Economy and commerce

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on microfinance institutions to reduce interest rates and expand repayment periods for the tens of thousands of families affected by last year’s devastating floods. Addressing microfinance institutions (MFIs) on Tuesday during a conference at the Ministry of Rural Development, ...

A day after Interior Minister Sar Kheng revealed that authorities had identified a suspect in the shooting of three female factory workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng province, officials yesterday refused to reveal the identity of the gunman, who had still ...

“I think when you have an economy that depends on the agricultural sector, there is a need to ensure that we strengthen the linkages between rural and urban areas. Our work also focuses on promoting education so that we can provide better employment opportunities for ...

The Asian Development Bank has provided $69 million for Cambodia to make major upgrades of provincial roads in some of the country’s poorest provinces, according to an ADB statement Wednesday. The Provincial Roads Improvement Project, financed by a $52 million loan from ADB Special Funds and ...

Speculation is bubbling in Bavet town over the identity of the man who shot three people protesting outside a shoe factory on Monday, with eyewitnesses, police and villagers suggesting blame lies with town officials. The shooting, which took place outside the Kaoway Sports Ltd factory ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia has approved in principle the listing of Phnom Penh Water Supply on the Cambodian Securities Exchange, according to the SECC’s website. The announcement fell a step short from listing approval for PPWS, with the SECC requiring additional paperwork, including ...

A Chinese company is aiming to invest in cement production in Cambodia, according to officials at the Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy (MIME). The China Triumph International Engineering Company (CTIEC) would become one of Cambodia’s biggest cement producers and would invest in the Kingdom, said ...

Brett Sciaroni, the storied founder of Sciaroni and Associates in Phnom Penh, is in Washington for a two-day State Department business conference where he will urge US companies to invest in Cambodia, the firm said in a statement. Mr. Sciaroni will be representing Cambodia as president ...

For the second time in the history of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodia has taken over the chairmanship of the 10-nation bloc. The country first chaired Asean in 2002–03, when it had been a member for only three years. Yet the world and the ...

The curse of Cambodia’s 2011 floods continues for those most affected, as they fall deeper into debt from unsustainable cyclical debt practices, a consortium of international NGOs said yesterday. The consortium of Care, Oxfam, Pact and Catholic Relief Services released the results of their January survey ...

Cambodia and China are willing to further promote bilateral cooperation in all fields in the framework of ASEAN-China relations, officials said Monday. The commitment was made during the official visit of Ma Mingqiang, secretary general of ASEAN-China Center, to Cambodia. In a meeting with Cambodia’s Minister ...

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s low-rise capital city is reaching for the sky—again. Long known as one of the last major Asian cities without a skyline, Phnom Penh embarked on a high-rise building boom in the middle of the last decade, only to see it derailed ...

More than 3,000 factory workers protested yesterday at the Manhattan Quing Dao Textiles Corp in Kompong Cham Province’s Kompong Siem District to demand that the factory owner abide by an Arbitration Council Ruling issued in late 2010, a union representative said yesterday. The factory web site ...

Japan’s second-largest bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, officially opened a representative office in Phnom Penh on Friday. The office would serve as an information centre for potential investors and hoped to attract more Japanese companies, Masato Miyachi, general manager of the bank’s Asia and China division, ...

Cambodia has met 70 per cent of the basic requirements needed to join the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, referring to a recently updated report issued by the economic block. The Kingdom ranked third in preparedness among the 10 ASEAN member ...

The bilateral relations between Cambodia and China in terms of investment, trade and tourism have become stronger in the past year thanks to the two countries’ good relations, said officials Friday. Cambodia attracted China’s investments of 1.19 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, up 71 percent from ...

Cambodia’s exports to South Korea rose by more than 100 per cent last year, according to officials at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Agricultural and garment exports largely accounted for the surge. KOTRA data shows total exports were worth US$87.3 million in 2011, compared ...

Investors in Cambodia, tied with Yemen as the world’s 164th-cleanest country for doing business, face risks in a planned stock market because of ineffective financial and legal systems, the country’s exiled opposition leader said. “Among the little dragons of Southeast Asia, Cambodia is the least encouraging,” ...

Chinese businessman Cha intor and president of coal mining group from China decided to invest the opening of Khmer economic magazine in Phnom Penh to boost the close ties for China and Cambodia and also it will enhance traditional media in the country. The announcement ...

U.S. and Japanese companies are interested in prospecting for oil and natural gas in Cambodia. According to Phai Siphan, state secretary and spokesman of the Council of Ministers Office, in the provinces of Preah Vihear, Siemreab, and Kampong Thom there are 17 oil blocs covering ...

Gasoline prices in Cambodia hit an all-time high on Friday, stoking fears of limited fuel reserves and increasing production costs at some of the Kingdom’s businesses. Premium gasoline sold for $1.40 per litre last week, surpassing the $1.38-per-litre price during the global economic slump at the ...

The Kingdom’s much-hyped deadline of tapping its first oil reserves by December 12 2012, or 12-12-12, will not be met, a government spokesman said yesterday. Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Cambodia) Ltd, which is now exploring the Kingdom’s offshore Block A in the Gulf of Thailand, has notified ...

Thai cassava farmers have asked Cambodia to stop exporting the commodity into Thailand in an attempt to keep prices high and avoid saturating the market, officials said yesterday. Sao Sarat, Pailin provincial cabinet chief, said that Thai government officials representing local cassava farmers met with Pailin ...

The last of the nearly 800 families from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community who are in line for land titles will not receive their long-awaited ownership records for another “two or three weeks”, a city official said yesterday. The families were spared eviction at the hands ...