Economy and commerce

While Cambodian handicrafts such as silk clothing, stone and wood carvings and rattan furniture are popular with tourists, who snap up the articles at gift shops and airports, the size of the sector is nowhere near what it might be, according to industry insiders. They ...

Almost five months after the launch of the Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC), experts agree that it has given financial institutions valuable new access to information about creditworthiness of potential borrowers, improving efficiency and loan quality. At the same time, there are still a few rough ...

A business concept competition between university students from Cambodia, Japan and Myanmar that provided the perfect opportunity for improving business plans and networking with business people yesterday was won by one of Cambodia’s own. Lay Huy Huoy, a second-year student at Cambodian Mekong University majoring in business and ...

As Cambodia continues to develop, information technology skills are increasingly in demand, especially as the government seeks to diversify the economy and bring in companies which will need staff with strong high-tech skills. To that end, last month the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), in cooperation with the Cisco ...

Smartphones and the accompanying online stores that sell applications for them may be gaining ground across emerging markets, according to a study conducted by a London-based telecommunications research and analysis firm, but Cambodia’s market is limited by a lack of places to legitimately purchase apps, ...

Chinese firm Hainan Ruijin Investment Holding Company (HRIH) has announced an ambitious, US$5.8 billion property project including holiday resorts and high-rise apartments outside of Sihanoukville. Plans for the development, which has been dubbed Sihanoukville-Hainan City, have been approved by the Cambodian government. Further details, such as the ...

Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said: Cambodia has permitted the construction and opening of casinos at the border areas with neighboring countries for “secret strategy” to protect the country’s territory. He replied to opposition party who said gambling dens were harmful to the ...

The 4th world class Japanese Oji Paper Co. Ltd will invest in tree planting in Cambodia for paper manufacture. The information was made known here on Aug. 7 by the Japanese company’s Director Mr. Shimamura Gemmei in a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry ...

Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen said this week that he will talk with Chinese leaders especially his Chinese counterpart PM Wen Jiaboa about finance to build 300-500 km rural roads in the country in contribution of helping poverty reduction and living conditions of the local ...

Cambodia has gained the investments of 178 million U.S. dollars from its ASEAN member states in the first six months of 2012, according to a report from the Council for the Development of Cambodia said this week. From January to June this year, the country granted ...

Demand for low-quality white rice from African buyers has forced Thai exporters to purchase additional stocks from Cambodia and Vietnam to meet orders because domestic rice is in short supply due to government buying scheme, traders said on Wednesday. The price of 25 per cent broken grade Thai ...

The lastest investment data from the government shows that Cambodia’s economy is moving away from the long-trusted staple of the garment sector and into more compplex industries. For more than a decade, garments have accounted for the lion’s share of the country’s export market as investors shied away ...

National Assembly voted Friday to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and the U.N. Rotterdam Convention, which promotes the responsible labeling nd export of hazardous chemicals and pesticides. The assembly also voted in favor of an agreement with Qatar to ...

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in cooperation with a number of organisations launched a new e-waste management project yesterday in Cambodia in a bid to recycle the country’s burgeoning electronic waste and to provide job opportunities, as Hurleypalmerflatt opened an office in Cambodia to provide jobs for ...

Large dump trucks with beds full of rusted, twisted metal and aluminium canss rolled in, one after another, to unload their cargo at Phnom Penh’s largest scrap yard in Dangkao district. “All the metal must be exported because there are no recycling factories here [in Cambodia],” ...

Ministry of Commerce officials maintained that low import taxes and increased demand from consumers were the causes behind the 45.26 increase in vehicle imports in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year. The data showed 486,827 vehicles, of all makes and ...

The exclamations of dismay that come from small-business people in Cambodia when someone tries to take a picture of their shop are to be expected, as they believe the photo will be used to make them pay taxes they cannot afford, but that doesn’t mean ...

Cambodia approved a total of $479.68 million in new investment projects between January and June with more than 70 new ventures in the pipeline, according to date released yesterday by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). Investments in the garment sector continued to dominate new investments, comprising 49 of ...

The Chinese government is considering loaning an unspecified amount of money to cover the cost of constructing 20 new national roads, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. Speaking at the inauguration of 128-km stretch of National Road 62 linking Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces, also primarily funded by ...

Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc. (EGA), which owns a number of casinos in Cambodia, as well as provides gaming machines to other local gambling venues, announced on Tuesday that quarterly revenues from April through June reached a record $5.2 million, up 14 percent compared to the ...

Amret, one of the largest micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in the country, has announced that it is making plans to raise the capital required to become a full commercial bank by 2015, an official at the institution said yesterday. Chea Phalarin, CEO of Amret, said the decision to expand ...

While AirAsia, one of the world’s largest low-cost airline, is gearing toward an expansion in the region, the company’s chief executive said that serving Cambodia was expensive due to high airport fees. Airport charges are high and restrictive, as are over-flight fees, compared to other countries in ...

After sudden increase in price to KHR 6, 600 (US$ 1.62) on July 25, over the next week the price rose for a couple of days before eventually changing direction, falling to 6,400 (US$1.57) on August 1. Trading volumes were larger compared to the week ...

Chinese firms have huge ambitions for Cambodia, with a second firm this week proposing three projects worth an estimated US$6.5 billion to the National Assembly yesterday, but no deadlines were set for the implementation of the projects, according to officials. Pan Xiaoping, chairman of Ruijin Investment Holding Ltd, ...