Trade

Thailand may not export certain varieties of Cambodian-grown, but Thai-milled, rice internationally due to fears of intellectual property violations. Cambodian Malis rice is very similar to jasmine rice, and Thailand has expressed concerns that it may infringe on the Thai-owned jasmine rice variety. The Ministry of Agriculture has been ...

Access to the region’s largest collective financial resource, the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, could be easier than expected for Cambodia, according to an Asian Development Bank economist. Initiated in May, the fund is expected to lend up to US$4 billion and leverage up to $13 billion for ...

China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned. ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key ...

Cambodia and Thailand’s financial exposure to Europe would make the two counties the most vulnerable regionally, an ANZ Bank report showed. The Kingdom’s exports and tourism sectors were on increasingly unstable ground as Europe’s debt crisis advanced. ...

The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) kicked off in Phnom Penh on Monday, focusing on politics, security, food and energy security, economics and culture in order to further advance the bloc’s cooperation toward a community by 2015. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said thatafter 45 years, ...

A pledge in mid-June by Cambodia and Vietnam to increase bilateral trade by more than US$2.5 billion by 2015 may lead to decreased trade with Thailand, market analysts have said. The pledge made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung ...

There was a sense of déjà vu at the Peace Palace yesterday as a week of largely closed-door ASEAN meetings kicked off in earnest with the same contentious issue that so dominated April’s ASEAN Summit: a code of conduct for the South China Sea. With China ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday said Asean would not postpone its plans to approve a controversial human rights declaration for the region by November, and would publicize only “key provisions” of the draft beforehand. Disappointed by the lack of openness and concerned that the declaration will ...

Authorities in Daun Penh district rounded up more than 80 homeless people, drug users and prostitutes ahead of this week’s high-level meetings for Asean and regional delegates in Phnom Penh, a district official said yesterday. District governor Sok Sambath said that the 82 people rounded up ...

Despite renewed criticism from civil society and a call for its drafting to be postponed, finalisation of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) was well under way, officials said yesterday at the beginning of a week of ASEAN meetings. Speaking to reporters after a meeting between ...

The government will drop subsidies for high electricity use, after the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC) reported losses of US$3 million between January and May this year. Households consuming more than 200 KW/h per month will no longer receive a 100 to 200 riel per KW/h ...

Pou Puy, president of the Cambodian Rice Millers Association, said that the export of Cambodia’s white rice faces challenges in terms of both quantity and competitive pricing, as exports of milled rice dropped about 35 per cent for the first half of 2012 compared to ...

Less than two months after opening a $60 million brewery on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Beer will be exported for the first time today when vessels carrying the beer set out for Japan from Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, according to a statement issued yesterday ...

The United States has expressed its commitment to the success of next week’s 19th ASEAN Regional Forum, which will be held in Phnom Penh, while British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne said on the same day that the United Kingdom plans to strengthen its relationship ...

North Korea yesterday proposed to lower tax and trade barriers with Cambodia. The proposal, if made into a formal agreement, would join a long list of agreements between the two countries that have never been followed through. Hong Ki Chol said such an agreement could ...

An EU scheme to boost trade with developing nations is fuelling land grabs in Cambodia, activists say, with thousands evicted from their property to make way for a booming sugar industry. Campaigners are taking their fight to European supermarkets, encouraging a boycott of Cambodian sugar, which ...

The European Union should immediately remove trade preferences it gives to Cambodian sugar companies accused of human-rights violations including land grabs, representatives of the affected communities told a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Community representatives from Koh Kong, Kampong Speu and Oddar Meanchey provinces said ...

Thailand and Cambodia are making moves to repair trade relations as 30 of Thailand’s provincial commerce departments hold a three-day trade fair in Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island Convention Center this week, according to Jiranan Wongmongkol, director of the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (FTPO) at the ...

Vietnam and Cambodia have set a target of US$5 billion in bilateral trade by 2015 as the countries’ economic relationship deepens. However, some wonder if such an ambitious goal is realistic, especially given the government’s desire to realize US$5 billion in annual trade with China by 2017. The goal was announced at a June 24 ...

A dispute over territory in the South China Sea is once again set to hang over talks when China and the U.S. join in on a week of high-level Asean meetings that start in Phnom Penh on Friday. So far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ...

Revenue at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port increased 13.6 per cent year on year between January and June, port officials confirmed yesterday. As the state-owned enterprise gears up for listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, the neighbouring Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone will play an increasingly important role in ...

Europe’s largest manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles, Italy’s Piaggio, will return to Cambodia in September, being absent since the Khmer Rouge takeover. Vespa Cambodia Co Ltd, part of Narith Long’s Narita group, signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Piaggio last month to distribute its Piaggio scooters, ...

Cambodia offers plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese exporters although there is intense competition from countries such as Thailand and China, delegates said at a conference in HCM City last Thursday. Le Quoc Phong, general director of the Binh Dien Fertiliser Group, said the Cambodian market had ...

Cambodia’s tourism minister Thong Khon said this week that ASEAN is protected to gain around 107 million international tourists in 2015 as the bloc will create the community that year. Speaking at closing ceremony of the 10th Tour Guide Training and the Opening of 11th Tour Guide Training for Phnom Penh city at ...