’s 64 islands were reclassified as state private property for 31 companies seeking land concessions between 2008 and 2010, government sub-decrees reveal. The reclassification sub-decrees, compiled by investigators at the rights group Adhoc, pave the way for firms to ...

Aviation revenues have been released by government officials who were hesitant to reveal details but said yesterday the figures had increased by about three per cent. Mao Havannal, secretary of state for the Civil Aviation Secretariat, said after yesterday’s opening of a seminar on aviation insurance that ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called investors from China’s Anhui province to invest in numerous sectors across Cambodia in an effort to spur two-way trade between the Kingdom and China in order accomplish their joint target of US$5 billion in trade by 2015. Meanwhile, Cambodia’s opposition party ...

Exactly one year after the Finance Ministry indefinitely postponed its last top-level meeting with the international aid donors, there is still no sign that the government is ready to set a new date to engage face-to-face with the country’s development partners. The forum is held once ...

With the number of tourists visiting the country increasing rapidly, hotels are coming under strain due to lack of skilled chefs and waiters in the industry, according to hotel managers. In the first six months of 2012, international visitors reached 1.75 million, a 26.8 percent ...

The state-owned Telecom Cambodia reported a 5 percent decline in revenues in the first half of this year due to tough competition in the country’s telecommunication industry, company director general Lao Saroeun said Friday. During the January-June period this year, the firm earned a gross revenue ...

As wealthy Gulf states look to meet their food needs by investing in agriculture projects abroad, Cambodia-with its underutilized land and attractive foreign investment policies-makes a nearly perfect investment destination. But endemic corruption, land conflicts, a badly implemented economic land concession program, and an unreliable judiciary could ...

The second Cambodia International Machinery Industry Fair 2012 (CIMIF 2012) will kick off this weekend from at the Diamond Island Convention Center in an effort to promote the industry development and foreign investment in Cambodia. It will run for four days from tomorrow to August ...

Election monitoring groups are questioning the National Election Committee (NEC) recent decision to let a Phnom Penh casino fund its new multi-million dollar headquarters, a move they said would cast further doubt on the body’s independence. NagaCorp, the owner of Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino, NagaWorld, ...