While shopping for a brand-new television, 27-year-old Loek Bunhai recently bought a Sony flat-screen at the Sunsimexco retail outlet on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard for $345. But with a monthly salary of $300 from his job as a microfinance officer in Phnom Penh, Mr. Bunhai was ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen encouraged the public to help the country by drinking beer during the inauguration of the new $60 million Khmer Brewery factory in Phnom Penh yesterday. “Don’t forget, [if you] drink one bottle or one can of beer, how much will the state ...

Children played along the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula yesterday, while their parents napped under the shade of their bright yellow and blue boat homes. But members of this Cham fishing community overlooking Phnom Penh’s city space said it was a very different scene on ...

The number of foreign owners of houses in Cambodia has soared in recent years after the government permitted foreigners to have rights over owning real estate in the Kingdom, according to officials of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Speaking at the opening of ...

Families in Koh Kong province will today file a complaint with the U.S. government against American Sugar Refining (ASR) over farmland they claim they were violently evicted from to make way for two sugar plantations that supply the New York-based company. The 207 Koh Kong ...

As the lure of Thailand grows increasingly attractive for cash-strapped and under-employed Cambodians, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday made a public appeal for workers to stay in the country, simultaneously urging the Cambodian market to up its competitive edge. In a speech at the inauguration of ...

The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a new law to the National Assembly for consideration that would institute a minimum monthly wage of $150 for garment workers and $250 for civil servants, the newly formed opposition party announced at a press conference yesterday. The ...

High production costs and a lack of government assistance is keeping rice farmers near the poverty line despite unprecedented growth in the sector, according to a new study released by local microfinance institution Intean Poalroath Rongroeurng (IPR). The independent study, conducted by two Cambodian researchers ...

Inside a nondescript villa in central Phnom Penh, men and women in white lab coats peer through lenses, carefully studying the magnified objects in front of them. But these aren’t biologists researching cell division or bacteria; these are gem testers concerned with inclusions and refractive indices on rubies, sapphires and other precious stones. They are working ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has so far contributed $84 million toward the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, said yesterday it would support a deal to drop the current railway  operator if it means the new concessionaire would foot the $60 to $100 million needed ...

Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...

The government does little to protect the rights and livelihoods of the country’s many ethnic minorities who are under constant threat from rapid development, representatives of indigenous groups said yesterday. “We have polices laws and guidelines to protect indigenous people, but we see that it doesn’t ...

Student volunteers from across the country yesterday took a break from their land-measuring duties to attend a pre-Khmer New Year ceremony at Phnom Penh’s Koh Pitch where they were presented with a thank-you letter from Mr. Hun Sen. Since Mr. Hun Sen launched the land titling ...

AEON Microfinance (Cambodia) Co Ltd says it has expanded its installment payment services into the agricultural sector, a new business type industry insiders say could be successful, but will still not be enough to strengthen one of Cambodia’s most crucial economic sectors. “We will co-operate with ...

Thai AirAsia (TAA) is breaking into the Bangkok-Siem Reap segment long dominated by Bangkok Airways in a move reflecting Cambodia’s new directive to open up its top destination for mass tourism. TAA secured permission from Cambodian authorities to launch a daily service starting on Oct ...

Corruption, a weak judicial system and the potential for complicity with human and labour rights abuses are key risks for firms looking to invest in Cambodia, a new report [by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm] analysing investment risk in the Kingdom ...

A new air route may connect Macau and Cambodia this year, a move industry experts say would reduce travel costs in the region and reflects tourist interests in both destinations’ gambling industries. Several airlines are in contact with CAM, Macau International Airport Co, “seeking to launch ...

The coming sprawls of Phnom Penh’s new satellite cities will bring about not only opportunities but also challenges for the population. “Any urban area has to sprawl outside the main city areas so that it can keep up with the increasing demand of commercial land,” said ...

Cambodia has always been a source for a broad variety of raw materials  from the agricultural sector. The country exports many of these materials to neighbouring countries and other markets in the world – without turning them into new products. This lack of domestic processing has ...

Only one of the 241 Cambodians questioned for the largest survey of the notoriously abusive Thai fishing industry’s workforce to date said he was forced into the job, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Though some of the findings are in ...