Trade

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

With cargo traffic at the Phnom Penh Autonomus Port growing rapidly, a nearly completed container terminal just south of the city on the Mekon River should help ease the congestion. The 30-hectare port, in Kandal province’s Kein Svay district, was completed late last month, though cranes ...

British American Tobacco (Cambodia) Co. (BAT), which produces the cigarette brand ARA, suspended operations at its re-drying plant in Kandal province’s Takhmao commune yesterday, in order to allow time to redesign its air filtration system following repeated complaints about fumes that were allegedly spewing from ...

About 600 garment workers of the Top Form factory in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district continued protesting yesterday against new income tax deductions from their pay outside the factory after police blocked them from marching on National Road 5. Workers have been protesting since Friday against ...

One of Cambodia’s primary telecommunications companies, Cellcard, announced yesterday that longtime Chief Operating Officer Kay Lot has resigned. The departure of Kay Lot follows the departure of CEO David Spriggs who resigned his position about two months ago. Telecommunications industry insiders say the otherwise healthy and profitable ...

About 300 workers entered their sixth day of strikes yesterday at a bra factory in the capital, which manufactures lingerie supplied to Victoria’s Secret and Valentino, but their hopes of a quick resolution were dashed when a Ministry of Social Affairs official admitted he was ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Asia-Pacific region’s trade with Europe via Russia will surge by at least five-fold by 2020 as traditional sea routes become less competitive. His remarks came in a commentary published by the Wall Street Journal ahead of a summit of leaders ...

Economists and agriculture officials say Cambodia could export 1 million tons of milled rice by 2015, but that depends on improvements in the sector, along with some global factors out of the control of the country’s farmers and millers. Prime Minister Hun Sen has set the ...

Cambodia had exported 89,800 tons of milled rice in the first seven months of this year, a 2.6 percent drop from 92,200 tons at the same period in a year ago, showed the statistics from the Ministry of Commerce’s Camcontrol Department on Thursday. However, the revenues ...

Member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) are striving to forge a regional free trade facility to be known as FTAAP (Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific) AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) – signed in January of 1992, it covers all 10 ASEAN members of ...

India is considering establishing a cashew nut processing factory in Cambodia to curb exports to India from third countries, according to officials at the Indian embassy. Dinesh Patniak, the ambassador to Cambodia, said Cambodia produced a lot of cashew nuts that were sent to Vietnam for ...

About 600 garment factory workers continued their strike in Phnom Penh yesterday, setting car tires alight to protest what they said were unfair salary cuts but factory representatives and labor officials described as a normal tax on income. “The factory told us that they cut our ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance yesterday urged companies intending to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) to buy insurance to bolster public confidence. Vice President Bo Chanpiro of the Financial Industry Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance said the finance sector relies not only ...

A new report – 10 Years of the Better Factories Cambodia Project: A critical evaluation – has been released by Clean Clothes Campaign and Community Legal Education Center. Started in 2001, the goal of the Better Factories program is to improve the working conditions in ...

One of the biggest challenges to protecting Cambodian migrant workers is the sheer distance between their homeland and the countries they are working in, Ministry of Labour officials said yesterday. A pattern has emerged in which brokers lure more and more Cambodians away from traditional border-country ...

Cambodia needs to ensure fair treatment of both domestic and foreign investors if it wants to attract more foreign investors, accordsing to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Kirk presented the idea during a press conference last week in Siem Reap durig the ASEAN-US Business Summit by ...

Unions and labour groups fear a solitary sick day could cost garment workers their entire month’s attendance bonuses – about 15 per cent of their base wage – under a new scheme meant to make life easier. The Kingdom’s 600,000 garment and footwear workers will receive ...

As mining companies continue to scour Cambodia for minerals, work is also under way to build a network of local monitors and activists to shed light on the country’s often-opaque mining sector and its practices. {T]he Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has granted an unknown ...

Cambodia’s needs and how they overlap with the UK’s strengths are an important issue in trade and investment relations between the two countries, according to British Ambassador Mark Gooding during a presentation to the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) yesterday. Bilateral trade is mainly driven by ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen returned home yesterday from a quick trip to Beijing with the promise of some $523 million in new loans and grants, one day after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jabao praised Cambodia for helping China maintain “friendly relations” with Asean. Speaking with ...

Officials at the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX) may increase the number of daily stock trading sessions from two to seven, giving traders more flexibility to buy and sell, an official at the bourse said yesterday. Currently, trading on the CSX occurs in just two sessions, starting ...

China has pledged more than $500 million in soft loans and grants to Cambodia and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao thanked it for helping Beijing maintain good relations with the regional grouping ASEAN, a Cambodian junior minister said. A summit of the 10 members of the Association ...