News

With GDP growth averaging around 9% for the past decade, Cambodia is certainly attracting interest from potential investors. It has possibly the most investor-friendly environment in Asean with no exchange controls, no restrictions on repatriation of profit, and no discrimination between foreign and local investors. Moreover, ...

Heng Chheang, the jailed ex-deputy general director of senator Kok An’s Anco Brothers Co, may have been improperly convicted of embezzling more than US$58 million from the tycoon, according to a letter sent to the Supreme Court from the Ministry of Economy and Finance last ...

The disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea are approaching a tipping point. As former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said last month: “The disputes cannot be resolved anytime soon, if at all. The most that can be done is to prevent them developing into armed ...

Despite so much excitement in the run-up to the inception of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, experts and activists on human rights and democracy are ambivalent about what AEC’s repercussions will be on human rights and democracy. They have expressed concerns about AEC’s negative ...

The Cambodian government is enforcing a circular drafted earlier this year which requires internet cafes to set up surveillance cameras and to register callers. Based on an unofficial translation made by Jinja, the government said the circular was made in response to the rising number ...

The U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, has waded in to the furor surrounding the imprisonment this week of two anti-eviction activists from Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities, posing with a poster calling for the release of the two women. Yorm Bopha, 32, ...

Japan signed an agreement Thursday with the Japan Mine Action Service (JMAS) to provide $839,363 to deining projects in Battambang province, which will benefit about 5,500 residents. Together with the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), which will receive almost half of the donations from Japan, JMAS ...

More than 350 villagers from Preah Vihear province protested in front of the National Assembly on Friday, asking for support from lawmakers in their dispute with military veterans. The villagers, representing some 370 families in Kulen district’s Srayong commune, said that the land on which they ...

Taiwan Cooperative Bank, the banking arm under Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co. Ltd., received the green light from Cambodia’s central bank to open a branch in the capital city of Phnom Penh, the bank said Saturday. Cambodia, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ...

With cargo traffic at the Phnom Penh Autonomus Port growing rapidly, a nearly completed container terminal just south of the city on the Mekon River should help ease the congestion. The 30-hectare port, in Kandal province’s Kein Svay district, was completed late last month, though cranes ...

British American Tobacco (Cambodia) Co. (BAT), which produces the cigarette brand ARA, suspended operations at its re-drying plant in Kandal province’s Takhmao commune yesterday, in order to allow time to redesign its air filtration system following repeated complaints about fumes that were allegedly spewing from ...

Acleda Bank has signed a $US10 million loan agreement   with Proparco, a development finance institution held in part by the Agence Francaise de Développement (AFD), according to a statement released on Wednesday. With the Kingdom’s financial sector expanding rapidly and a growing demand for banking and ...

About 600 garment workers of the Top Form factory in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district continued protesting yesterday against new income tax deductions from their pay outside the factory after police blocked them from marching on National Road 5. Workers have been protesting since Friday against ...

Cambodia’s tourism ministry and United Arab Emirates officials have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen tourism to the Kingdom, officials said during a press conference at Phnom Penh’s international airport. Tourism Minister Thong Khon said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) would provide more opportunities for ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned three Borei Keila residents about a complaint they filed six month ago against the property development firm Phanimex from evicting them from their land. In March, a group of Borei Keila residents filed their complaint against Phanimex’s owner ...

One of Cambodia’s primary telecommunications companies, Cellcard, announced yesterday that longtime Chief Operating Officer Kay Lot has resigned. The departure of Kay Lot follows the departure of CEO David Spriggs who resigned his position about two months ago. Telecommunications industry insiders say the otherwise healthy and profitable ...

About 300 workers entered their sixth day of strikes yesterday at a bra factory in the capital, which manufactures lingerie supplied to Victoria’s Secret and Valentino, but their hopes of a quick resolution were dashed when a Ministry of Social Affairs official admitted he was ...

The rumour mill has been in overdrive regarding the arrest of The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg; however, various government officials yesterday shunned the conspiracy theories. Tom Abrahamsson, head of administrative and consular matters at the Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh, refuted speculation that Svartholm ...

Cambodia’s next step in allowing workers such as maids and builders to travel to Qatar will be to create a committee with the Arab state to ensure their safety is protected, a senior labour official said yesterday. The Senate on Wednesday supported an agreement between the ...

With national elections less than a year away, ruling party officials have begun a publicity campaign to show they are tackling tough issues facing the country, such as border delineation and land grabs, but opposition leaders say the Cambodian People’s Party cannot claim it has ...

The largest hydropower station on Lancang River in southwest China’s Yunnan Province — known as the Mekong River in southeast Asia — went into operation Thursday with its first power generating unit up and running. The Nuozhadu hydroelectric station, located in the city of Pu’er, is ...

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 ...

In less  than a week, 18-year-old Heng Tina, who has just finished his high-school exam, will take another test that determines whether he’ll get a scholarship to go to technical school, a development that would put him one step closer to his dream of becoming ...

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 ...