Economy and commerce

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 ...

Against the backdrop of the slight recovery by world economies, especially the US and Europe, two traditional markets for Cambodia, Asian Development Bank (ADB) deputy country director Peter Brimble sat down with the Post’s group business editor, May Kunmakara, to talk about Cambodia’s economic performance, ...

Construction is due to start shortly on a socially responsible sun-glass case and cleaning cloth factory in Siem Reap. Pactics produces 40 per cent of cases and cloths for the larget sun-glass factory in the world, Luxottica, which has brands including Ray Ban, Oakley and ...

Customs and Excise Department officials are complaining that a promised salary bonus meant to serve as an incentive to avoid corruption has yet to be doled out, even though the program began last June. The initiative, managed by the Ministry of Economics and Finance, was supposed ...

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), in conjunction with the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, held the 5th Conference on Vietnam-Cambodia Border Trade Development Cooperation in southern Binh Phuoc province on January 9. According to Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang, bilateral economic ...

At least one internet service provider in Cambodia still claims to have overlapping frequencies, which means losses for the affected company MekongNet. The company’s chief executive, Sok Channda, reported that the internet service provider can’t use the frequencies that were supposed to cover the WiMAX service, ...

The International Monetary Fund has warned that a credit boom in Cambodia poses a threat to economic growth. Banks have been cutting interest rates to win customers and private sector credit has increased by almost a third in the past 12 months, the fund said. This ...

It has been just over a year since Vancouver-based Angkor Gold (ANK-V) went public with its stable of Cambodian exploration projects, and it is looking like the company’s early mover strategy in the developing Southeast Asian nation might be poised to pay off. To kick ...