News
Indirect trade with India unhealthy
CAMBODIA’S indirect trade and investments with India are possibly worth almost five times more than its direct economic activities, a situation deemed “unfavourable” to the country, an industry expert said yesterday. Direct trade and investments between the two countries hit a record $112 million last ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031461933/Business/indirect-trade-with-india-unhealthy.html
Thailand, Cambodia mull joint business, trade body
Thailand and Cambodian signed an agreement for the formation of a joint business council to promote bilateral trade and investment. The memorandum of understanding was officially endorsed on Tuesday evening by Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen on the sidelines of ...
http://www.pattayamail.com/news/thailand-cambodia-mull-joint-business-trade-body-23289
Six Cambodians Injured in Capital Land Clash
At least six people were seriously injured Wednesday in clashes between about 100 villagers demanding land compensation and 300 security personnel in front of the home of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, activists said. According to villager representative Tep Vanny, the evictees from Phnom Penh’s Boeung ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/clash-03132013184900.html
World's largest freshwater fish threatened
The 16th Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) has brought thousands of delegates from over 150 countries to Bangkok to discuss cross-border cooperation, sustainable use of biodiversity and transnational endangered species issues. Construction has already begun on the ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/340170/mekong-dams-threaten-world-largest-freshwater-fish
Sweet Prospects
The sugar palm is a national symbol for Cambodia. Harvested by the country’s poor for centuries, no part of the palm tree goes to waste in a process that fashions the tree into a range of products. The durable and strong leaves are weaved into ...
More capital for factories
The government approved 103 factories with a combined investment of $660 million last year a big increase from the previous year’s 52 factories valued at $230 million, according to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia. Industry representatives and economists said the sharp ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361912/Business/more-capital-for-plants.html
Footwear Sector To Have ‘Running Room’
Cambodia’s footwear industry has experienced significant growth over the past five years, with the number of factories doubling, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. Meanwhile, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has announced it will monitor and report on footwear factories. As of November, 45 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361901/Business/footwear-sector-to-have-running-room.html
More trade finance needed
A lack of trade financing – the loans and guarantees needed to support import and export transactions – for international deals within developing Asian countries such as Cambodia is restricting opportunities for growth, a survey by the Asia Development Bank (ADB) has found. Of 106 banks ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361906/Business/more-trade-finance-needed.html
Rubber price falls from 2012
Thanks to seasonal demand, the price of rubber has increased from 2012’s year-end prices. But it was still slightly lower than at this time last year, a rubber-plantation owner said yesterday. Mak Kimhong, president of the Cambodia Rubber Association and owner of the Chhop Rubber Plantation ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361907/Business/rubber-price-falls-from-2012.html
Villagers pin big hopes on little dam
In the past four years, families in Anlong Chrey village, in Kampong Speu provinces’s Thpong district, have watched a small multipurpose dam being built at their back doors. For village chief Soung Pao, 59, who gave up two hectares for the dam – one of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361911/National/villagers-pin-big-hopes-on-little-dam.html
Round 2 at Phnom Penh's Borei Keila district
Four families who were violently evicted from Borei Keila in January last year built shelters yesterday in the rubbish where their houses once stood, claiming the land still belonged to them. The evictees erected small frames on the land, in the capital’s Prampi Makara district, irritating ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361918/National/round-2-at-borei-keila.html
Siamese Rosewood Elevated to Protected Status
Siamese Rosewood, which is illegally logged and exported from Cambodia in large quantities, will be protected internally as a threatened species following a decision taken in Bangkok yesterday. A meeting of the 177 countries party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild ...
Still No Donor to Take Over Communal Land Titling From Canada
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) said yesterday that it had still found no replacement donor to commit long-term to carrying on its work helping indigenous ethnic minority groups secure communal land titles once it pulls out in May. Kan Vibol, project field manager for CIDA’s ...
Government targets unsafe trucks on national roads
Just 6 percent of 12,006 commercial freight vehicles passed recent road safety inspections, while an estimated 70 percent of car drivers bought their driving licenses illegally from private driving schools, a meeting at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation was told yesterday. Many of the ...
Wage demands: Workers hit streets in bid for pay rise
More than a thousand garment workers went on strike yesterday morning to demand a minimum wage increase and better working conditions, following the failure of minimum wage negotiations between unions and employers on Monday. Some 600 workers in Kandal province yesterday protested in front of ...
ASEAN countries agree to greater economic cooperation
Senior representatives for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and ASEAN met here Tuesday and issued a joint statement highlighting their agreement to forge stronger mutual investment, trade, transport and scientific cooperation links. The joint statement was released at the conclusion of the 6th annual Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV) Summit, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-03/12/c_132228469.htm
Turkey to enhance diplomatic ties with Cambodia
Turkey is willing to establish an embassy residence in Cambodia in order to promote bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries, the newly- designated ambassador of Turkey to Cambodia, Osman Bulent Tulun said Tuesday. The two countries’ bilateral trade is relatively small. According to ...
Upstream Dams, Downstream Trouble
As examples, Laos broke ground on a new Mekong River dam that’s causing concern bordering on fury in Cambodia and Vietnam. India is enraged about a new Chinese dam going up on the Brahmaputra River. And Ethiopia’s new dam on the Nile is angering Sudan, ...
http://www.hydroworld.com/news/2013/03/12/upstream-dams-downstream-trouble.html
USDA Hikes 2013 Export Projections for Cambodia, India, U.S.
The USDA increased its rice export forecasts for India, Cambodia and the U.S. mainly due to higher production estimates in these countries. Cambodia’s 2013 rice export estimates was increased 150,000 tons to a record 975,000 tons, up about 21% from last year, said the USDA in ...
http://oryza.com/content/usda-hikes-2013-export-projections-cambodia-india-us
Cambodia's employers, trade unions fail to reach agreement on pay rise
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 ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-03/11/c_132225825.htm
Waterways may reduce export costs
Cambodia’s waterways are significantly under-used for the transport of commodities such as rice, and enhanced infrastructure and a review of government fees is needed at the Kingdom’s ports to make exports more competitive, industry experts say. According to figures from the Alliance of Rice Producers and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031261877/Business/waterways-may-reduce-export-costs.html
France set to grant Kingdom $47.7m for infrastructure
The French Development Agency yesterday agreed to grant Cambodia a total of $47.7 million, $8.7 million of which is a loan. The sum is to support the Kingdom’s irrigation infrastructure investment, to improve the country’s access to drinkable water and to fund the fight against emerging ...
Risk Of Money Laundering Grows With Economy
With Cambodia currently seen as a country where the laundering of illicit cash may be going undetected, an international expert yesterday warned that economic growth and more international trade could leave the country open to financial crime. Gert Demmink, a former head of supervision at ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/risk-of-money-laundering-grows-with-economy-14444/
Animal feed lucrative but demand not being met
The production of animal feed may be lucrative for family-run businesses, but production is failing to meet the local market’s demand, said industry experts. Ros Limhy, National Agriculture adviser for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and Smallholder Development project, and ...