Trade
Exports
The canes of wrath
Satiating the demands of the global sugar industry is big business for Cambodia’s sugarcane plantations. Yet accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the Kingdom have left a bitter aftertaste for many on the ground as companies vie for a larger slice of ...
Kingdom to reach rice target
Following a considerable increase in Cambodia’s milled rice exports in the first four months of the year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said he was optimistic the Kingdom’s rice exports would reach the 2015 target of one million tonnes. With this year’s export figures notably higher ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065539/Business/kingdom-to-reach-rice-target.html
Cambodian Parliament Ratifies ASEAN-China Maritime Transport Agreement
The National Assembly of Cambodia on Friday ratified the agreement on maritime transport between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, saying the agreement is essential to develop trade and economic ties between ASEAN and China. “The agreement aims to facilitate and foster ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/10/c_132372924.htm
Wage Hike Leads To Rent Fears
Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun yesterday appealed to landlords with properties close to garment factories not to take advantage of the industry’s minimum wage increase by raising rent prices. The minimum monthly salary in the garment sector – Cambodia’s biggest export industry – officially ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065555/National/wage-hike-leads-to-rent-fears.html
Cambodia's trade with its neighbors slows in Q1
Cambodia saw a slow rise in trade volume with Vietnam and a slight decrease with Thailand in the first quarter of this year, according to the figures provided on Wednesday. The figures said Cambodia’s total exports to Vietnam was worth 221 million U.S. dollars during ...
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2013-05/09/c_132370565.htm
Private property, public greed in Cambodia
Mark Moorstein knew little about Cambodia before he got involved in a lawsuit on behalf of land owners there. But as it’s turning out, the suit could end up affecting most every country in Asia. Moorstein is a land-use lawyer in Northern Virginia who, like many ...
Cambodia’s Economic Opportunity
While significant obstacles remain, the success of the rice sector is a potentially crucial driver in Cambodia’s prosperous and equitable development. Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements recently, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. ...
http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/09/cambodias-economic-opportunity/
Trade with Vietnam increases
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighbouring Vietnam rose more than 10 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, data from the Vietnam Embassy in Phnom Penh showed. Officials said cross-border trade facilitation by both countries significantly contributed to the growth. But they said ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050965501/Business/trade-with-vietnam-increases-2013.html
Investor Decries Export Tax on Cambodian Seafood
A major Hong Kong investor in Cambodia has claimed that a government duty on seafood exports is stunting the country’s fish processing industry. Hong Kong-based Sunwah Group began operating a shrimp-processing factory in Sihanoukville in 1994, and its plans in the country now include building a ...
Milled Rice Exports Rise in the First Four Months
Milled rice exports have seen dramatic growth this year as the sector begins to take advantage of duty-free exports to European countries, an official and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. Thon Virak, director of state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, said Tuesday that in ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/milled-rice-exports-rise-in-first-four-months-22826/
Firm Given Rights to All ELC Timber in Ratanakkiri
The Ministry of Agriculture has signed a deal with Try Pheap Import Export to give the firm the right to purchase all timber felled in economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, according to a letter sent from the Agriculture Ministry to the Forestry Administration ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-given-rights-to-all-elc-timber-in-ratanakkiri-22788/
Union calls for stable rent for workers
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) urged all apartment landlords to not increase their rent because garment and footwear employees get only a basic salary of $80 per month. A statement issued Monday said the wage increase from $61 per month to $80 will be implemented ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NzI2NDk4N2M2YTA
Cambodia, Bangladesh ink visa exemption deal for diplomatic, official passport holders
Cambodia and Bangladesh on Friday signed a visa-free agreement for diplomatic and service passport holders in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties in politics, trade, investment and tourism, officials said. The deal was inked here between Long Visalo, secretary of state at Cambodian Ministry of Foreign ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/03/c_132357925.htm
Sugar Firm Files Defense in Cambodian Lawsuit
British sugar firm Tate & Lyle has denied knowing of the alleged abuses at two Cambodian plantations accused of illegally driving hundreds of families off their farms and says that the families have no right to ask the company for compensation, according to the firm’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-sugar-firm-files-defense-in-cambodian-lawsuit-21913/
Agriculture Contributes To Helping Cambodia’s Economic Growth: PM Hun Sen
“The agriculture sector today is still playing significant role in promoting local production growth, job creation, and contributing to the poverty reduction of the people. At the same time, the agriculture sector will continue the basic role for economic growth and socio-economic development in Cambodia in ...
Cambodia-U.S. trade flat in Q1
The two-way trade volume between Cambodia and the United States valued at 758 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year, up only 0.8 percent compared with 752 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, the statistics of the U.S. ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-05/03/c_132357935.htm
Officials Consider Export Numbers Fishy
The Ministry of Commerce has released figures showing Cambodia’s export of fishery goods including fresh and dried fish products have decreased drastically in the first quarter of the year, though several government officials viewed the figures with scepticism. Cambodia exported 49.9 tonnes of fish products in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050365392/Business/officials-consider-export-numbers-fishy.html
Thousands of workers in Cambodia march for pay rise on Int'l Labor Day
About 5,000 Cambodian workers took to the street on Wednesday to mark the International Labor Day, calling for pay rise, better labor conditions and decrease in petrol prices, a union representative said. Marchers, mostly garment workers, held banners and walked from the Freedom Park near the ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/01/c_132352087.htm
Made in Cambodia: Foreign Industry Calls on Cambodia as the Next “Low-Cost” Alternative in All Things Manufacturing
About a decade ago, global manufacturing firms staged a mass exodus to Asia in search of low-cost alternatives to increasing domestic wage demands and operational costs. The consensus was the continued development of a regional supply chain that had formed in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, ...
Thailand and Cambodia to forge closer trade talks
After the fourth Joint Trade Commission (JTC) recently, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said that Thailand and Cambodia had the potential to drive two-way trade up by 30 per cent, due to strong growth in 2012. Last year, bilateral trade grew by 40.5 per cent year on ...
Cambodia's trade with Thailand down 2.3 pct in Q1
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Thailand went down by 2.3 percent during the first quarter of this year, according to the statistics released by [the] Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh on Monday. Officials said the drop was due to “Thai baht appreciation, not ongoing border conflict” ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-04/29/c_132349426.htm
World Bank Says Credit Growth Still a Risk
The World Bank has warned that the rapid growth of lending by Cambodia’s Banks is still a concern, despite a recent slow-down in credit disbursals. “Credit growth, which has been driven largely by wholesale and retail financing, and starting in 2011 agriculture financing, has eased to ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/world-bank-says-credit-growth-still-a-risk-20690/
New Kampot Salt Farm Has Big Ambitions
TOEK CHHOU DISTRICT, Kampot province – A donor-backed project launched here on Saturday aims to produce Cambodia’s first export-quality sea salt and invigorate the struggling local salt industry. In a ceremony among Kampot’s vast fields of coastal saltpans and low levees, company representatives from Asia Salt ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/new-kampot-salt-farm-has-big-ambitions-20505/
Kingdom spending $3m to boost rubber quality
A $3 million initiative to purify the quality of rubber trees planted across the country is intended to spur farmers to plant more rubber, a government official said. Ly Phalla, director general of the General Directorate of Rubber at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042965285/Business/kingdom-spending-3m-to-boost-rubber-quality.html