Economy and commerce

An Australian businessman who once fronted a telecommunications firm in Cambodia has been sent to Prey Sar prison on fraud charges in a case one of his associates said was triggered by a disgruntled partner in a failed business venture. Frank May, 63, the former chief ...

Representatives of a dozen large Japanese companies arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday looking for business opportunities in the kingdom. Hidetoshi Nishimura, executive director of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, led the delegation, whose members represent firms in industries such as technology, ...

Police in Phnom Penh yesterday raided nine DVD shops at Tuol Tom Poung market in Chamkar Mon district, confiscating hundreds of illegally reproduced movies at the joint request of the Ministry of Culture and local movie distributor Westec Media Limited. Sao Bunthoeurn, deputy director of ...

Cambodia’s largest bank is ready to launch its first micro-finance institution (MFI) in Myanmar, but one final barrier remains: an operating licence from Myanmar’s government. Acleda Bank’s chief executive, In Channy, expects the licence to be granted by the end of this month. Once that is done, ...

Office rental growth in Phnom Penh increased 10 to 15 per cent by the end of 2012, said an official of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association, as the number of local and international companies have risen significantly. Chrek Soknim, deputy director of VTrust property ...

China has become Cambodia’s biggest investor, putting some $8.8 billion into the country over nearly two decades, according to online data from the government’s lead investment agency. Those investment numbers, from the Council for the Development of Cambodia, from 1994 to 2011, do not take into ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 6.7 percent in 2013 thanks to anticipating increases in agriculture, foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism, the World Bank said in its latest outlook Wednesday. “The growth is based on achieving the dividends from focus on higher rice ...

Cargo shipments through Sihanoukville’s Deep Sea Port increased more than seven per cent year-on-year in 2012. Port officials say this growth is a result of Cambodia’s economic performance and an improving global economy. “It is a fast rate of growth compared with previous years. We had ...

As Cambodia’s economy continues to grow, advertising in the country has developed to keep pace. But the industry still faces challenges, insiders say. According to Media Adex data by Indochina Research, which monitors advertising spending for TV and print (but not radio) $105.4 million was ...

It will not be enough for Apple to simply offer a cheaper iPhone for the company to gain share in the competitive Cambodian smartphone market, according to industry insiders. They say Apple’s operating system, iOS, may also restrict their potential growth. Bloomberg last week reported that Apple ...

More than 2,000 workers demonstrated in front of Phnom Penh’s Gladpeer Garment Factory yesterday, demanding a higher minimum wage and several other concessions. The workers decided to strike after the Por Sen Chey district factory did not respond to repeated requests to raise their monthly minimum ...

The tourism sector has complained about the attempted extortion and bribery by officials at the international border checkpoints that still upset tourists coming into Cambodia. The issue was raised yesterday during a meeting of the Interministerial Committee for Facilitating the Travel and Transport of Tourists and ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at unnamed critics yesterday, saying there was no corruption in large-scale development projects backed by foreign aid. “[For example] as for the Neak Leung bridge or Kizuna bridge Japan runs its bids in Tokyo. Therefore, only Japanese companies have the ...

Rulling party Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar Company announced yesterday that it had amended its hiring policy to forbid contractors from employing children, while at the same time, opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua made public her plans to visit the company to investigate its ...

Business owners in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district yesterday said they will not follow a government directive to close their businesses for eight days in observance of the second mourning period for the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. The order, which was distributed on Sunday to ...

Cambodia exported products in equivalent to 2.49 billion U.S. dollars to the United States in the first eleven months of 2012, down 1 percent from 2.52 billion U.S. dollars it exported at the same period a year earlier, the report of the U.S. Department of ...

Maybank Bhd is looking to increase its presence in Cambodia, by raising the number of its branches to 20 from 12 currently. Speaking at a public panel dialogue organised by The Wharton School about the economic prospects of the ASEAN region, Maybank’s CEO Datuk Sri Abdul ...

THE Australian Federal Police will reopen corruption inquiries into major Australian companies OZ Minerals and Cochlear, after searing criticism that it was lax in its investigations. OZ Minerals will be targeted following discussions with the OECD about the AFP’s previous investigation of alleged foreign ...

Cambodia’s GDP is projected to grow by 7 percent this year even though the global economy remains fragile and high risk due to persisting sovereign debt crisis in Europe and sluggish economic recovery in the United States, a commerce official said Monday. Last Tuesday, the ...

A new tourist promenade is to open in the heart of Phnom Penh’s old French quarter. Scheduled for a February opening, the tourist walk zone will provide an outdoor leisure area on street 13 that will be closed to cars and motorbikes on weekends from ...

Norwegian energy firm Eltek Valere will file a criminal complaint today against mobile phone operator Mfone over an agreement that was signed last week to shift Mfone’s existing subscribers to MobiTel, according to a lawyer representing Eltek. The decision by the Thai-owned mobile operator Mfone to ...

Energy supplies will be more secure once territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia are resolved, Department of Mineral Fuels director-general Songpob Polchan said on Friday. Mr Songpob said that the sooner Thailand and Cambodia are able to work out their differences, the sooner they can exploit ...

Cambodia-based telecommunication operator Mfone, part of the Thaicom group, on Wednesday petitioned for insolvency proceedings in Phnom Penh after facing difficulties in an intensely competitive market and after failing to complete the sale of its shares to INT Management Service Company. “Mfone has been through a ...

THE [sic] Ministry of Tourism plans to organize an annual River Festival along the Mekong and Tonle Sap in a move to attract tourists, officials said. Additionally, it wants to raise awareness for environmental protection with a “Clean City Day” on February 27. The Minister of ...