Trade
Exports
Exports hold up despite EU slowdown
Cambodia has coped well in terms of exports despite the slowdown in some European economies, said the head of the IMF’s Asia-Pacific department last week. Anoop Singh, director for the department, said Cambodia has enjoyed many years of economic growth at about 6 per cent or ...
Mekong River threatened by transport of dangerous goods
The Mekong River Commission has released a comprehensive risk analysis of the transport of dangerous goods and issued recommendations to prevent oil spills, industrial waste and other emerging threats from navigation. Developed by the MRC Navigation Programme in Phnom Penh, the risk analysis finds that the ...
Indonesian Trader Close to $1.5b Cambodia Sales Deal
Trading company Galuh Prabu Trijaya is closing in on a deal with Cambodia that could boost sales of Indonesian fertilizer and agricultural machinery by $1.5 billion over five years. The deal would double Indonesia’s annual exports to the Mekong country, as the largest economy in Southeast ...
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/indonesian-trader-close-to-15b-cambodia-sales-deal/550207
Rice mills need to show solidarity, minister says
At the Cambodian Rice Forum 2012, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said that if the Kingdom wants to reach the government’s goal of exporting 1 million tons of rice annually by 2015, rice mills need to join forces and work closely together. Such an association [of rice ...
Cambodian Scholar Suggests Pernicious Effects of Aid Dependence
For political economist Sophal Ear, this view is more nuanced. In his book ‘Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermined Democracy‘, published by the Columbia University Press (2012), years of dependency are not showing positive results in the rehabilitation of Cambodia, its democracy and war ...
http://asiancorrespondent.com/90669/cambodian-scholar-suggests-pernicious-effects-of-aid-dependence/
H&M meets NGOs and factories to improve working conditions
H&M Hennes & Mauritz’s head of sustainability Helena Helmersson was in Cambodia last week to meet with ILO/Better Works Cambodia on how to improve working conditions in export garment factories. Helmersson said in a blog post that the lack of dialogue between workers and factory management ...
Possible benefits for Cambodia in Mekong Region trade
Cambodia could benefit more from trade in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) by implementing time and cost, cutting measures and removing constraints on exports, according to a new book by the Asian Development Bank. During a media briefing yesterday, Brimble [senior country economist and author of ...
Trade barriers hinder growth of Cambodia's export industry
Cambodia could reap even greater benefits from trade facilitation measures in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) by removing high logistics costs, delays and other barriers that hamper the country’s connectivity and competitiveness, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) book released here on Thursday. “Cambodia’s ...
Trucking Companies Plagued by High Costs, Informal Payments
Despite growing exports, freight companies say profits are being hit because most firms still use old, inefficient trucks and are often forced to pay custom officials informal fees at border checkpoints and ports. Transportation costs in Cambodia are already some of the highest in the region, ...
Holiday blues hit factories
Tens of thousands of garment workers will enjoy an early start to the Pchum Ben holiday today as they trek back to their homeland. Their excitement, however, is not shared by their bosses, who will be left to rue a week-long halt in production. Enterprise and establishment ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012101159238/National-news/holiday-blues-hit-factories.html
Investment needed to reach rice goal: experts
More investment is needed as well as additional assistance for farmers if the government wants to meet its export goal of 1 million tons of rice a year by 2015, according to experts at a recent rice sector meeting in Phnom Penh. Participants said rice millers would need substantial access ...
Commerce Official Denies Luxury Wood 'Logs' Exported to China
A Commerce Ministry official yesterday denied that Cambodia was exporting luxury wood logs to China, insisting that any wood leaving the country was in a “processed” form. The China Customs data also states that each year, just under 10,000 cubic meters of “logs” and about ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/commerce-official-denies-luxury-wood-logs-exported-to-china/
EU Bike Import Shows Huge Shifts
The import flow of bicycles (excluding e-bikes) into the European Union is changing rapidly between countries What is in particular striking is the massive upswing in imports from Cambodia. In 2011 the European Union imported 366,000 bikes from Cambodia which took the country to the 9th ...
Ministry of Labor Launches Anti-Fainting Campaign
The Ministry of Labor on Sunday launched an educational campaign aimed at preventing further mass faintings in garment factories, a ministry official said yesterday. Meng Hong, director of the ministry’s inspection and legal affairs department, said that the campaign would target more than 30,000 garment workers ...
Workers given lesson in how not to faint
Education garment workers and their bosses on how to avoiding fainting is the latest strategy the Ministry of Labor is using to address a problem that has plagued the industry in the past two years, a ministry official said yesterday. Labor Ministry Secretary of State Oum Mean said he ...
Cambodia's Luxury Wood Trade to China Revealed
Thousands of cubic meters of luxury wood is being shipped from Cambodia to China each year, according to official Chinese import documents shown to The Cambodia Daily. According to the data, some 36,000 cubic meters of logs under the “rosewood” category have been recorded entering China ...
High Costs Cripple Trading Firms, Report Says
Import and export companies in Cambodia believe that high costs stemming from burdensome bureaucracy and poor infrastructure are putting them at a disadvantage compared to other firms transporting goods in the region, according to a recently released report by the Asian Development Bank. Surveying 39 export companies from the ...
Port more active over nine months
Cargo shipments via Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP), Cambodia’s second largest port, rose by 16 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months. The Port Authority said yesterday the rise was mainly due to the increase of import and export activities for garments, agricultural and construction ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012100559120/Business/port-more-active-over-nine-months.html
Buyers Laud Renewal of Industrial Relations Agreement
As buyers for international clothing brands yesterday praised the renewal of an agreement aimed at reducing strikes in the garment sector, labor unions and factory owners said that only proper implementation would determine the agreement’s effectiveness. Modeled after an earlier pact from 2010 to prevent work ...
Men Sarun rice to China
Local company Men Sarun Import Export will export fragrant milled rice to China through the Chinese-Hong Kong Enterpreneur Association, an insider said. Choun Kol, Deputy General Director of Men Sarun company, said the company officially signed a business contract with China for 10,000 tonnes of rice. He ...
Strikes at two factories stretch into weekend
More than 600 workers from Kandal province’s Tae Young Co factory yesterday continued to strike, insisting on the return of 16 dismissed workers. Yesterday’s strikes came a day after the Kandal Provincial Court delayed questioning eight of the fired workers over charges that they incited an illegal ...
Cambodia needs markets to export remaining 3 million tons of cassava products
Cambodia, the export of cassava in Cambodia is in low cost this year due to low demand and local farmers grow high production Prime Minister Hun Sen said: In Pursat and Battambang provinces alone have three million tons of cassava products for export Most cassava product exported ...
Slowdown in garment exports from Cambodia
The slump in global markets has depressed demand for Cambodian products, leading to reduced growth forecasts by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 2012 and 2013. “Falling global demand, especially in Europe and the US, means that the industry sector will grow at a slower pace ...
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=116497
Cambodia's food service industry gains new player
Triasia Group, headed by Japanese CEO Yokoi Tomoyuki, will open its first Kiriya café in November, with plans already in place to open six more along with some Japanese and European restaurants and a coffee bean manufacturing and export operation. Triasia Group also aims at being ...