Economy and commerce

Suppliers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMB) agreed yesterday to pay about $145,000 in back wages and severance to about 160 workers at a Cambodian factory that closed in November, a labor activist involved in the deal said. The agreement, which ...

The United Kingdom embassy in Phnom Penh said today that bilateral trade volume between the two kingdom had reached to $750 million, an increase of 27 per cent if compared  to 2011. British Ambassador Mark Gooding welcomed the increasing trade between the UK and Cambodia.  “bilateral ...

Cambodia has seen a remarkable rise in trade volume with its neighboring Vietnam and Thailand in 2012, official statistics showed on Friday. The bilateral trade with Vietnam was worth 3.3 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 18 percent year-on-year, according to a data from the Vietnam ...

The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a new law to the National Assembly for consideration that would institute a minimum monthly wage of $150 for garment workers and $250 for civil servants, the newly formed opposition party announced at a press conference yesterday. The ...

CANADIA Bank and Japan-based Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday agreeing to work together to tap the flow of Japanese investors into the Kingdom. The MoU was signed by Canadia Bank chief executive officer Michael Lor and Masato Miyachi, the general manager ...

MORE UK-based brands were looking to set up shop in Cambodia, Britain’s ambassador to Cambodia, Mark Gooding, said yesterday. Gooding said at Costa Coffee’s official opening in Phnom Penh he was pleased by the arrival of the international chain, the largest coffee brand in the UK, ...

Since mid-January a group of illegally laid off Cambodian garment workers – mostly women – have been picketing the factory they worked in. Their objective was to stop the company, which closed down, owing the workers, collectively, about US$200,000 of unpaid wages, from removing the ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday met with a large group of Chinese business executives visiting Cambodia to explore investment opportunities. To date, he said, the Sino-Cambodian relationship has reached the level of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation. The premier said China has helped ...

Cambodia will earn about $50 million a year from exports of dried cassava to China through Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly said Thursday. Cambodia’s agricultural exports previously went through Vietnam and Thailand, amounting to between 7,000 and 8,000 tons a year. ...

Cambodia’s exports to Malaysia almost doubled from $55.5 million a year earlier to $101 million in 2012, the Malaysian Embassy said. Exports were led by crude rubber at $69.1 million followed by milled rice at $24.3 million, up sharply from $9.5 million in 2011 and ...

The Finance Ministry has sent a letter to well-known businesswoman Choeung Sopheap thanking her for paying her taxes on the highly controversial filling in of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake, and holding her firm up as an example of corporate professionalism. Though Shukaku Inc., which is ...

Some 200 Koh Kong farmers locked in a long-running land dispute with two sugar plantations met Tuesday with a representative of the Thailand-based owners for the first time since the land dis­pute began in 2006. Khamrom Phochai, a Thai national and representative of Thai­land’s Khon Kaen ...

US-BASED Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) yesterday signed a deal to provide a $5 million long-term loan to Thaneakea Phum (Cambodia) Ltd (TPC), a local microfinance institution (MFI), to support TPC’s expansion of its home improvement loans for low-income Cambodians. Fernanda Lima, director of US-based socially ...

THE Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), the recently established bourse with a single player, will increase the number of trade executions from twice to six times a day, a move that will take effect on March 11. A CSX officer and the managing director of a securities ...

CAMBODIA will have direct flights to all ASEAN member states this year in order to promote stronger growth of the tourism sector in the Kingdom, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Cambodia will become fully connected to the ASEAN region ...

Property experts say foreign companies are coming to invest in Cambodia’s property sector, as they see the growth and potential of the Kingdom. Sung Bonna, director of Bonna Realty Group, said that the number of foreign companies in the sector has grown, and most are from ...

About 50 families living on the site of the long-discussed Preah Vihear airport went to the provincial hall yesterday to request that local officials reconsider their earlier decision to refuse them land titles on the grounds that the airstrip would soon be rebuilt. Villagers attended ...

The Cambodian Government has agreed in principle with Rubber Industry Smallholders’ Development Authority (RISDA) to open 20,000 hectares of rubber estates in that country on a joint venture basis, its Chairman Tan Abdul Tamby said. The former Melka chief minister said the Federal Government through the ...

The Bobruisk-based mechanical engineering company Bobruisk Plant of Tractor Parts and Units has shipped a batch of proprietary compact tractors Belarus 321 to Cambodia for the first time, representatives of the company’s sales department told BelTA. In line with the contract, which was signed in early ...

The area under Viet Nam Rubber Group’s cultivation in Laos and Cambodia totals 100,000 ha, including 27,000 ha under the group’s seven rubber projects in Laos. By the end of 2012, VRG had 21 rubber projects in Cambodia, including 19 rubber tree plantations and ...

Chinese-owned Avic International plans to export 8,000 tonnes of dried cassava from Cambodia to the Chinese market this year. According to Chan Saron, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, there are currently 31 companies listed as exporting cassava to China from Cambodia, but only 17 ...

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighbouring Vietnam increased by more than 10 per cent last year on the previous year, according to data from the Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia. The data showed that total trade volume was $3.3 billion between January and the end of ...

IMPORTS of motor scooters reached 264,085 units, with a total value of $139 million in the first 11 months of last year – a 55 per cent jump from 170,380 units worth $86.5 million in the corresponding period of 2011, according to data from the ...

WHILE investments from the Middle East into Cambodia are expected to increase over the next few years, the central bank here currently has no plans to launch Islamic banking services. Recent events like Qatar Airway’s Doha-Phnom Penh flights, which launched earlier this month, have been expected ...