News

Southeast Asian nations displayed a rare show of unity on Sunday against China’s sweeping maritime claims, calling for the first formal talks with Beijing over a sea dispute that has raised tensions and exposed deep divisions in the region. As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in ...

THE ten-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is used to fending off “interference” by the West in the internal affairs of some of its members. In recent years the human-rights record of the regime in Myanmar has been the tenderest of these sore spots. ...

The U.S. will address human rights abuses in Cambodia and urge Prime Minister Hun Sen to conduct free and fair elections and end a culture of land grabbing during President Barack Obama’s visit to Phnom Penh next week. Samantha Power, senior director for Multilateral Affairs and ...

The cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal allowing the Commerce Ministry to form a rice trade partnership with Asean’s four other rice-producing countries, namely Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, to stabilise rice prices in the global market and to promote food security in the region. The ...

Along the Phnom Penh waterfront the city’s landmark flags have been raised and the street children and beggars are being removed – an unwanted sight for a government out to impress the biggest gathering of world leaders this country has ever seen. At the center of this will ...

Myanmar Airways International (MAI) will resume its regular flights between Yangon and Cambodia’s two main international airports in early December after they were suspended for about three months. MAI started a twice-weekly schedule to Siem Reap in late February, but suspended the route over the last ...

East Asian leaders will discuss how to address economic and financial disorder when they meet heads of the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and the World Trade Organization next week, a source said Wednesday. The source, who asked not to be named, said the ...

The World Bank and Japan will promote Thailand as the insurance centre of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to help develop the industry in neighbouring countries and provide professional services to the more advanced economies. The move is also expected to upgrade the insurance ...

What does Friday’s affirmation of Cambodia’s ‘B’ long and short-term sovereign credit ratings actually mean? In short, it signals that the Kingdom of Cambodia — unlike Greece, for example — “currently has the capacity to meet its financial commitments,” according to definitions used by Standard and ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia has called upon Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda for his support in encouraging more investments and tourism from Japan to help strengthen bilateral ties between the two Asian nations. The request was made at a meeting on Monday during the ...

ASEAN says it will study how to implement a proposed economic partnership with its six external partners that might lead to the foundation of world’s largest economic bloc. The proposed bloc, dubbed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or “ASEAN+6” , would integrate ASEAN’s 10 ...

With less than two weeks until Asean leaders meet in Phnom Penh to consider approval of the region’s first human rights declaration, international NGOs yesterday urged them to postpone passing what they are calling a “deeply flawed” document.  “In the current form, the [Asean Human Rights] ...

Hiroshi Uematsu had a tough start in Cambodia, where he heads an economic zone that aims to attract business from his native Japan. He arrived just before the global financial crisis sent the Asian Economic Minnow’s exports into a tailspin and dried up investment interest. Now, ...

Trade between Cambodia and Thailand increased by about 40 per cent to US$3 billion in the first nine months of this year in comparison with the same period last year, according to figures provided by the Royal Embassy of Thailand in Cambodia. According to Nat Vimonchandra, ...

Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asia Development Bank Institute, believes too great a focus is being placed on the realization of the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community at the cost of considering middle- and longer-term issues in the ASEAN region. “Economic community-building is not going to be completed in ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for the removal of all tariff and non-tariff barriers when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) integrates in 2015, saying it is of central importance. Speaking at the opening of an ASEAN symposium in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, the premier said integration of ...

During a visit to Phnom Penh this week, Greg So, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, reiterated Hong Kong’s desire to be inducted into the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement and highlighted Cambodia as a potential beneficiary for foreign direct investment from Hong Kong. In So’s view, economic ...

Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT) will host a one-day National Conference Nov. 2 on the Best Practice of Governance in Extractive Industries and Revenue Management. The conference, to be attended by representatives from the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN), will also include representatives ...

Cambodia Airports said yesterday that it planned to move forward with plans to build a new security fence at Phnom Penh International Airport ahead of next month’s Asean and East Asia summits, even though its construction will result in more than 180 families being evicted. Speaking ...

In order for Cambodia to maintain the same rate of growth it has enjoyed in the past few years, exports need to diversify from textiles and tourism to modern services, said the World Bank’s country manager yesterday in Phnom Penh. “Cambodian firms are already tentatively exporting ...

A new banking settlements system called CHANCES, dealing exclusively in the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), aims to make trade between China and the ASEAN countries easier and less expensive. Owned and operated by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the CHANCES system stands for ...

Time is running out to rid the proposed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration of clauses that would restrict peoples’ rights rather than protect and enhance them, civil society groups said yesterday. Nay Vanda, deputy head of the monitoring section of rights group Adhoc, said civil society groups needed more ...

Less than a month before Asean heads of state are expected to approve the first-ever human rights declaration for the regional group, Cambodian and Indonesian NGOs yesterday urged member states to give their organizations a larger role in the process. In the works for more than ...

After more than a year of bitter campaigning, Cambodia saw its efforts to win one of five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council fall flat early this morning after the vote went to South Korea. In an election held at the UN General Assembly in ...