Economy and commerce

Adidas, the sportswear company, is facing an investigation over claims that Cambodian workers are being paid £10 a week in basic wages to make official merchandise for the London Olympics. It is one of the 2012 Games’ largest sponsors, believed to have invested £100 million, and ...

US companies will re-establish their commitment to Cambodia and the region today at the US-ASEAN Business Forum in Siem Reap, a high-profile meeting involving several heads of state and some of the biggest companies in the world. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead the ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Cambodia where she met with Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss U.S. investment and Cambodia’s outstanding debt. Cambodia wants the United States to forgive more than $400 million in debt accrued by the US-backed military government of Lon ...

Price levels picked up during the first half of 2012 but will likely cool down in the second half of the year due to changes in energy prices and major food related items. Therefore, the inflation rate has been upwardly adjusted by 30 basis points to 4.8 percent ...

If industry-watchers were roused last year by the influx of Japanese investment to Cambodia – including bellwether parts manufacturer Minebea – 2012 should not disappoint. Up to 60 new Japanese companies are expected to apply for business licences this year after the number tripled to about ...

Despite being downgraded by Moody’s just over two months ago, profits at Cambodian Public Bank (Campu) and Acleda Bank—two of the largest banks in the country—increased by about 50 percent during the first half of the year, according to figures provided by the banks yesterday. In ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday raised the issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea with Prime Minister Hun Sen and outlined the strong focus the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is currently placing on the Asean region, officials said. Arriving in ...

Khmer Brewery (KB), a locally owned company that produces Cambodia Beer, has made its first export to Japan, partly in response to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call in mid-May for local food and beverage producers to push their products abroad. KB public-relations manager Sok Chantha said ...

A local representative of controversial online start-up incubator Rocket Internet said the company would invest “millions” in Cambodia as it launched a new online retail store yesterday, in what market insiders call a trend toward increasing e-commerce in the Kingdom. The site, shop.com.kh is offered in ...

The share price of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), the only stock so far to trade on Cambodia’s recently launched bourse, fell yesterday to the lowest price since its first day of trading nearly three months ago. At the day’s close, stock in PPWSA ...

The government last month privatized more than a dozen department and commune offices in some prime locations around Phnom Penh, and will move many of them to Sen Sok district, according to documents and officials. A sub-decree dated June 27 and signed by Prime Minister Hun ...

Canada is willing to build close ties with Cambodia and other ASEAN member states in politics, trade and investment, said Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird on Wednesday. John said that Canada’s International Trade Minister Ed Fast will make a visit to Cambodia next month to ...

Phnom Penh Commercial Bank will offer “wedding loans” to newlyweds, a product based on a similar borrowing practice is South Korea. The majority-owned South Korean bank will set aside more than US$1 million for start-up families that don’t want their parents shelling out savings for new ...

Jeremy Browne, UK foreign office minister, told officials in Cambodia during a two-day visit that despite the current problems the European Union is having with its currency union and economies, ASEAN should not be discouraged from pursuing closer economic and even political coordination within the 1.0-member bloc. Speaking at the Council of Ministers in Phnom ...

Charles Cheo, managing director of Forte Insurance, is sanguine on the growth prospects of Cambodia’s US$30 million general insurance market, even though there are five other general insurers competing against Forte, and three new life insurers entering the market. Forte established a presence in Cambodia in ...

Thailand may not export certain varieties of Cambodian-grown, but Thai-milled, rice internationally due to fears of intellectual property violations. Cambodian Malis rice is very similar to jasmine rice, and Thailand has expressed concerns that it may infringe on the Thai-owned jasmine rice variety. The Ministry of Agriculture has been ...

Access to the region’s largest collective financial resource, the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, could be easier than expected for Cambodia, according to an Asian Development Bank economist. Initiated in May, the fund is expected to lend up to US$4 billion and leverage up to $13 billion for ...

Less than four months after suspending work on Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, Toll Royal Railways (TRR), the network’s operator, has informed the government that it will recommence transporting construction materials needed to build the southern line on Aug. 1, company officials said yesterday. The decision to ...

Prasac, a leading micro-finance institution in Cambodia, had increased its registered capital from US$3.8 million to $20 million in preparation for its transformation into a commercial bank by 2014, the institution said yesterday. “The registration requirement of $37.5 million is a very small amount to ...

China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned. ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key ...

PRASAC Microfinance Institution, celebrating its eighteenth anniversary this year in the Cambodia microfinance market, has increased its registered capital from 15-4 billion riel to 80 billion riel. The increase of the share capital has been authorized by the National Bank of Cambodia and the company is now amending its Articles of Incorporation. PRASAC’s share capital is ...

Cambodia and Thailand’s financial exposure to Europe would make the two counties the most vulnerable regionally, an ANZ Bank report showed. The Kingdom’s exports and tourism sectors were on increasingly unstable ground as Europe’s debt crisis advanced. ...

The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) kicked off in Phnom Penh on Monday, focusing on politics, security, food and energy security, economics and culture in order to further advance the bloc’s cooperation toward a community by 2015. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said thatafter 45 years, ...

A pledge in mid-June by Cambodia and Vietnam to increase bilateral trade by more than US$2.5 billion by 2015 may lead to decreased trade with Thailand, market analysts have said. The pledge made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung ...