Economy and commerce

The ongoing story of garment workers left jobless by company closures in late December is fast becoming A Tale of Two Factories: one group of workers has everything before it, the other has nothing. It’s this widening gulf between workers at Yung Wah Industrial and Kingsland ...

While Cambodia seeks to diversify its manufacturing sector and encourage higher-value-added activities, experts say it must be supported by the right mix of government policies. The Asia Development Bank (ADB) says that the sharp increase of foreign direct investment (FDI) from $900 million in 2011 to ...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Better Factories Program (BFC) has responded to a scathing report released last week by Stanford University, which said the ILO program was ineffectual as it had not helped secure Cambodian workers a significant wage increase since the program started over ...

Activists are welcoming Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public vow to prevent logging and rosewood trafficking, but they also say it’s too little too late to have any serious impact on protecting Cambodia’s already decimated forests. In a speech on Friday at the Ministry of Interior, Hun ...

Cambodia’s focus on hydropower will reduce its independence on oil and ensure nationwide access to electricity at a stable price, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech Saturday during the inauguration of a $47.1 million hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. However environmental groups ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yeserday lauded his government’s strong ties with China but said Cambodia does not give Chinese any preferential treatment. Mr. Hun Sen was speaking at the inauguration of the $47.1 million Kirirom III hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel District- constructed ...

Total fixed assets of Singaporean investment in Cambodia last year reached $82.7 million, a 500 per cent increase from $13.8 million in 2011, data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) show. Singaporean entrepreneurs who have already entered the Cambodian market said they expect ...

Cambodian milled rice is becoming more popular throughout Asia, particularly in Malaysia, which is the number one importer of milled rice from the Kingdom. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Malaysia imported over 7,000 tonnes of a total 25,700 tonnes exported ...

Lending by commercial banks in Cambodia grew by more than one-third last year, according to figures provided by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) yesterday. Banks lent out a total of $5.89 billion in 2012, compared with $4.39 billion in 2011, NBC figures show, meaning ...

Some 200 garment factory workers protested at the Ministry of Social Affairs on Friday, a day after they held a demonstration in front of the Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh and urged diplomats to intervene in a labour dispute involving unpaid wages from a factory ...

After a 60- minute debate, the Senate on Friday voted in favour of a payment guarantee for the private companies constructing the controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province. At the Senate session, 43 out of 48 senators voted to approve the deal which ...

Between 2008 and 2012, Cambodia’s spending on public infrastructure amounted to about US$2.5 billion — a sum an opposition politician says is too low and is ineffectively put to use. In his opening remarks at the seventh Cambodia Outlook Conference, Prime Minister Hun Sen said public ...

An offshore financial services provider aiming to cater to expatriates in Cambodia hopes to tap into a market that has had its share of fly-by-night operators. Tag Wealth International, a subsidiary of the Australia-based Tag Group, began operations last month, offering advice in areas such as ...

As insolvency proceedings against bankrupt telecommunications firm Mfone begin, yet another company, Smart Mobile, has filed a court complaint to collect unpaid costs from the mobile operator, and the list of parties to have suffered from the firm’s collapse continue to grow. The Phnom Penh Municipal ...

Exports of Cambodian milled rice rose sharply during the first four weeks of this year, and traders are optimistic about the demand in Asian markets, particularly China. Figures from the one-stop service office at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) show the Kingdom exported ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that all Cambodian villages would have electricity by 2020 while 70 percent of households would have power by 2030. Hun Sen said average per capita consumption of electricity rose at an annual rate of seven percent over the past ...

Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) yesterday announced plans to pay its first dividend to shareholders. Dividends from the stock will be given to investors next month in cash after the financial performance of the company is audited by an international firm. Up until now, the ...

Reporting that the country had achieved better than expected economic growth last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday targeted a rapid expansion of the country’s rubber industry and predicted that almost 1 in 10 Cambodians would soon be working in rubber. “Agriculture continues to play ...

The government’s guaranteed bailout of major infrastructure projects, such as the future 400-megawatt hydropower dam in Stung Treng province, requires a thorough assessment of forecasted risks – a capacity which the government currently does not possess, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said yesterday. Speaking on ...

ANZ chief executive Mike Smith says Cambodia should decouple the riel from the US dollar to a stand-alone currency and align itself to the Chinese renminbi (RMB), given the shift in global trade flows. At the Cambodia Outlook Conference in Phnom Penh yesterday, Smith said: “I ...

The first buses directly connecting Thailand and Cambodia left Bangkok on Thursday, headed for Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, with the launch of a regular service to bolster tourism and economic ties between the two countries. The first airconditioned bus from Bangkok to Phnom Penh left Mor ...

Cambodia, a Southeast Asian country with 15 million inhabitants, has begun to embrace intensive livestock production despite numerous obstacles. The industry heavily relies on the import of genetics, soybean meal, fish meal, additives, medicines and vaccines. A major constraint preventing producers from taking up intensive ...

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to compensate thousands of garment workers demanding back pay they say they are owed since their factory owner fled the country to escape mounting debt, according to officials. Kandal provincial labor department director Thol Neang told RFA’s ...

The listed Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) earned total revenues of 36.9 million U.S. dollars in 2012, up 25 percent year-on-year, according to the firm’s unaudited financial statement on Wednesday. The report said that the firm’s net income after tax was 8.56 million U.S. dollars ...