News

The Siem Reap Provincial Court charged the director of a recruitment agency with fraud for allegedly taking money from victims in exchange for promising jobs in the U.S., a court official said yesterday. “Bich Bunara, head of the recruitment agency, was charged with fraud and another ...

More Cambodian migrant workers headed to South Korea in the first half of this year than in all of 2011, data from the Ministry of Labour shows. A suspension on Vietnamese migration, coupled with an improving Korean economy, primarily accounted for the jump, officials say. Working ...

As the ASEAN summit turns Phnom Penh into a buzz of diplomatic activity, the chance to send a well-timed message has not been lost on the local community. Fifteen representatives of the evicted families of Borei Keila yesterday filed a petition asking US Secretary of State ...

Thousands of workers from Tai Yang Enterprise, a supplier for major brands including Levis and the Gap, will move their nearly three-week-old strike from their factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district to Freedom Park in Phnom Penh tomorrow in order to bring their petition ...

For the past decade, Cambodia’s economy has steadily grown with GDP growth surpassing 5% on a compounded annual basis for the past twelve years. Nearly 58% of the populace is engaged in agriculture, while the service sector employs 26% and industry accounts for the remaining ...

While Cambodia has made remarkable gains economically over the past decade and more-the Kingdom’s poverty level fell from 47 percent in 1994 to 25 percent this year-there are still some stubborn areas of underperformance. One is the issue of food security. While in recent years, the country has largely been able to produce ...

PRASAC Microfinance Institution, celebrating its eighteenth anniversary this year in the Cambodia microfinance market, has increased its registered capital from 15-4 billion riel to 80 billion riel. The increase of the share capital has been authorized by the National Bank of Cambodia and the company is now amending its Articles of Incorporation. PRASAC’s share capital is ...

The first Cambodian maid to successfully sue her employer in a Malaysian court came home on Sunday, and is leveraging her landmark case to insist that more victims seek compensation through the legal system. ...

Cambodia and Thailand’s financial exposure to Europe would make the two counties the most vulnerable regionally, an ANZ Bank report showed. The Kingdom’s exports and tourism sectors were on increasingly unstable ground as Europe’s debt crisis advanced. ...

The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) kicked off in Phnom Penh on Monday, focusing on politics, security, food and energy security, economics and culture in order to further advance the bloc’s cooperation toward a community by 2015. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said thatafter 45 years, ...

Laos has denied it is pushing forward with the controversial Xayaburi hydropower dam in violation of international legal obligations, the country’s state media reported on Friday. Under a 1995 agreement with Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, Laos was obligated to not begin construction without a prior ...

A pledge in mid-June by Cambodia and Vietnam to increase bilateral trade by more than US$2.5 billion by 2015 may lead to decreased trade with Thailand, market analysts have said. The pledge made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung ...

Canadian insurance and financial services company Manulife Financial officially launched its Cambodian country office on June 28, one of several new players seeking to enter one of Southeast Asia’s still-untapped markets. Britain’s No.1 insurer Prudential said last week it had approval from the Cambodian government to open a wholly foreign-owned life insurance operation. Manulife, the world’s ...

There was a sense of déjà vu at the Peace Palace yesterday as a week of largely closed-door ASEAN meetings kicked off in earnest with the same contentious issue that so dominated April’s ASEAN Summit: a code of conduct for the South China Sea. With China ...

More than 200 villagers in Preah Vihear town thumb-printed a joint complaint to rights group Adhoc over the weekend asking them to appeal to provincial authorities to intervene after their private electricity company raised its prices by more than 1,000 riel per kilowatt hour, NGO ...

Forestry Administration officials in Banteay Meanchey province have confiscated and continue to hold equipment valued at $1.5 million from a troubled biofuel plantation without any legal backing, an official in the provincial governor’s office said. Bulldozers, steamrollers and dump trucks were confiscated last month from a ...

Cambodians can now invest in gold through one of the Kingdom’s Malaysian-owned banks, CIMB. The investment product has been met with mixed reviews from experts, but could tap a popular and traditional means of investment. CIMB’s Gold Deposit Account would give customers a gold-backed investment option without ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday said Asean would not postpone its plans to approve a controversial human rights declaration for the region by November, and would publicize only “key provisions” of the draft beforehand. Disappointed by the lack of openness and concerned that the declaration will ...

Thousands of workers from the Tai Yang Enterprise garment factories, which supply major US brands Levis and Gap, have vowed to continue a two-week strike today after negotiations between the company, union and Labour Ministry officials broke down on Friday. “The minister did not protect ...

Authorities in Daun Penh district rounded up more than 80 homeless people, drug users and prostitutes ahead of this week’s high-level meetings for Asean and regional delegates in Phnom Penh, a district official said yesterday. District governor Sok Sambath said that the 82 people rounded up ...

A Friday press conference meant to be an act of defiance and a call for justice from the so-called Kratie “secessionists” was conspicuously short on both, as two accused secessionists failed to appear as promised to demand that the government present credible evidence against them. Instead, ...

The director of a recruitment agency in Siem Reap will face fraud charges today at the provincial court for allegedly taking money from victims in exchange for promised jobs in the U.S., police said yesterday. Hong Bunhav, chief of research and investigations section of the Siem ...

Despite renewed criticism from civil society and a call for its drafting to be postponed, finalisation of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) was well under way, officials said yesterday at the beginning of a week of ASEAN meetings. Speaking to reporters after a meeting between ...

As much of the world struggles with post growth, Cambodia’s tourism and hospitality sector continued to expand and diversify, attracting more intraregional activity and especially from major emerging markets in Asia, MICE segments, as well as traditional leisure clientele. Like neighboring countries Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, Cambodia has quickly emerged into a well sought-after tourist ...