Economy and commerce

Eating rat is a common phenomenon over the border in Vietnam, but increasing numbers of Cambodians in nearby villages are adopting rodent cuisine with relish. As many as three tonnes of rats are caught every day in Cambodia and exported to Vietnam to feed a ...

Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. According to the Cambodian League for the ...

A preference for NGO and government jobs among young Cambodians was contributing to a critical labor shortage in the industrial manufacturing sector, a Labor Ministry official said yesterday. Speaking to 3,000 prospective university students on Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island, Labor Ministry Secretary of State Pich Sophoan ...

The price of imported raw silk decreased to US$44 per kilogram even as raw silk production fell off, according to industry insiders. Imported raw silk dropped 12 per cent to $44 per kilogram compared to $50 per kilogram last May. Cambodia Craft Federation CEO Soeng Kemyun, said ...

After experiencing decades of floods, Cambodia’s microfinance institutions say they no longer have problems disbursing loans during the rainy season, according to the head of Cambodia’s Microfinance Association (CMA). A survey issued early this year by a coterie of international aid organisations, including Oxfam, Care, PACT ...

Cambodia’s total trade volume grew 15.41 percent to reach$7.46 billion in the first seven months compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. Revenues earned through exports reached $2.9 billion, an increase of 11.82 percent compared to ...

Global food prices remained high in August according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food price index, maintaining the high level achieved last month as corn prices jumped in the US and rice prices increased in Cambodia. With 213 points in August the food ...

ASEAN senior officials on energy gathered here on Monday to discuss and prepare documents for the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting and related meetings to be held on Sept. 12. The two-day preparatory meeting, under the theme “ASEAN Green Connectivity”, was chaired by Tun ...

Construction sector had attracted the investment of $1.38 billion in the first seven months of 2012, a 85 percent rise from $747 million at the same period last year, a report from the ministry of land management, urban planning and construction showed on Monday. During the ...

Sri Lanka’s Touchwood Investments PLC has acquired 11,138 hectares of land in Cambodia to set up an agricultural project to plant rubber and other crops. Chairman of the firm, Roscoe A. Maloney, says the acquisition done in the previous financial year is aimed at exploring the ...

Villagers in Kratie province have long feared the proposed Sambor hydroelectric dam and the impact it could have on their subsistence fishing and riverbank agriculture. According to Resilience on the Mekong: A Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in North-East Cambodia, a report released by the World Wildlife ...

Siam Cement Group (SCG), the country’s top industrial conglomerate, says its logistics unit will cover Asean and southern China within five years, partly through mergers and acquisitions. Kan Trakulhoon, the president and chief executive, said the expansion will accommodate growing regional trade under the Asean Economic ...

Fast food chain KFC lost more than half-a-million dollars in the first half of 2012, according to a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange last week by the majority owner of KFC Cambodia, QSR Brands. The statement said that the company suffered losses of $578,000 in ...

Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding to establish direct flights between the two countries, said Tith Chantha, director general of Tourism Ministry. Tourism Minister Thong Khon inked the deal to establish flights from Dubai to an unspecified destination in Cambodia during ...

Angkor Gold Corp has acquired a new economic land concession as it gains full control of its other concessions with the purchase of another mining company, according to officials. According to a statement released last week, Angkor Gold has purchased Liberty Mining International Pty Ltd (Liberty), ...

BarCamp Phnom Penh, a technology conference at the University of Puthisastra, promises to attract industry professionals from ASEAN countries, the US, Germany and other countries around the world later this month, Be Chantra, lead organiser of the conference, says. Be Chantra says BarCamp Phnom Penh is ...

Cambodia’s consumer price index (CPI) increased slightly year-on-year in July by 1.3 per cent, which was driven by increased food and fuel prices, according official data from the National Institute of Statistics (NIS). “The increase for all index groups was 1.3 per cent of inflation in July 2012 ...

PharmaProduct Manufacturing, Cambodia’s self-described first pharmaceutical plant, announced last week plans to expand into other ASEAN markets once the ASEAN Com­mu­nity frame-work is adopted in 2015. According to its online materials, the producer of the painkiller KINAL – among other medicines – opened its doors in 1996, and has ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has appointed his personal adviser Kong Vibol as director general of the General Department of Taxation at the Ministry of Econ­­omics and Finance, ac­­cording to the Royal Book en­­try of August 22. In addition to his expertise in taxation, Vibol is also ...

Ocean Garment, the Phnom Penh-based clothing manufacturer at the centre of sexual harassment claims and an illegal strike that lasted more than two weeks, has agreed to compensate more than 2,500 workers for wages lost during the protests, a move union advocates have highlighted as ...

China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years, with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports last week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants-and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...

With GDP growth averaging around 9% for the past decade, Cambodia is certainly attracting interest from potential investors. It has possibly the most investor-friendly environment in Asean with no exchange controls, no restrictions on repatriation of profit, and no discrimination between foreign and local investors. Moreover, ...

Heng Chheang, the jailed ex-deputy general director of senator Kok An’s Anco Brothers Co, may have been improperly convicted of embezzling more than US$58 million from the tycoon, according to a letter sent to the Supreme Court from the Ministry of Economy and Finance last ...

Despite so much excitement in the run-up to the inception of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, experts and activists on human rights and democracy are ambivalent about what AEC’s repercussions will be on human rights and democracy. They have expressed concerns about AEC’s negative ...