News

Cambodia has decided to go ahead with the construction of a dam on a Mekong tributary, but conservation groups are concerned that not enough study has been done on the hydropower project’s environmental consequences. Construction on the 400 megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in northwestern Cambodia’s ...

A glance around Battambang’s dilapidated train station reveals the monumental task it will be to complete the Cambodian segment of the ‘iron silk road’, which will connect Southeast Asia to Europe by rail for the first time. Cows graze between missing rails in front of ...

Cambodian authorities have disrupted several events held by nongovernmental organizations and have threatened to arrest anyone holding protests ahead of sensitive regional summits to be held in the capital Phnom Penh, rights groups said Wednesday. The Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA) said authorities in ...

Businesses hailed the government’s planned rice trade partnership with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, but warned any effort to jointly fix prices would not be easy. Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said it would be great if Thailand could share information ...

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 ...

The cabinet yesterday approved the Commerce Ministry’s plan to develop a rice trade partnership with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to stabilise international rice prices According to a source at the Commerce Ministry, the rice trade zone project will begin with Cambodia and will involve rice ...

Cambodia’s Statistics and Tourist Information Department, Ministry of Tourism, reported arrivals increased 15.7% in September, the lowest growth rate so far for this year based on 242,747 visits during the month. The percentage increase for the nine-month period was pulled down from 24.5% at ...

Viet Nam has urged Laos to continue its research on the environmental impacts of the planned Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Luong Thanh Nghi made the statement at a regular press briefing in Ha Noi yesterday when answering a question ...

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 ...

Delegates attending a forum on investment and cooperation for the Mekong sub region, held in the central highland province of Dak Lak on November 9, all agreed that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia need to work on common preferential policies to attract lucrative investments for the ...

Thailand and Cambodia are ready to implement a single visa agreement, which would enable tourists to use only one visa for both countries from Nov 21, an immigration bureau chief says. The project comes under the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmecs). Acmecs, which was initiated by ...

The scarcity of sand in the city has forced construction companies to import sand mined from the Mekong River in Cambodia. A consignment of sand from Cambodia has already reached the city. More consignments are likely. The importers are likely to use the sand for ...

Construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Stung Treng province will begin in 2014 and the government will spend next year relocating some 5,000 people from villages that are located in the dam’s future reservoir area. Located near the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok ...

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 ...

As Asian and European leaders gather for high level meetings this month in Cambodia and Laos, the luxury living quarters and extensive security arrangements made for their arrivals have come at considerable human and environmental expense. Government authorities went on a building spree ahead of this ...

Laos held a “groundbreaking” ceremony on Wednesday for a $3.5 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River that is opposed by environmentalists and some neighbouring countries because of the possible impact on livelihoods, fisheries and agriculture. But it was unclear when actual construction of the contentious ...

The U.K.-based coffee chain Costa Coffee will join the mix of few coffee shops in Phnom Penh when it opens its first branch in Chamcar Mon district next month, representative of the international branch said yesterday. Rami Sharaf, CEO of RMA Cambodia, which represents international brands ...

United Arab Emirates-telecoms group Vimpelcom has hired Standard Chartered to advice it on the sale of its business in Cambodia, Laos, Burundi, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic, two people familiar with the matter said. New York-listed Vimpelcom wants to focus on its largest markets of ...

The US yesterday criticised Laos for announcing it will begin building the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River today without studying its potential effects on Cambodia and Vietnam. A spokesperson from the US State Department in Washington said the government was concerned construction of the ...

Cambodia, with a total population of 14,952,665 as of July 2010, is located in Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The country mostly has a tropical climate and covers a total area of 181,035 km2 Cambodia’s key natural resources include ...

Laos has given the go-ahead to build a massive dam on the lower Mekong river, despite opposition from neighbouring countries and environmentalists. A formal ceremony marking the start of full construction at Xayaburi would be held on Wednesday, the government said. ...

A report from the Tourism Ministry in Cambodia recently informed that the country witnessed a huge inflow of 2.57 million tourists in the period between January and September of this year. This is an increase of 24 percent in comparison to the same period in ...

The United States on Monday criticized a decision by the struggling Asian nation of Laos to build the first dam across the mainstream of the Mekong River, a project that environmentalists warn could affect tens of millions of livelihoods and trigger a dam-building spree along ...

Officials in Laos announced that construction of the controversial Xayaburi dam will begin with a kickoff ceremony at the construction site Wednesday. Protests from human rights activists and environmental groups have delayed the project for 18 months, but the joint Laotian and Thai project is apparently ...