Economy and commerce

Cambodian consumer spending on major domestic appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, saw a roughly 22 per cent year-on-year increase over the first six months of 2013, according to Germany-based research institute GfK. The rise comes alongside a 20 per cent ...

In the first seven months of this year, the bilateral trade between Cambodia and the U.S. has reached some US$1.7 billion, up by 3.5 percent if compared to the same period in the previous year, according to the U.S. Trade Department’s figures. ...

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia have so far seen an increase, reaching the number of around 560,000. However, this sector does not grow with reliability and the capacity in business operation does not go to international market standard or standardization of free market. ...

Australia’s Geopacific Resources NL said Thursday it had found “significant” amounts of gold, copper and molybdenum at its Kou Sa project in Preah Vihear. In a statement, the mineral explorer said the results of the first phase of its soil-sampling program had also found “associated multi-element ...

Siam Kubota Corporation (SKC), a leading farm truck maker, has partnered with Group Lease to enter the agriculture machine market in Cambodia. Mitsuji Konoshita, chief executive of Group Lease, said the partnership with SKC is a bid to extend leasing service to Kubota’s clients in ...

Siem Reap’s provincial government apparatus, which in 2010 was relocated to a remote site 16 km outside of the city as part of an extensive and hugely controversial swap of government land and buildings, is moving back to its old home in the tourist city’s ...

Inside a shop in a restored building on the corner of Sothearos Boulevard and Street 266, nearly 10 Cambodians wearing the same uniform are walking around and cleaning tables. By the end of this year, Brown Coffee will have a total of eight branches in ...

Japan’s TriAsia Group is in talks to acquire a majority stake in local television station TV3 and plans to broadcast Japanese-language shows, the television channel’s owner confirmed Wednesday. According to TV3’s owner, Khampun Keomony, revenues at the channel have been dropping, which prompted him to look ...

Some of these ASEAN economies are not like the others. Singapore is 80 times richer than Myanmar and its population lives 20 years longer than Cambodia’s, while Myanmar ranks 50 places behind Cambodia in terms of global competitiveness, according to a wide-ranging analysis from the World ...

Enterprises in Cambodia’s biggest tourism hub have called on Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy to quickly resolve a festering election dispute that they say is threatening business prospects as tensions rise ahead of mass opposition protests next week. Travel companies ...

A new project by the government and Japan’s aid agency seeks to assist small companies in Cam­bodia that are in need of specialist advice in order to develop and keep up with competitors in neighboring Asean countries. The aim of the two-year program, called “Strategic Strengthening ...

Thailand’s restriction on agricultural imports earlier this year caused dramatic declines for Cambodia’s cassava exports during the harvest season, provincial border officials said yesterday. Cambodia’s exports of cassava reached 288,109 tonnes in the first six months of this year, a decline of 55 per cent from ...

‘Top up $2 and get 30 free minutes daily for 20 days. Top up $5 and expand the same offer for a month. And, for a $10 recharge, that half-an-hour freebie lasts 50 days.” Mobile operator Beeline, which announced the promotion in August, called it “another ...

In mid-August, on day seven of production at the Coco Khmer social enterprise, the team experienced a setback. Temperatures in the fermenting room must remain between 35 and 40 degrees to produce the organization’s virgin coconut oil, but the temperature on that rainy day refused to ...

Local conglomerate Sokimex Group plans to construct a 15-story hotel as well as a supermarket and high-end shops on a more than 15,000-square-meter plot of land behind Phnom Penh’s Wat Ounalom, the firm’s founder, Sok Kong, said Thursday. Mr. Kong said his company had applied for ...

Police said Thursday they are investigating the possibility of a third suspect who has been implicated in a fraud and forgery case over a mining deal, for which a Cambodian businessman and a Chinese associate are already awaiting trial. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday ...

It’s 1am and, as Phnom Penh sleeps, the haunting squeals of distressed animals are all that can be heard in the darkness of a field in Russey Keo district. Pigs in open-air sheds have sensed what’s coming: Hundreds of them are about to be slaughtered for ...

Thailand’s second-largest cement company has suspended a cement-plant project valued at about $200 million in Kampot province because of political uncertainty and better investment opportunities in Myanmar, according to a senior executive. Philippe Arto, the managing director of Siam City Cement Public Company Limited (SCCC), said ...

ElectraCard Services (ECS), a leading provider of software and processing solutions for electronic payment systems, announced that Sathapana Limited (SPN), the leading MFI in Cambodia, has selected ECS to offer ATM and card services to their customers. Sathapana operates through 101 offices (74 branches and ...

Vietnam plans to build 13 new border gates along the boundary line with Cambodia to help boost trade that has already been growing between the two Southeast Asian nations. Vietnam and Cambodia will work out plans to add 13 new border gates over the next seven ...

Despite the fact that beverage consumption in Cambodia is on the rise, government statistics show that imports of alcohol and non-alcoholic products in the first half of 2013 have declined by 51 per cent year-on-year. The seemingly conflicting figures left some scratching their heads. Meng Saktheara, ...

New projects involving 20 condo complexes are continuing to be built despite an already narrow market sector and a future surplus of condos in the Kingdom. According to research on the condo market by Bunna Reality Group in first half of this year, Phnom Penh now ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has charged the Cambodian chairman of a local conglomerate and a Chinese business associate with fraud and using forged public documents, officials said Wednesday. Al Romny, 41, and Chinese national Chin Mongxin, 45, were arrested Saturday after an un­known complainant said ...

As Vietnam takes steps towards legalising gambling for its own citizens, analysts warn of a threat to the bottom line at Cambodia’s premiere casino, NagaWorld, whose patronage depends largely on gamblers from neighbouring countries. Local Vietnamese news agency Thanh Nien reported on Tuesday that the Vietnamese ...