Economy and commerce

The Kingdom’s once-promising home-grown coffee industry has been laid low by adverse weather and fierce global competition, with the total area under coffee cultivation cut in half over the last three years as desperate farmers switch to other crops, a senior official at the Ministry ...

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP), the Kingdom’s largest maritime container hub, reported a six percent increase in cargo shipments in the first six months of the year, while tonnage rose by 10 percent in the same period. ...

China’s Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, who has been on an official visit to Cambodia, will discuss roads, railways, airport construction, agriculture and other projects with senior government officials in the next few days. ...

A large US-based international hotels and resorts group plans to invest close to $120 million in a multi-resort development project in Preah Sihanouk province. ...

The export of crude palm oil (CPO) from agro-industrial conglomerate Mong Reththy Group reached 13,000 metric tons in the first six months this year, up a huge 116 percent compared to the same period last year. ...

Japan’s investment in Cambodia continues to grow and its investors are playing a leading role in developing and diversifying the Kingdom’s light industrial sector. ...

The National Assembly’s (NA) Second Commission on Economics, Finance, Banking and Auditing yesterday asked the European Union (EU) to increase rice and clothing import quotas from Cambodia, after a discussion on EU subsidies to the Kingdom. ...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Cambodia over a 20-year period – from 1994 to 2014 – is estimated to have reached $19.2 billion and was heavily weighed by inflows of capital from China, according to the first-ever comprehensive survey on FDI, released yesterday. ...

The state operator of Cambodia’s only deep-water port remains on course to float shares on the stock exchange and is seeking ways to speed up the listing.   ...

Just weeks since the United States announced it would grant new trade privileges that allow Cambodian-manufactured travel goods such as luggage and backpacks to enter the US market duty-free under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme, a visiting American trade official hinted yesterday that ...

The Kingdom’s central bank ‒ the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) ‒ is working closely with experts from the US Treasury to set up a depositors’ protection scheme among banks in the country. This move was welcomed by the country’s banking industry with CEOs saying ...

The Vietnamese government yesterday agreed in principle to provide a grant of $2 million to Cambodia to build a model market aimed at boosting cross-border trade between the two countries, officials at Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce said. ...

Bosch Cambodia, a supplier of power tools and automotive parts, announced yesterday that its sales revenue grew by 22 per cent in 2015, driven largely by a greater number of construction and automotive projects in the Kingdom. ...

Cambodia’s Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak told British Ambassador Bill Longhurst he would like to see the two countries enter into a free trade agreement (FTA) as soon as possible following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU). ...

Cambodia must accelerate economic reform and develop a sense of “urgency” if it wishes to continue to attract American investment amid growing regional competition, the head of the US-ASEAN Business Council said yesterday. ...

Total Japanese investment in Cambodia under the Kingdom’s qualified investment project (QIP) scheme surged tenfold during the first half of the year, driven by Japan’s improved economy and a hefty capital injection by one of its biggest retail giants. ...

The government yesterday named three bogus companies that have taken deposits from ordinary Cambodians and later absconded, after promising them monthly returns in the form of high interest rate payments. ...

The Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC) will for the first time sign bilateral cooperation agreements with Malaysia’s External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) to pave the way for businesses in both countries to carry out matching activities, like events and expositions. ...

American sporting goods giant Nike has opened its first dedicated retail store in Cambodia in what observers have described as another sign the Kingdom’s strong economy and rising incomes had not gone unnoticed by international retail giants. ...

With a greater number of Cambodians devoting time and money to exercise, bicycles are shedding their lowly image as a cheap means of transportation and fast becoming a symbol of the wealthier, more health-conscious elite. ...

Cambodia is one of the smallest and poorest economies in ASEAN. It accounts for only 0.7% of total regional economic activity and had the lowest GDP per capita in 2014 (Table 1). Only the Lao PDR has a smaller economy, and the next-poorest countries in ...

Despite some appearances to the contrary, things in Cambodia are looking pretty rosy at least according to the World Bank. In its latest revision of world economies the Bank raised Cambodia’s status from a low-income economy to a lower-middle income country. ...

The Tourism Ministry has started urging businesses and tour operators to accept Chinese yuan notes as part of a drive to attract tourists from China, sparking concern among some business owners who fear losses and fake currency. ...

More than 200kg of old meatballs were seized by the government’s Camcontrol in a crackdown on goods past their use-by dates in Pailin on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Commerce. ...