Economy and commerce

The Australian government has pledged $3.02 million toward three provincial information departments, which it said would help “increase citizens’ ability to voice their opinions.” ...

Cambodia’s government, facing growing protests by villagers and warnings about disappearing wilderness, suspended the granting of land to domestic and foreign companies on Monday in a move to curb forced evictions and illegal logging. Rights groups in the impoverished but resource-rich Southeast Asian country said the ...

The ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, the largest pooling of financial resources among Southeast Asia’s 10-member bloc, held its first board meeting in Manila last week, but the extent to which Cambodia will borrow from the non-concessional fund has yet to be determined, experts said. ASEAN countries and ...

The Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) planned to invest US$235 million in two Cambodian mega projects, one of which was the modernisation of a TV station that one analyst said might not be necessary given the country’s level of development. During a meeting with Prime Minister ...

Loran Import-Export Co Ltd, Cambodia’s largest milled-rice exporter, is scheduled to start construction on a new rice mill this month worth more than US$2 million, according to the company’s General Director Lim Bunheng. The mill will help reduce the flow of Cambodia’s paddy rice into neighbouring ...

One woman who has been actively involved in the development of Cambodia’s business climate is Janet Lueckenhausen of Functional Engineering. She’s been working closely with Cambodia’s biggest foreign-owned companies since 2008. Now she’s shifted in her role from executive director of International Business Chamber of Cambodia ...

Entertainment Gaming Asia, an American Stock Exchange-listed company with a regional presence in both Cambodia and the Philippines, will launch its Dreamworld Casino in Pailin province on Wednesday, according to a company statement. ...

I visited the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) last September in the heart of Phnom Penh. It had officially “opened” a few months prior but no companies were listed yet. The trading room was filled with new desks and computer monitors, waiting for someone to power ...

Cambodia’s Internet penetration more than doubled to 3.1 per cent of the population in 2011, up from 1.3 per cent a year earlier, according to the Internet World Stats website. The country had 449,160 Internet users at the end of last year and 491,480 Facebook users ...

The expansion of Cambodia’s information and communications technology sector was highlighted at the ICT Expo on Diamond Island yesterday, as the sector’s bellwether companies continue to eye the Kingdom. Sony Corp, which took part in the eighth annual expo for the first time this year, set ...

Sellers have dominated the Cambodia Securities Exchange for the last seven days of trading, and the downward trend for the single stock, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, was expected to continue into next week, experts said. PPWSA closed down 4.6 per cent yesterday at 7,250 riel ...

Kampot officials are looking to the Bokor Mountain Resort, a US$1 billion project that opens today, to drive tourism growth in the burgeoning seaside destination. The provincial Tourism Department said the number of domestic visitors to Kampot had risen 120 per cent to 338,000 in the ...

Mobile payment company Wing was in talks on partnering with a US technology firm that plans to assemble Android tablets in Cambodia, in what could be another step away from the country’s staple manufactured good – garments. Although a final partnership agreement had yet to made ...

Export to Vietnam climbed more than 57 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2012 as farmers looked for alternative destinations for products that went to Thailand last year. The primarily agricultural exports to Cambodia’s eastern neighbour were worth US$201.5 million, up from ...

The government will spend a total of $85 million, funded by a Japanese government loan, for the third and final phase of the expansion of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which will more than double the port’s import-export capacity by 2012, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. “It ...

Kampot Port Co will break ground on a Kampot port in September, company officials said yesterday. The port will be an important part of a long-delayed Kampot Special Economic Zone (KSEZ), which is hoped to revitalise trade and commerce in the province. Vinh Huor, president of the ...

Japan, the most experienced country in the industrial sector, has cooperated with Cambodia, aiming at enhancing Cambodia’s industrial policy better to attract more investments, especially the Japanese investors who have kept an eye out on Cambodia over the last several years. The workshop under the theme: Towards the Cambodia’s Industrial Policy, was conducted On April ...

Investors in Cambodia’s northeast on Monday announced an investment in a cassava-processing plant in Battambang province. Prak Phoung Kesoa, assistant CEO at Battambang Agro-Industry, said yesterday that the plant would be 100 per cent Cambodian owned ...

Industries such as tourism and garment production are booming. Mining is taking off and the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) is finally up and running after a 10-month delay with Phnom Penh Water Supply (PPWS) its first listing. “PPWS is considered one of the best managed state ...

The chevron oil company announced it is not ready to pump offshore oil in Block A in Cambodia. Mr. Steve Glick, Chevron President said: “the company is not ready to pump oil in Block A offshore Cambodia on the set-date of December 2012, complaining that more tasks need to be completed, but expressed ...

The value-added textile sector, as the garment sector is called in Pakistan, has chosen Cambodia as an alternative destination for relocating their manufacturing units, owing to continued electricity and gas supply problems in the country. The power and gas shortage is affecting productivity in Pakistan’s apparel sector, which in turn, is affecting the sector’s exports. ...

Government officials have joined forces with Japanese experts to formulate a new plan for economic diversity in Cambodia. Foreign direct investment in Cambodian industry has largely gone to garment manufacturing during the past 10 years, putting the country at risk of economic shock in the event ...

The Cambodia Securities Exchange has seen a sharp decrease in action this week, with trading volume yesterday falling to 3,453 shares, down nearly 100 per cent from Monday. Despite the drop, which was accompanied by a strong shift from institutional to retail investors, experts have stressed the time ...

While the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s (PPWSA) share price continued to fall yesterday, a second state firm came a step closer to joining it on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange by announcing plans to register by the end of July. At a ceremony marking the first ...