Trade policy and regulation

Five years after setting out an ambitious 1 million-tonne milled rice export target, the rice sector fell well short of the mark last year, exporting close to 550,000 tonnes, with industry experts cautiously optimistic over export increases in 2016. ...

Russian authorities have temporarily detained a cargo ship flying the Cambodian flag near Crimea in the Black Sea on January 3, a spokesman for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said yesterday. ...

Several new trade pacts will help Vietnam attract more foreign investors next year as the country will become more open and better connected to some of the world’s largest markets, economists say. ...

The European Union will continue to remain Cambodia’s biggest export recipient, mopping up $2.32 billion in shipments this year, with the US following a close second at $2.07 billion, according to Commerce Ministry estimates. ...

Muang Thai Life Assurance (MTL) is planning to expand to the Cambodian market early next year, according to a report in the Bangkok Post. ...

After seven years under discussion and a series of drastic edits, the Trade Union Law is inching closer to being passed by the National Assembly. Human Rights Watch yesterday issued a statement on the latest draft of the union law, saying that while it ...

The EU and Vietnam on Wednesday signed a free trade deal that removes nearly all tariffs between Europe and the Southeast Asian nation. EU exports to Vietnam, meanwhile, are dominated by high-tech products including electrical machinery and equipment, aircraft, vehicles and pharmaceuticals. ...

Trade officials from Cambodia and Thailand will begin two days of talks in Bangkok tomorrow in an attempt to boost bilateral increase by 30 per cent per year over the next five years, including drawing more investment from third countries in special economic zones (SEZ), ...

Cambodian businesses are joining forces in an attempt to increase production and reduce the country’s dependence on imports. The Federation of Association for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia, the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, and the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce plan to encourage small ...

Kith Meng, chairman of the Royal Group, was reelected president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce yesterday in a landslide vote at its Phnom Penh office. The tycoon, whose interests span television, banking, telecoms and property, was also reelected president of the Phnom Penh Chamber ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen urged policymakers in Washington to expand its preferential treatment of goods imported from least-developed countries (LDCs) including Cambodia by increasing the amount of goods permitted duty- and quota-free access to the US market.“Cambodia would like to request that the US provide ...

The United Kingdom sees Cambodia as a strategic location at the heart of a transportation network through Thailand, Vietnam and Laos to reach China and other countries in the region and the world, a senior UK trade official said yesterday. ...

Several trade unions representing some of the garment sector’s 700,000 workers petitioned lawmakers on Monday to make important changes to a controversial draft union law before passing it and warned of mass protests if they were ignored. ...

Hundreds gathered yesterday in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park for the fifth Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly, where they called for issues ranging from deforestation to democracy to be addressed ahead of ASEAN integration. ...

Cambodia’s total exports to Japan increased sharply over the first nine months of the year compared to last year due to flows of investment from Japan to Cambodia over the last few years, analysts said. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said the government will move forward in adopting the Trade Union Law despite the absence of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. ...

As the harvest of wet-season rice ends this month, a report from the Ministry of Agriculture says the yield will fall slightly below the target but this will not affect exports.  ...

Som Kimsour, the chairwoman of Cambodia’s National Audit Authority, was appointed to chair the ASEAN Supreme Audit Institutions (ASEANSAI), a collaborative body of public sector auditors, during a summit on Thursday in Phnom Penh, according to state media outlet AKP. ...

Following raids on phone shops selling grey-market devices last week, the government is giving retailers a two-week window to declare their stock of mobile phone handsets and pay the relevant taxes or face hefty fines.Many of the capital’s vendors have already received a notice from ...

Cambodians are expecting a ‘seamless transition’ when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is launched in two months and hopefully heralds a second investment wave, capable of transforming this country’s pool of unskilled labor into a manufacturing hub. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday called for more investment from France, telling business leaders in Paris that they could access the entire region when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) kicks off at the end of the year. ...

As the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership moves forward, analysts say Cambodia should focus on other obligations in the region.Jayant Menon, lead economist for the Asian Development Bank, told VOA Khmer from Manila that Cambodia would do better to try to meet its obligations under Asean and ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for more collaboration and integration of financial markets at the regional level, especially with China – the world’s second-largest economy – to offset the effects of a slowing global economy. ...

The draft law on e-commerce is set to be completed and enacted by the end of this year, ahead of the launch of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which begins at the end of the year, commerce officials said yesterday.    ...