Economy and commerce

An Australia-based firm that announced a plan to explore for gold in Ratanakkiri province insisted Monday that its Cambodian venture is still on track, despite allegations made in an Australian newspaper that it has garnered investment based on false information. Astra Resources, which has companies incorporated ...

Naza Bikes Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Malaysia-based Naza Group of Companies, will enter Cambodia’s crowded motorbike sector, according to the local brand manager. “[Business] will probably be launched on the first of next month,” Hay Chamreoun, the manager, said yesterday, adding that construction for the ...

Three years ago, the high prices for pig livestock inspired Chhoeurng Sarun and many other villagers in Svay Rieng province, near the Vietnam border, to go into small-scale farming. Imports coming over from the Vietnamese and Thai borders flooded the market, and prices fell. Srun ...

The third edition of CAMBUILD, one of the country’s biggest international building and construction conferences, is scheduled for September 10-12 on Koh Pich. Three hundred participants are expected to exhibit at the event. ...

Tourism is one of the major sectors supporting the Cambodian economy. Last year, the country attracted 3.58 million foreign tourists, generating 2.2 billion US dollars in revenues. The Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Tuesday that the July 28 national elections in Cambodia would not ...

Cambodia imported 727,500 tons of petroleum in the first five months of the year, a 2 percent drop from 744,700 tons a year earlier, the figures of the Ministry of Commerce showed Saturday. A liter of premium gasoline goes for 1.38 U.S. dollars in Phnom ...

Cambodia is backsliding in efforts to improve working conditions in its garment industry, the International Labour Organisation said yesterday, following a series of strikes at factories producing western-brand clothing. The kingdom is failing to make progress in key areas such as worker and fire safety and ...

Cambodia reported a 29 percent rise in dry rubber exports in the first five months of 2013, but revenues from the exports rose only 4 percent due to price decline in international markets. Currently, the country has about 300,000 hectares of rubber trees, according to ...

Economic diversification is attracting substantial sums of FDI from China and beyond. Rich in history and culture and blessed with wonderful natural and human resources that are driving its impressive economic growth and attracting record sums of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Kingdom of Cambodia offers ...

“These are the best quality stones,” Lat Yun says with a grin. Nestled in his outstretched hand are three unassuming rocks. “I don’t know what they’re called, I just know they’re the best.” The gemstones of Ratanakkiri are a mineral called zircon, but in Cambodia, they ...

Gold prices in Cambodia are down about 27 per cent from January through June, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Gold trade changed little yesterday after the biggest drop in almost two weeks in response to the US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S Bernanke’s comments ...

The number of foreigners arriving into Cambodia from its biggest border with Vietnam at the Bavet international crossing in Svay Rieng province increased 6.2 per cent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2012. Data from the checkpoint show ...

An international group that promotes the ethical sourcing of sugar for the food and energy industries has suspended the membership of U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle for failing to answer complaints that it was buying from Cambodian plantations accused of stealing land from local ...

Although Siem Reap is known as the land of smiles, the growth of the culture, civilization and power, the real estate sector in the province for the first six months of 2013 has not increased a great deal. The buying or selling of properties in Siem ...

Grandis Timber Ltd.’s teak plantation in Kompong Speu province is the fist company in Cambodia to receive a certification from U.S-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for its best practices in forest management, Grandis announced yesterday. “FSC certification recognizes FSC standard’s commitment to sustainable development of ...

While Japanese investment is soaring in Cambodia, Japanese employers say there is a shortage of Japanese-speaking staff available to fill the demand. Kong Solina, assistant to the manager of the Service and Culture Department of the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC), said the purpose of the ...

Cambodian manufacturers on Wednesday received training from Korean designers on how to make apparel in line with current fashion trends in the hopes of assisting them in penetrating the lucrative but difficult Korean market. The event was organized by the ASEAN-Korea Center—an intergovernmental organization that aims ...

Cambodian handicrafts and home decor products could take off with South Korean buyers if certain obstacles – conceptual design, development techniques, and slow delivery services – are overcome, business owners and merchants said yesterday. Speaking at a seminar on Korean Market Access for Cambodia’s textiles at ...

Mobile firm CooTel, a subsidiary of a large Chinese tele­communications corporation, is making plans to enter Cambodia’s oversaturated mobile phone market, officials said. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications granted CooTel’s parent company, Xinwei (Cambodia) Telecom Co. Ltd., an operating license in August 2011 and the ...

Japan-base Terra Motors said it plans to sell its smartphone-compatible electric scooter in Cambodia by the end of this year. The lithium-battery-powered A4000i, introduced last week in Tokyo, can be connected to an iPhone, delivering live data while driving. “We will start to sell this scooter ...

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and South Korea has reached 329 million U.S. dollars in the first five months of this year, up 12 percent over the same period last year, showed the latest figures from the Korea Trade- Investment Promotion Agency to Phnom Penh on ...

The Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) is opening two plantations in Cambodia, its director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Zuki Mohamad said Wednesday. He said discussions had been held with the companies that would be tasked with managing the plantations last week. “We are now awaiting approval ...

It is almost two years to the day since Cambodia’s stock market launched in Phnom Penh in front of proud government officials, senior financiers and eager investors from across the region. Initial expectations were that a total of three state-owned firms would be listed within six ...

A lawsuit filed by families in Koh Kong province accusing U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle of wrongfully profiting off land stolen from them is heading to trial after efforts to mediate a settlement fell through earlier this month, according to those involved. Law firm Jones ...