Trade

Despite renewed criticism from civil society and a call for its drafting to be postponed, finalisation of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) was well under way, officials said yesterday at the beginning of a week of ASEAN meetings. Speaking to reporters after a meeting between ...

The government will drop subsidies for high electricity use, after the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC) reported losses of US$3 million between January and May this year. Households consuming more than 200 KW/h per month will no longer receive a 100 to 200 riel per KW/h ...

Pou Puy, president of the Cambodian Rice Millers Association, said that the export of Cambodia’s white rice faces challenges in terms of both quantity and competitive pricing, as exports of milled rice dropped about 35 per cent for the first half of 2012 compared to ...

Less than two months after opening a $60 million brewery on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Beer will be exported for the first time today when vessels carrying the beer set out for Japan from Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, according to a statement issued yesterday ...

The United States has expressed its commitment to the success of next week’s 19th ASEAN Regional Forum, which will be held in Phnom Penh, while British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne said on the same day that the United Kingdom plans to strengthen its relationship ...

North Korea yesterday proposed to lower tax and trade barriers with Cambodia. The proposal, if made into a formal agreement, would join a long list of agreements between the two countries that have never been followed through. Hong Ki Chol said such an agreement could ...

An EU scheme to boost trade with developing nations is fuelling land grabs in Cambodia, activists say, with thousands evicted from their property to make way for a booming sugar industry. Campaigners are taking their fight to European supermarkets, encouraging a boycott of Cambodian sugar, which ...

The European Union should immediately remove trade preferences it gives to Cambodian sugar companies accused of human-rights violations including land grabs, representatives of the affected communities told a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Community representatives from Koh Kong, Kampong Speu and Oddar Meanchey provinces said ...

Thailand and Cambodia are making moves to repair trade relations as 30 of Thailand’s provincial commerce departments hold a three-day trade fair in Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island Convention Center this week, according to Jiranan Wongmongkol, director of the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (FTPO) at the ...

Vietnam and Cambodia have set a target of US$5 billion in bilateral trade by 2015 as the countries’ economic relationship deepens. However, some wonder if such an ambitious goal is realistic, especially given the government’s desire to realize US$5 billion in annual trade with China by 2017. The goal was announced at a June 24 ...

A dispute over territory in the South China Sea is once again set to hang over talks when China and the U.S. join in on a week of high-level Asean meetings that start in Phnom Penh on Friday. So far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ...

Revenue at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port increased 13.6 per cent year on year between January and June, port officials confirmed yesterday. As the state-owned enterprise gears up for listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, the neighbouring Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone will play an increasingly important role in ...

Europe’s largest manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles, Italy’s Piaggio, will return to Cambodia in September, being absent since the Khmer Rouge takeover. Vespa Cambodia Co Ltd, part of Narith Long’s Narita group, signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Piaggio last month to distribute its Piaggio scooters, ...

Cambodia offers plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese exporters although there is intense competition from countries such as Thailand and China, delegates said at a conference in HCM City last Thursday. Le Quoc Phong, general director of the Binh Dien Fertiliser Group, said the Cambodian market had ...

Cambodia’s tourism minister Thong Khon said this week that ASEAN is protected to gain around 107 million international tourists in 2015 as the bloc will create the community that year. Speaking at closing ceremony of the 10th Tour Guide Training and the Opening of 11th Tour Guide Training for Phnom Penh city at ...

Officials and experts yesterday questioned the likelihood of Cambodia and Vietnam’s proposal to hike bilateral trade by more than US$2.5 billion by 2015. The pledge of $5 billion in total trade, made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, last ...

The Islamic Republic of Iran on Wednesday invited Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Conference to be held in Tehran in late September, according to officials. Meanwhile, [Hun Sen], on the bilateral ties, asked Iran to expand relations and cooperation with ...

Imports of packaged monosodium glutamate (MSG) decreased noticeably in the first four months of this year, not because Cambodians are turning away from the popular flavor enhancer, but because a local packaging factory is increasingly meeting domestic demand. Figures from the customs department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance revealed that from January ...

HCM City plans further cooperation with Cambodia in all areas, including trade, healthcare, agriculture, and education and training, according to Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the city’s People’s Committee. The project to build the Cho Ray – Phnom Penh Hospital, with a capacity of 500 ...

Cambodia could attract an increasing number of Malaysian investors interested in food production and global export if moves to create a halal food recognition body were implemented, Malaysian ambassador Mond Tahir Nasruddin said yesterday. Officials were working together to establish the halal food product recognition ...

An abundance of illegal crocodile smugglers operating without a license and exporting animals to Vietnam has led to the price of crocodiles dropping by more than half compared to the same period last year, breeders said yesterday. Loun Nam, president of the Crocodile Feeder Association, ...

Over 70 judges and justice ministry officials from throughout ASEAN gathered at a U.S.-supported ASEAN legal and judicial cooperation workshop in Cambodia this week for an unprecedented exchange of ideas on the rule of law in the ASEAN region. Representatives from the ASEAN Senior Law Officials Meeting (ASLOM), ASEAN Member State judicial bodies, and the ASEAN ...

Cambodia’s garment exports exceeded US$1 billion during the first quarter of 2012, yet many factories are failing to pay workers proper maternity leave benefits or address issues of fainting, a labour report says. The International Labour Or­ganization-Better Factories Cam­bodia’s Twenty Eighth Syn­­­thesis Report on Working Conditions ...

Cambodia and Thailand are poised for a boost in trade and tourism following a new agreement taking effect today that simplifies procedures at a key border crossing between the two nations. “The ability to move people, goods, and vehicles across borders efficiently and responsibly is at the heart of regional economic integration,” said Craig Steffensen, ...