News

The number of incoming business people from Wenzhou, a Chinese coastal city of three million known for manufacturing, has grown markedly in recent years. So much, in fact, that Wezhou opened an official chamber of commerce in Phnom Penh last week. Labour and land costs on China’s ...

Roughly 4,000 garment workers at a factory supplying clothes for U.S. brands Gap, Levi Strauss and Old Navy went on strike yesterday and threatened to march in Phnom Penh on Thursday to demonstrate against poor pay. The demonstration took place at Tai Yang Enterprises in Kandal ...

Thailand and Cambodia are making moves to repair trade relations as 30 of Thailand’s provincial commerce departments hold a three-day trade fair in Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island Convention Center this week, according to Jiranan Wongmongkol, director of the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (FTPO) at the ...

Twelve of the 29 excavators seized by military police in Kompong Thom province during Monday’s military police raids on illegal Tonle Sap reservoirs were confiscated from a farming collective run by a newly elected CPP commune chief. Peanh Poul, director of the Dry Rice Season Community, ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead the largest delegation of American businesses ever to visit Cambodia when she arrives here next week to participate in the Asean Regional Forum, U.S. Ambassador William Todd said yesterday. ...

Revenues from the tourism sector increased 7 percent to $1.91 billion in 2011, though more could be made if hotels sourced more goods from local producers instead of importing from abroad, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said yesterday. Speaking at a conference in Phnom Penh, Mr. Khon ...

Mr. Ek Sokchan, head of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority on June 30 retired from his position and he has been appointed as the secretary of state for Ministry for Industry, Mine and Energy. ...

The general director of the Energy Department at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has defended Cambodia’s energy needs and its use of coal power as the country attempts to use modern technology to reduce pollution ahead of the ASEAN Senior Energy Officials’ 30th ...

Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun threatened yesterday to lead a march of more than 3,000 striking garment workers from Kandal province to the capital on Thursday if their employer refuses to meet their demands. “[Workers] have already made commitments with me to march to ...

Despite receiving applications from banks looking to enter Cambodia’s market, the central bank has said it will offer no more commercial banking licenses as the market already has enough players. The decision appears to follow advice offered by the International Monetary Fund earlier this year that ...

An abused Cambodian maid working in Malaysia has had her day in court – and won. Men Chan Veasna is the first Cambodian maid to successfully sue her employers in the Malaysian courts, rights groups said yesterday, calling the win a landmark victory for maids struggling ...

Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority saw 8.2 per cent revenue growth during the first quarter of the year, a welcomed disclosure after the retirement of the state-owned firm’s general director was announced last week. The firm took in US$7,725,500 between January and March, up from $7,140,473 ...

Revenues generated at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port increased 13.6 percent to $14 million in the first five months of 2012, compared to the same period last year, a port official said yesterday. Lou Kimchhun, director-general of the port, said that revenues came from a 9 percent ...

Vietnam and Cambodia have set a target of US$5 billion in bilateral trade by 2015 as the countries’ economic relationship deepens. However, some wonder if such an ambitious goal is realistic, especially given the government’s desire to realize US$5 billion in annual trade with China by 2017. The goal was announced at a June 24 ...

More than enough vacant plots exist within Boeung Kak lake’s 12.44-hectare concession area to house those denied land permits, a new NGO report says. Sahmakum Teang Tnaut claims to have found “a viable and practical” solution for households excluded from the unmarked land the prime minister ...

A dispute over territory in the South China Sea is once again set to hang over talks when China and the U.S. join in on a week of high-level Asean meetings that start in Phnom Penh on Friday. So far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ...

Kampong Thom provincial authorities have confiscated more than two dozen dirt excavators in Stoung district over the past week after the machinery had been allegedly used to dig up land for development in a protected area used primarily for breeding fish. Hang Thol, a military police ...

Kompong Thom provincial military police confiscated 29 excavators and arrested four drivers in a four-day operation ending yesterday aimed at stopping the illegal construction of reservoirs around the Tonle Sap lake, officials said. The reservoirs, which are used to retain water for use in dry-season farming, ...

Tek Nim is well versed in dealing with adversity. In year nine, she dropped out of school, began working on the family farm and finally became resigned to the belief that her brightest prospect was to leave Omlaing commune, in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district, ...

The supply of second-tier office space has increased during the first half of 2012 as the number of new firms in Phnom Penh city continues to grow, according to real estate experts. A study by Asia Real Estate Cambodia (ARC) found that office space in the “grade B” category now stands at ...

Two garment workers were injured yesterday during a factory protest in Kandal province when they clashed with 50 police and military police, a union representative said. About 4,000 garment workers of Tai Yang Enterprises in Ang Snuol district held a protest to demand their severance payments ...

Revenue at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port increased 13.6 per cent year on year between January and June, port officials confirmed yesterday. As the state-owned enterprise gears up for listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, the neighbouring Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone will play an increasingly important role in ...

More than 100 villagers involved in a land dispute with an import-export company in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district protested Sunday against the firm’s alleged attempts to stop them from farming the area, officials and villagers said. Meas Sarin, one of the protesters, said that about ...

Prudential Corporation Asia yesterday received “in-principle” approval from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to establish a foreign-owned life insurance operation in the country, an official statement from the company said. The announcement comes after Canadian life insurance giant Manulife on Thursday made public plans for ...