News

Cambodia’s most outspoken activist against illegal logging was shot dead today while escorting journalists near a protected forest in Koh Kong province, where he has repeatedly attempted to expose illegal logging rackets that include military officials. Chut Wutty, the director of Natural Resource Protection Group, was ...

As the end of this year’s cashew harvest nears, the yield in two major producing provinces has fallen compared with last year, officials and farmers said, while traders said that the price of the nuts had also dropped since last year. In Kompong Cham province, this ...

Despite interest in participating in the stock market, confusion as to how and where to invest in the Cambodia Securities Exchange still persists among many Cambodians without close ties to or backgrounds in trading. After the much-anticipated and long-delayed launch of CSX trading last week, Soun Sokret, an ...

Share prices on the Cambodia Securities Exchange yesterday fell for the first time since trading began a week ago, as technical problems reportedly caused a 90 per cent drop in the amount of shares traded. Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares dropped 4.9 per cent to 9,700 riel (US$2.44). The ...

Questions remained yesterday about the fate of mobile operator Beeline Cambodia following the sale of parent company Vimpelcom’s Vietnamese assets earlier in the week. Despite a report on Tuesday in the Russian newspaper Kommersant that sources close to Vimpelcom’s shareholders had said the sale of Cambodian operations was under consideration, company officials ...

Japan’s Sumi Wiring Systems Co Ltd launched production of automobile wiring this month, a company official said yesterday. Japanese companies such as Sumi and Minebea, a ball-bearings maker, have helped Cambodia’s manufacturing industry diversify away from garments, the country’s main manufacturing product and export, and Prime Minister Hun Sen ...

Slow demand for office space in Phnom Penh is leaving the owners of high-rise buildings constructed in recent years struggling to find clients, according to real estate experts. But construction of the Vattanac Capital Tower, a $150 million, 36-story building slated to open its first ...

The tonnage of the Kingdom’s milled-rice exports jumped nearly 50 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, according to the Ministry of Commerce, with export revenues soaring as much as 82 per cent. Total exports of milled rice for the first three months of 2012 hit ...

More than 700 workers at the SH International factory in the capital’s Po Sen Chey district have vowed to keep striking, despite the Ministry of Labour saying it could not help solve their dispute because their demands were “excessive”. The workers protested again yesterday outside the ...

Villagers and police clashed Sunday after excavators moved in to prepare work on a disputed plot where authorities will build a CPP commune office in Stung Treng City’s Preah Bat commune, officials said yesterday. Hou Sam Ol, provincial monitor for local rights group Adhoc, said Stung ...

Cambodia will no doubt look to partners other than the US and the European Union to bolster its economic growth as those key export markets continue to struggle, a senior International Monetary Fund official says. One way in which Cambodia would forge new and growing relationships with higher-income ...

State-owned Telecom Cambodia (TC) and Vietnam Telecom International (VTI) on Friday jointly launched Super Highway Telecom Network in order to improve Internet and telecom services in Cambodia and to meet customer’s demands, said a joint press release. The 260-kilometer super highway link connects VTI’s POP (Point ...

A draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) drawn up by Malaysia to regulate maids working in the country does not sufficiently protect their rights and needs improvements, an official at the Labor Ministry said on Thursday. Malaysian officials drew up the MoU between the two governments following ...

A dam project set to flood thousands of hectares of protected forest and displace about 1,500 indigenous minority villagers in one of Koh Kong province’s most precious ecosystems should be scrapped, opposition Sam Rainsy Party MP Son Chhay said yesterday. The 109-megawatt dam project in the ...

The price increase for Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares maxed out after an hour of trading yesterday morning, the second day of operations on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. PPWSA closed up 4.84 per cent yesterday at 9,750 riel (US$2.44), climbing from 9,300 the day before, ...

The Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB) and Tong Yang Securities (Cambodia) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on financial consultation services and trade co-operation that is hoped to expand banking and securities business in the country. The MoU should bring the bank and the securities firm into ...

Moody’s Investor Services will review ACLEDA Bank and Cambodian Public Bank (Campu Bank) for potential downgrades, according to a release from the rating agency on Wednesday. But the move comes primarily as a response to the global financial crisis and the rating agency’s attempt to realign sovereign ratings with ...

Moody’s Investor Service yesterday placed local currency long-term deposit and issuer ratings of two of Cambodia’s largest banks, ACLEDA Bank and Cambodian Public Bank (Campu Bank), on review for downgrade, according to a statement from the rating service ...

By the time Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon closed the first session of the Cambodian Securities Exchange yesterday morning, shares in Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, the Kingdom’s first domestically listed company, were just shy of soaring 50 per cent. Institutional and retail investors traded 487,110 ...

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the controversial Stung Chheay Araeng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province has been completed, representing a major step forward towards construction, officials said yesterday. Koh Kong deputy governor Sun Dara said he had yet to see a hard copy of ...

A large North American union has called on US retail giant Walmart to take immediate action against one of its seafood suppliers in Thailand accused of holding Cambodian workers in debt bondage while barely providing them with enough money to eat. The United Food and Commercial Workers ...

The controversial Xayaburi hydro-electric dam project in northern Laos may have already begun, despite countries, including Cambodia, requesting further studies to assess possible negative effects on Lower Mekong communities.Thai development firm Ch.Karnchang said it was due to begin building the dam on March 15 after finalising a ...

The Phnom Penh Municipality opened a new port for boat operators along the riverside in Daun Penh district yesterday in an effort to regulate operations, keep the river clean, and ensure customer safety. The new port comes three years after City Hall banned boats from docking ...

About 1.8 million Cambodians traveled to the coastal and northeastern provinces to celebrate Khmer New Year, a 50 percent increase compared with last year, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said yesterday. Mr Khon said Cambodians are starting to seek out other vacation spots besides the coastal provinces ...