News

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) will enter Cambodia’s banking sector in November to become the country’s 30th commercial bank to date, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The report said that ICBC president Yang Kaisheng had met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday ...

Gliding through the water almost soundlessly, the MS AmaLotus docked for only its second time in Phnom Penh last week At 92 meters in length and capable of holding 124 passengers, the AmaLotus is the latest cruise ship to start transporting tourists between Siem Reap and ...

Top government officials yesterday either declined to comment or said they had no knowledge of a letter from Finance Minister Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen proposing to bar all foreign NGOs from “advocacy” work in the country, as well as stopping foreigners from ...

The Kingdom’s small and medium enterprises have called on commercial banks and micro-finance institutions to lower interest rates on loans, as insiders have said they hamper SMEs’ potential for growth. Many Cambodian SMEs are concerned that the high interest rates offered by banks reduce productivity, according ...

The company constructing a dam in Koh Kong province, where seven workers were swept away in floodwaters earlier this month, has paid US$1,000 to the families of each of the men for funeral expenses, but is denying responsibility for the incident, an official said yesterday. Sok ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen held talks with President of the Thai National Assembly Somsak Kiatsuranot in the capital yesterday, paving the way for the extraction of contested oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Thailand Yesterday’s talks between Hun Sen and Somsak focused on restoring ...

Moody’s Investment Services yesterday announced a change in outlook for Cambodian Public Bank to “negative” from “stable”, citing increasing risks in the Kingdom’s banking system and exposure to slow-downs in Western markets. While CamPu Bank country head Phan Ying Tong said yesterday the company’s financial position ...

Japanese financial group SBI Holdings Inc announced yesterday that it would launch a $50 million investment fund with The Royal Group to invest in local companies in a wide range of industries. In a statement, SBI Holdings also said that its securities company in Cambodia, SBI ...

Amid forecasts that provinces around the Mekong River could see further flooding, government officials, donors and NGO workers met yesterday to discuss the risks posed by natural disasters and climate change. Rafael Dochao Moreno, charge d’affaires of the European Union Delegation, warned that Cambodia is already ...

Amnesty International has called on the government to halt forced evictions at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake, and urged the authorities to punish the police officials responsible for the beating of an opposition Sam Rainsy Party member and Boeng Kak residents during a protest at ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen received a proposal from Finance Minister Keat Chhon in June seeking to bar “foreign NGOs” from advocacy work in Cambodia, as well as preventing foreigners from working with local advocacy groups because of activism around the rehabilitation of the nation’s railway, ...

Job recruitment agencies that send workers overseas often deceive young women through misleading job advertisements by using brokers that have “a position of authority” within the community, according to a new report by the Asia Foundation. According to the report, agencies also inflate migration costs that ...

Mining concession buy-outs will make Brighton Mining Limited one of the Kingdom’s largest miners by concession size in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province, according to a company statement released yesterday. Brighton, an ASX-listed company, has completed negotiations with Summer Gold Investment Pty Limited for mining concessions in Mondulkiri ...

Cambodia and Vietnam yesterday pledged to strengthen cooperation on a range of issues involving trade and investment, in order to boost increasing trade between the neighbouring countries. Bilateral trade between the nations is currently in its most significant period, with trans-border business continuing to grow, Cambodia ...

Surveys conducted by the World Wildlife Foundation have revealed that the world’s largest population of banteng, an endangered species of cattle that once thrived in the Kingdom, remains at risk due to economic land concessions and poaching inside protected areas The number of banteng in Cambodia ...

Shanghai Construction Group has announced it will complete US$700 million in projects in Cambodia over the next five years, highlighting China’s dominant and still-growing presence in the Kingdom. The company presently oversees nine bridge and road construction projects in the Kingdom, according to government relations officer ...

A nearly half-million-dollar grant will allow a conservation project at Phnom Bakheng Temple – one of the oldest temples in the Angkor Archaeological Park – to be completed, according to the World Monuments Fund. The $450,000 grant was donated by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural ...

A draft sub-decree sent to the Council of Ministers last week aims to strengthen the protection of the critically endangered Mekong dolphin population by designating key protection zones in the 180km stretch of Mekong River where the dolphins live. Touch Seang Tana, chairman of the Commission ...

Fueled by a rise in food prices, inflation reached 7.1 percent in July compared to the same month last year, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics According to the data, the price of meat increased by 16.4 percent in July compared to ...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port plans to join three other state-owned enterprises in listing on the recently launched Cambodian Securities Exchange, an official said yesterday Hei Bavy, the port’s director general, said that Finance Minister Keat Chhon has spoken to officials at the port, expressing his interest ...

TNT Express linked its Chinese day-definite domestic road services into its Asia Road Network. This has created the only scheduled day-definite road network covering China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, said the operator. CEO Marie-Christine Lombard said: “With the integration of TNT’s two ...

HCM CITY — The HCM City government will offer interest-free loans to local companies doing business in the city, Laos and Cambodia. With a stimulus package of VND8 trillion (US$381 million), the city has approved interest-fee loans of up to VND100 billion ($4.7 million) over ...

Brighton Mining Group (ASX: BTN) has completed negotiations for the acquisition of a major interest in gold mining assets held directly or indirectly by Brighton Mining Limited (BML), boosting its concession holdings in Cambodia. These include the interest of BML in the Cambodian concessions held by ...

Singapore’s decades-long effort to reclaim land from the ocean has expanded the nation’s coastline and fueled its building boom. But it has also depleted its supply of sand.  In recent years, the massive sand shortage has been worsened by export bans by neighboring countries, driving ...