Economy and commerce

Cambodia’s insurance sector earned a total premium of 22 million U.S. dollars in the first six months of the year, up 25 percent from the 17.6 million U.S. dollars it made over the same period last year, the industry’s figures showed Tuesday. The premiums were from ...

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that Cambodia’s rice crop this year will equal but not exceed last year’s record yield. In its July rice market monitor report, issued quarterly, the FAO said that weather conditions meant this year’s rice crop would not reach ...

In 2010, the Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort, a casino investment on Kampot province’s border with Vietnam that included luxury karaoke rooms and suites, launched with high hopes of attracting Vietnamese gamblers. At the end of December, Ha Tien Vegas closed down. To the north, in ...

Cambodia exported about 31,000 tonnes of rice in July, a 40 per cent seasonal increase from the average of 22,000 tonnes for first five months of this year. Official data show that Cambodia exported 207,000 tonnes from January through July, an amount surpassing the 205,000 tonnes ...

Cambodia received 2.09 million international visitors in the first six months of the year, up 19 percent compared with the 1.75 million tourists over the same period last year, figures from the ministry of tourism showed Saturday. Tourism is one of the sectors supporting the ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday criticized U.S. threats to cut aid to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation if its election wasn’t free and fair, and dared American lawmakers to follow through on their warning. His comments came after U.S. lawmakers started processes in the ...

Residents living in the Mekong River basin are expressing concerns over water degradation in the Mekong river and its impact on farming, aquaculture and the livelihood of the millions of people who live in the region. People from Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam’s Cuu Long (Mekong) ...

Hyatt Hotels Corp has announced the opening of the first Park Hyatt in Southeast Asia in Siem Reap. The announcement Wednesday said the reopening of the former Hotel De La Paix in downtown Siem Reap followed a 14-month renovation by award-winning interior designer Bill Bensley. “We are ...

Representatives from more than 90 Cambodian businesses gathered yesterday at the Council of Ministers building in Phnom Penh to hear about a new initiative that aims to encourage private sector investment in agriculture. The $55.6 million project is an extension of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) ...

Revenue at the Cambodia Post (CP), the country’s mail service provider, rose nearly $2 million in the first half of this year, a 10 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2012. But the service still handles mostly international shipments, and is failing ...

Following global supply growth and falling prices, Cambodian rubber has decreased in value over the past three months, according to industry experts. Men Sopheak, deputy director-general of the Chop Rubber Plantation, a major rubber exporter in Cambodia, said yesterday that the price of dried [natural] rubber ...

When the garment factory that employs her opened its doors yesterday for the first time since Sunday’s election, Chan Neoun was about 130 kilometres away, at home in Svay Rieng province. Intense rioting and a military crackdown were just some of the rumours flying around ...

Profitable income generation has many sources. Whether it requires work in an office, trading on the market or farming land – the outcome always depends on the innovation and effort of the individual. For Pring Leang, the sources are three small fields in Kampong Por village ...

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Tuesday that its single-B ratings and stable outlook for Cambodia’s Acleda Bank Plc were “unaffected” by a recent surge in ATM cash withdrawals. A statement from Singapore said Sunday evening withdrawals after polls closed in national elections were about $4 ...

Both outstanding loans and savings deposits in 35 microfinance institutions (MFIs) continued to grow from January through to June this year, according to the latest report from the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA). By the end of the first half of this year, total loans from MFIs ...

As election data trickled in on Sunday evening and a fear set in borne of uncertainty and a beefed-up police presence, demand for basic commodities surged, food prices briefly rose, and some banks saw an expected rise in withdrawals. Sales of rice jumped from their normal ...

Thousands of villagers in a remote district of the coastal province of Koh Kong have been evicted or are facing eviction in the face of a Chinese resort development project. Some families have moved unwillingly to relocation sites. But others are refusing to leave, setting the ...

Many restaurants, shops, supermarkets and tourist sites in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap will operate at a limited capacity or close entirely this Sunday as Cambodians line up at voting stations to elect a new government. Despite the closures, Ang Kim Eang, president of the ...

Newly-designated Ambassador of China to Cambodia Bu Jianguo on Thursday vowed to help further deepen all rounds of cooperation with Cambodia for the benefits [sic] of the two countries and peoples. Paying a courtesy call on Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Bu ...

A month-long battle to secure back pay waged by 750 garment workers has ended only days before the national election – with the government footing the bill. The $450,000 payout to the Pine Great (Cambodia) factory workers – whose factory owner skipped town in April – ...

Four months after the Philippines and Cambodia signed an agreement to increase rice trade, the plan is stuck in limbo. Philippine Ambassador to Cambodia Noe Wong and Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh signed a deal in April for the Philippines National Food Authority to import ...

Phnom Penh International Airport’s navigation system will be upgraded today with the installment of a new satellite-based system that aims to improve efficiency and reduce fuel usage, an aviation official said. Chhun Sivorn, director of the Air Navigation Standards and Safety Department of the State Secretariat ...

After months of protests, more than 1,000 former Mfone employees yesterday received just 10 per cent of the $4.4 million they were demanding in compensation after the telecom company filed for bankruptcy in January. Court-appointed administrator Ouk Ry, entrusted with the sale of Mfone’s assets, ...

In the frenzied run-up to the national election Sunday, Phnom Penh has been the site of concerts, rallies and streets packed with campaigners. But the energy hasn’t spread to the halls of the Cambodia Securities Exchange. At the close of trading Tuesday, five business days had ...