Trade

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Asia-Pacific region’s trade with Europe via Russia will surge by at least five-fold by 2020 as traditional sea routes become less competitive. His remarks came in a commentary published by the Wall Street Journal ahead of a summit of leaders ...

Economists and agriculture officials say Cambodia could export 1 million tons of milled rice by 2015, but that depends on improvements in the sector, along with some global factors out of the control of the country’s farmers and millers. Prime Minister Hun Sen has set the ...

Cambodia had exported 89,800 tons of milled rice in the first seven months of this year, a 2.6 percent drop from 92,200 tons at the same period in a year ago, showed the statistics from the Ministry of Commerce’s Camcontrol Department on Thursday. However, the revenues ...

Member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) are striving to forge a regional free trade facility to be known as FTAAP (Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific) AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) – signed in January of 1992, it covers all 10 ASEAN members of ...

India is considering establishing a cashew nut processing factory in Cambodia to curb exports to India from third countries, according to officials at the Indian embassy. Dinesh Patniak, the ambassador to Cambodia, said Cambodia produced a lot of cashew nuts that were sent to Vietnam for ...

About 600 garment factory workers continued their strike in Phnom Penh yesterday, setting car tires alight to protest what they said were unfair salary cuts but factory representatives and labor officials described as a normal tax on income. “The factory told us that they cut our ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance yesterday urged companies intending to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) to buy insurance to bolster public confidence. Vice President Bo Chanpiro of the Financial Industry Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance said the finance sector relies not only ...

A new report – 10 Years of the Better Factories Cambodia Project: A critical evaluation – has been released by Clean Clothes Campaign and Community Legal Education Center. Started in 2001, the goal of the Better Factories program is to improve the working conditions in ...

One of the biggest challenges to protecting Cambodian migrant workers is the sheer distance between their homeland and the countries they are working in, Ministry of Labour officials said yesterday. A pattern has emerged in which brokers lure more and more Cambodians away from traditional border-country ...

Cambodia needs to ensure fair treatment of both domestic and foreign investors if it wants to attract more foreign investors, accordsing to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Kirk presented the idea during a press conference last week in Siem Reap durig the ASEAN-US Business Summit by ...

Unions and labour groups fear a solitary sick day could cost garment workers their entire month’s attendance bonuses – about 15 per cent of their base wage – under a new scheme meant to make life easier. The Kingdom’s 600,000 garment and footwear workers will receive ...

As mining companies continue to scour Cambodia for minerals, work is also under way to build a network of local monitors and activists to shed light on the country’s often-opaque mining sector and its practices. {T]he Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has granted an unknown ...

Cambodia’s needs and how they overlap with the UK’s strengths are an important issue in trade and investment relations between the two countries, according to British Ambassador Mark Gooding during a presentation to the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) yesterday. Bilateral trade is mainly driven by ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen returned home yesterday from a quick trip to Beijing with the promise of some $523 million in new loans and grants, one day after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jabao praised Cambodia for helping China maintain “friendly relations” with Asean. Speaking with ...

Officials at the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX) may increase the number of daily stock trading sessions from two to seven, giving traders more flexibility to buy and sell, an official at the bourse said yesterday. Currently, trading on the CSX occurs in just two sessions, starting ...

China has pledged more than $500 million in soft loans and grants to Cambodia and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao thanked it for helping Beijing maintain good relations with the regional grouping ASEAN, a Cambodian junior minister said. A summit of the 10 members of the Association ...

ASEAN economic ministers on Friday agreed to spur stronger cooperation and make more of an effort to enhance the region’s integration in preparation for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. Speaking during the press conference on the closing of the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting ...

The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program must overhaul its monitoring practices before it can meaningfully improve working conditions in the garment sector, accoring to the authors of a new report. the new report by Community Legal Education Center and the Netherlands-based ...

India is financing the construction of a US$70 million transmission line to bring electricity from hydroelectric projects in Laos to Cambodia, according to Indian Chamber of Commerce President Debasish Pattnaik. Speaking yesterday after the official launch of the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (ICC), Pattnaik ...

About 100 Indian businessmen and government officials gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday for the official launch of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Cambodia. Speaking at the launch the ICC president, Debasish Pattnaik, said that since the new organization registered with the government in February, it has gained 54 ...

The United States and Cambodia have agreed to begin discussions on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) in a bid to spur trade and investment between the two countries, officials said on Friday following the end of the ASEAN-US Business Summit in Siem Reap. “A bilateral investment ...

An investigation by garment factory monitor Better Factories Cambodia into the alleged sexual harassment of four female employees at Ocean Garment uncovered extensive verbal abuse, according to BFC technical adviser Jill Tucker. A BFC team visited the Dangkor district site on August 24 after a group ...

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced Friday that the U.S. and Cambodia have agreed to explore the creation of a bilateral investment treaty that would regulate the rules of foreign direct investment between the two countries, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. According to the Embassy, such a treaty ...

Almost 150 garment factory workers from two Phnom Penh factories fainted late last week after inhaling toxic fumes used to treat clothes, workers and union leaders said yesterday. The mass faintings came as the Clean Clothes Campaign and Community Legal Education Center released an evaluation report ...