Economy and commerce

Steep price cuts by mobile operator Hello may prompt Thaicom to sell its majority stake in Mfone, according to investment firm Cambodia Capital. Cambodia Capital claims Hello’s drop in the tariffs it charges customers this year has heavily impacted Mfone’s operations, as well as those ...

Authorities in Phnom Penh briefly detained about 100 villagers yesterday who were distributing leaflets to raise awareness of the ongoing destruction of Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests. The leaflet distributors had their materials confiscated and were escorted to six commune offices ...

International NGO Bridges Across Borders and umbrella group NGO Forum met yesterday morning with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who accused both of making “false” and “unfair” claims to the Asian Development Bank about the death of two children relocated by a railway ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) decided not to raise the reserve requirement rate for commercial banks from the current 12 per cent to 16 per cent although the country’s inflation has gradually increased, Nguon Sokha, NBC’s director general, said yesterday. “After the meeting of ...

Singapore-listed firm HLH Group is planning to expand its presence in Cambodia with 90,000 hectares of corn, rice and soybean plantations planned over the next decade in Kompong Speu and Koh Kong provinces, an official at the company said yesterday. HLH Group came under scrutiny ...

Financial experts in the Kingdom yesterday called on the banking sector to implement improved corporate governance and increase transparency in order to ensure confidence in companies ahead of trading on the Cambodian Securities Exchange. Banks in the country have been required to publicly disclose financial ...

Cambodia’s TTY Corporation Co Ltd signed a $20 million deal yesterday with the state-owned China Grain Reserves Corp to process and export rice to China. The deal between TTY Corp and China Grain Reserves Corp’s Guangzhou branch, called Sinograin, was sealed with an agreement to ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen defended the government’s plan for Strung Treng province’s 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam project in a letter to an SRP lawmaker, and accused opposition parties, NGOs and the media of exaggerating the negative impacts of hydropower dams. In the six-page letter ...

Émile Coué was a French psychologist who introduced a method of self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,” was his mantra. He died in 1926 and probably never visited Cambodia, but his spirit has been hovering over ...

While the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) recently opened its doors for business, it’s not quite ready to actually do business. As it currently stands, there is no actual trade taking place, making it the smallest bourse in the world in terms of market capitalization. However, ...

The issue of using land titles to encourage banks to boost their lending to the agriculture sector was raised at the “Empower Your Business: Riding on Cambodia’s Growth” seminar in Phnom Penh on July 21. “Seventy percent of the population is undertaking agriculture as their ...

Cambodia has officially opened a stock exchange, which economists say will provide a chance for the development of the country and job creation. However, they warn that mismanagement of the bourse could also lead to economic woes. “When this stock market goes well, it will ...

Southeast Asia needs to push ahead with a regional free trade bloc and policies to cope with global financial crises, Indonesia’s government said yesterday. Indonesia’s Vice President Boediono, addressing trade ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said it was evident since the ...

Authorities are planning upgrades to effectively double the capacity of boats travelling from Phnom Penh Autonomous Port to Vietnam, according to port Director General Hei Bavy. A 2009 agreement with Vietnam authorities allows ships travelling down the Mekong from Cambodia to offload at Cai Mep ...

In the latest government backed appropriation of protected land, nearly 20,000 hectares of the Boeung Per wildlife sanctuary have been reclassified as state private land for agro-industrial development. Two sub-decrees, obtained by The Post this week and initialed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on July ...

The Bank of India will move to a larger location on Norodom Boulevard, aiming to attract increased business from both Cambodian and Indian clients, said Chief Manager Sripada Rao. The Mumbai, India-based bank first opened in the Kingdom in 2009 headquartered on the capital’s Monivong ...

Cambodia saw significant percentage gains in regional trade in the first six months of the year, though the gap between imports and exports remained large, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. According to the figures, the country saw regional exports to ...

Ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat has defied an order endorsed by the Prime Minster to halt his controversial sand dredging activities on the Tatai river in Koh Kong, prompting authorities to request intervention, documents obtained by The Post reveal. The dredging operation on the ...

THE government expressed disappointment yesterday with the World Bank’s announcement that it had halted new country loans due to the ongoing land dispute at Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh and vowed to raise the issue with the bank’s executive board. “We are very dissatisfied ...

The government has brought into force a new law that makes all illegal payments to officials punishable by up to 15 years in jail for those who accept such payments and up to 10 years for those who make payments. Im Oudom, a member of ...

Government officials yesterday dismissed the World Bank’s recently revealed decision to freeze funding for new projects in Cambodia to protest a Phnom Penh real estate project that has forced thousand of families out of their homes. A housing rights group closely following the evictions said ...

Vietnamese rice exporters will face tough competition from foreign countries looking to exploit advantages that Cambodia presents as a beneficiary of the the EBA (Everything But Arms) initiative, says an Econet report. Under the EBA, Cambodia, as a least-developed-country, enjoys zero tariffs and no quotas ...

PROMINENT businessman Kith Meng was re-elected unopposed yesterday as president of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. Kith Meng, the only contender who declared his candidacy for the three-year mandate, received support from all 11 candidates eligible to stand. Kith Meng, who is also chairman and chief ...

The Ministry of Planning yesterday released the preliminary results of the 2011 economic census, which found that Cambodia has a total of 503,008 businesses nationwide, of which nearly 20 percent are based in Phnom Penh. The census, which began on March 1 and was financed ...