Economy and commerce

Metro Machinery, the biggest dealer of heavy construction equipment in Thailand, is looking over the borders to Laos and Cambodia, which are exploiting their abundant natural resources and racing to develop infrastructure. The company will on October 9 ink two deals worth Bt1.5 billion each – ...

Speculators have been selling rice to Thailand via Cambodia for over a month despite domestic prices rising VND1,000/kg. At the meeting of Vietnam Food Association (VFA) on September 7 in HCM City, Director of An Giang Export Company Nguyen Van Tien said the amount of rice ...

In parts of rural Cambodia, farmers’ primary source of income comes from harvesting rice — once a year. This is a poor outcome compared to other ASEAN countries which harvest twice or thrice a year. To help increase farmers’ income, Victor Combal-Weiss and Guillaume Virag founded ...

In an effort to stimulate US$5 billion in trade between Cambodia and Vietnam by 2015, the Vietnamese Trade Fair will be held at the Diamond Island Convention and Exhibition Centre from September 21 to 25. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan ...

Myanmar Airways has temporarily suspended direct flights from Rangoon to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh due to low passenger numbers, an official at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) said yesterday. “We don’t know how long they will suspend operations, but when they get ...

The president of the Free Trade Union yesterday sent a letter to the Ministry of Labour’s inspection department to monitor working conditions at M&V factories in Kampong Chhnang province, alleging excessive overtime is causing workers to faint. “They have to work both in day and night ...

There has been an ioncrease in fishing activity in the dolphin conservation zones along the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces, putting pressure on the critically endangered Mekong dolphin population, the chairman of the Commission for Mekong River Dolphin Conservation and Eco-tourism Development said yesterday. Touch ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen opened the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh, where ASEAN officials will focus on ASEAN green energy and develop a plan for ASEAN’s power grid, officials said. Victor Jona, deputy director general of energy of the General Department ...

Revenues generated in the advertising sector through the first seven months of the year reached $68.7 million, an increase of 6.84 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by Indochina Research. Although the industry has continued to grow in terms ...

Eating rat is a common phenomenon over the border in Vietnam, but increasing numbers of Cambodians in nearby villages are adopting rodent cuisine with relish. As many as three tonnes of rats are caught every day in Cambodia and exported to Vietnam to feed a ...

Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. According to the Cambodian League for the ...

A preference for NGO and government jobs among young Cambodians was contributing to a critical labor shortage in the industrial manufacturing sector, a Labor Ministry official said yesterday. Speaking to 3,000 prospective university students on Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island, Labor Ministry Secretary of State Pich Sophoan ...

The price of imported raw silk decreased to US$44 per kilogram even as raw silk production fell off, according to industry insiders. Imported raw silk dropped 12 per cent to $44 per kilogram compared to $50 per kilogram last May. Cambodia Craft Federation CEO Soeng Kemyun, said ...

After experiencing decades of floods, Cambodia’s microfinance institutions say they no longer have problems disbursing loans during the rainy season, according to the head of Cambodia’s Microfinance Association (CMA). A survey issued early this year by a coterie of international aid organisations, including Oxfam, Care, PACT ...

Cambodia’s total trade volume grew 15.41 percent to reach$7.46 billion in the first seven months compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. Revenues earned through exports reached $2.9 billion, an increase of 11.82 percent compared to ...

Global food prices remained high in August according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food price index, maintaining the high level achieved last month as corn prices jumped in the US and rice prices increased in Cambodia. With 213 points in August the food ...

ASEAN senior officials on energy gathered here on Monday to discuss and prepare documents for the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting and related meetings to be held on Sept. 12. The two-day preparatory meeting, under the theme “ASEAN Green Connectivity”, was chaired by Tun ...

Construction sector had attracted the investment of $1.38 billion in the first seven months of 2012, a 85 percent rise from $747 million at the same period last year, a report from the ministry of land management, urban planning and construction showed on Monday. During the ...

Sri Lanka’s Touchwood Investments PLC has acquired 11,138 hectares of land in Cambodia to set up an agricultural project to plant rubber and other crops. Chairman of the firm, Roscoe A. Maloney, says the acquisition done in the previous financial year is aimed at exploring the ...

Villagers in Kratie province have long feared the proposed Sambor hydroelectric dam and the impact it could have on their subsistence fishing and riverbank agriculture. According to Resilience on the Mekong: A Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in North-East Cambodia, a report released by the World Wildlife ...

Siam Cement Group (SCG), the country’s top industrial conglomerate, says its logistics unit will cover Asean and southern China within five years, partly through mergers and acquisitions. Kan Trakulhoon, the president and chief executive, said the expansion will accommodate growing regional trade under the Asean Economic ...

Fast food chain KFC lost more than half-a-million dollars in the first half of 2012, according to a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange last week by the majority owner of KFC Cambodia, QSR Brands. The statement said that the company suffered losses of $578,000 in ...

Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding to establish direct flights between the two countries, said Tith Chantha, director general of Tourism Ministry. Tourism Minister Thong Khon inked the deal to establish flights from Dubai to an unspecified destination in Cambodia during ...

Angkor Gold Corp has acquired a new economic land concession as it gains full control of its other concessions with the purchase of another mining company, according to officials. According to a statement released last week, Angkor Gold has purchased Liberty Mining International Pty Ltd (Liberty), ...