Trade policy and regulation

Further comprehensive economic co-operation and expansion among ASEAN’s member states, East Asia and its development partners was imperative for managing risks and impacts from the fragile global economy, Prime Minister and ASEAN chairman Hun Sen said during the ASEAN Global Dialogue yesterday. The dialogue brought together ...

The president of the Philippines, a major Asean claimant to portions of the South China Sea, says the country wants the right to solve its problems on the world stage. But Asean leaders on Tuesday sought to downplay his remarks and said they did not ...

Asean leaders Tuesday discussed the importance of expanding economic opportunity for the region, vowing to increase efforts for better trade and investment amid members states and with the US. Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of Asean, said “more and more” was expected of Asean today. “So it is ...

At the U.S.-Asean meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh yesterday, the U.S. and the 10 Asean member nations agreed to further their cooperation in all areas, including security to ensure peace in the region. ...

Criticism continued yesterday of the Asean Human Rights Declaration, which was signed in Phnom Penh on Saturday after regional leaders decided to make last-minute revisions that were widely deemed as inadequate. U.N. experts ans civil society groups criticized the lack of consultation in drawing up the ...

Economic ministers from Asean’s 10 member states signed an agreement yesterday to loosen restrictions around the movement of skilled labor in the region, part of preparation for the integration of the Asean Economic Community in 2015. The Asean Movement of Natural Persons Agreement is supposed to ...

With political and cultural ties between India and Southeast Asia already strong, economic issues were the focus of the 10th Asean-India Summit at the Peace Palace yesterday in Phnom Penh, the India ambassador to Cambodia said. ...

Herewith the full text of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration adopted by Southeast Asian leaders Sunday: WE, the Heads of State/Government of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (hereinafter referred to as “ASEAN”), namely Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of ...

For the first time in ASEAN history, Cambodian businesses won three awards, presented on Saturday night at the 5th ASEAN business awards at the 49th ASEAN-Business Advisory Council meeting. The winning Cambodian companies were Agrotech Vita Co Ltd; ACLEDA Bank Plc and First Finance Plc. ...

Several groups are calling for the ASEAN summit to address the regional discord caused by the Xayaburi dam, which Laos began constructing earlier this month despite opposition downriver from neighbours Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as from conservation groups. On Friday, the Rivers Coalition in Cambodia ...

The 21st ASEAN Summit opened in Phnom Penh yesterday under the theme One Community, One Destiny, with meetings during the three-day event expected to tackle such issues as measures to build the ASEAN Community, regional peace and security, and strengthening co-operation between the bloc’s member ...

On November 19, 2012, President Obama met with the leaders of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) to deepen our diplomatic, economic, security, and people-to-people ties with the key Asian multilateral organization. With a population of approximately 620 ...

The ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) Summit was held here on Monday to discuss measures and actions to further enhance cooperation in the future. The Summit was made between the leaders of the ten-country ASEAN led by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the leaders ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his capacity as the 2012 ASEAN chair, has called for investors within the ASEAN member states as well as around the globe to invest in Cambodia in various sectors, particularly agriculture, food processing and manufacturing. The premier made the appeal on ...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in the Cambodian capital on Sunday to attend the ASEAN and East Asia Summits which will provide an opportunity for India to enhance its economic cooperation with the region amid lingering financial crisis in the western world. Singh is here for ...

THE ten-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is used to fending off “interference” by the West in the internal affairs of some of its members. In recent years the human-rights record of the regime in Myanmar has been the tenderest of these sore spots. ...

The Asean Grassroots People’s Assembly (AGPA) agreed yesterday on a list of demands it intends to present to the Cambodian and regional governments. A crowd of more than 2,000 people-including garment factory workers, victims of evictions, and sex workers, as well as undercover police-gathered at Phnom ...

Community representatives from Indonesia and the Philippines warned Cambodia yesterday of the potential human cost that an influx of mining companies could bring to the country. As private companies scour the land for minerals, with some set to begin extraction within a few years, Cambodia could ...

Visitors hoping to stay in Phnom Penh’s top hotels in the coming days will have to seek shelter elsewhere, as the city’s most sought after rooms are booked solid for the East Asia and Asean summits, hoteliers said yesterday. “We are completely full during the ...

Newly re-elected US President Barack Obama will attend a series of top-level Asian meetings next week, with Cambodia hosting an Asean summit, and China in attendance with new leadership. The high-profile meetings will present challenges for the US president, whose administration has become more deeply ...

The World Bank and Japan will promote Thailand as the insurance centre of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to help develop the industry in neighbouring countries and provide professional services to the more advanced economies. The move is also expected to upgrade the insurance ...

The leaders of two of Cambodia’s biggest donors, China and Japan, will attend the up coming Asean and East Asia summits in Phnom Penh next week, Prime Minister Hun Sen confirmed during a speech in Siem Reap province yesterday. “China Prime Minister [Wen Jiabao] will arrive ...

ASEAN says it will study how to implement a proposed economic partnership with its six external partners that might lead to the foundation of world’s largest economic bloc. The proposed bloc, dubbed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or “ASEAN+6” , would integrate ASEAN’s 10 ...

With less than two weeks until Asean leaders meet in Phnom Penh to consider approval of the region’s first human rights declaration, international NGOs yesterday urged them to postpone passing what they are calling a “deeply flawed” document.  “In the current form, the [Asean Human Rights] ...