News

The United Nations in Cambodia has taken a beating in recent months. The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has been plagued by high-profile resignations and accusations of political interference. Elsewhere human rights activists have criticised the UN’s failure to take a firm stance against an increasingly ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned five Chinese nationals after they were arrested during a seizure of more than 106 tons of chemicals police suspect were intended for the production of illegal drugs. The four men and one woman who were arrested on Tuesday, claimed ...

As night falls in Phonm Penh, thousands of weary workers stream from textile factories, reflecting the abundance of jobs created by the clothing industry’s desire for cheap labor. However, as the number of international clothes companies tapping into Cambodia’s workforce grows, so does anger at the ...

As night falls thousands of weary workers stream from textile factories that fan out across Phnom Penh’s outskirts. The clothing industry’s desire for cheap labour having created an abundance of jobs but as the number of international clothes companies tapping into Cambodia’s workforce grows, so does ...

The third round of negotiation between Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers and representatives of trade unions on minimum wage increase ended without result on Monday. The talk between the employers represented by Nang Sothy, co- chair of the Government-Private Working Group on Industrial Relations, and Ken ...

Cambodia economic growth was 7.3 percent in 2012. Agriculture grew by 4.3 percent, crops by 4.9 percent, fisheries by 6.7 percent, industry by 9.2 percent, garment [sector] by 6.9 percent and the service industry by 8.1 percent, said Dr Hang Chuon Naron, Secretary of State ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia and unions both need to compromise further to secure a “proper wage” for garment workers whose lives are hampered by their current $61 minimum wage, a Ministry of Social Affairs official overseeing wage negotiations said yesterday. “The government needs the ...

Cambodia imported almost 10 times as many used clothes as new ones in the first 11 months of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Some 79,217 tonnes of used garments worth $61.5 million were brought in during that period, compared ...

The long-running Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) monitoring programme is in urgent need of reform, according to a new report, which suggests the country’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is “wearing thin”. The report, “Monitoring in the Dark – an evaluation of the International Labour ...

The bilateral trade between Cambodia and the United States in 2012 rose slightly, while Cambodia’s export decreased, according to a report of the United States Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. U.S. Department of Commerce. The Cambodia-US bilateral trade saw its increase 0. 61%, while ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday launched a four year project, aiming at promoting the development of biomass-fueled renewable energy generation technologies in industrial sector, officials said. The 5.6 million US dollar project will provide technical and partial financial support for the ...

Cambodia spent about $200 million on food and beverage imports to supply the domestic market last year – an increase of more than 10 per cent from the previous year, official data from the Ministry of Commerce show. Government officials and representatives of the private sector ...

The Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour has scheduled a meeting on February 26 with representatives of various unions to discuss the new minimum wage for garment workers in the country. However, the Ministry expects the various workers’ unions to agree on what the new wage should ...

Cambodia’s largest opposition party has expressed concern that China’s investment in the country is heavily skewed towards exploiting natural resources, wreaking havoc on the environment. China is Cambodia’s largest investor by a wide margin, having poured U.S. $9.7 billion into the country over the past 18 ...

Cambodia has attracted 9.17 billion U.S. dollar investment from China in the last 18 years ( 1994-2012), making China become the largest investor in this country, showed a government report on Wednesday. According to the report, China’s investment in Cambodia focused on the fields ...

Manufacturers and unions aligned with the ruling CPP yesterday said the current labor shortage inside the garment industry would act as an incentive for employers to increase salaries, and that there was no need for the government to impose a new minimum wage. During a meeting ...

Factory workers complain that their low salaries are not keeping track with the price of goods and services. Phoeun Sreyleak, 20, said she gets $70 a month including bonuses for health care and rent. “My basic wage is only $58,” she said. “My friend gets 2,000 riel ...

Two protesters and three factory officials were injured in a clash at a garment factory in Kampong Speu province yesterday as a report revealed that more than 60 unionists and workers were injured in such incidents in 2012. Vann Bun, a Free Trade Union activist, said ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 6.7 percent in 2013 thanks to anticipating increases in agriculture, foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism, the World Bank said in its latest outlook Wednesday. “The growth is based on achieving the dividends from focus on higher rice ...

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Temple, one of the World Heritage Sites, received 2.06 million foreign visitors last year, up 28 percent compared to 1.61 million in a year earlier, a tourism report said Tuesday. The temple greeted 339,530 South Koreans last year, up 23 percent year-on-year; ...

Cambodia’s GDP is projected to grow by 7 percent this year even though the global economy remains fragile and high risk due to persisting sovereign debt crisis in Europe and sluggish economic recovery in the United States, a commerce official said Monday. Last Tuesday, the ...

An assistant to former US president Bill Clinton said Cambodia has many potential areas for foreign direct investment (FDI) from many countries, including the US. Karen Tramontano, founder, along with Clinton, and president of the Global Fairness Initiative and CEO at Blue Star Strategies, met with ...

Strikes staged by garment and footwear factory workers more than tripled in 2012 compared to 2011, with more than 100,000 workers participating in at least one strike, an official of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said yesterday. “Historically, prior to any elections, we will see a ...

Approximately 1,686 workers in garment and shoe factories got fainted last year due mainly to overwork, poor health, exposure to chemical substances, and hysteria, a Cambodian labor official said Wednesday. Pok Vanthath, vice-chief of the Labor Ministry’s vocational training department, said the mass fainting incidents had ...