News

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

“Counterfeit medicine kills, while real medicine heals.” This was the simple but apt message selected just over a year ago for a poster campaign in Cambodia that aimed to raise awareness of the risks of counterfeit medications, as part of a government crackdown on the ...

The silk industry of Cambodia is in rapid decline due to limited domestic supply of silk yarn and high cost of imported raw materials. According to the latest data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-Cambodia, the Southeast Asian nation imports 395 tonnes of raw ...

Cambodia economic growth was 7.3 percent in 2012. Agriculture grew by 4.3 percent, crops by 4.9 percent, fisheries by 6.7 percent, industry by 9.2 percent, garment [sector] by 6.9 percent and the service industry by 8.1 percent, said Dr Hang Chuon Naron, Secretary of State ...

It’s not a claim every country can make, but Cambodia builds its own cars. A country known for its low-skilled workforce, the Kingdom exceeded expectations with its January release of the Angkor Car, a mini-electric vehicle able to get up to 300 kilometres per charge. ...

The government is planning to revise the Kingdom’s investment laws this year to draw more foreign direct investment as the country adjusts to the fast-changing regional and global landscapes, according to Secretary General of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) Sok Chenda Sophea. Speaking ...

Construction costs in the Kingdom have increased only 1.36 per cent year-on-year, compared to Cambodia’s inflation rate, which is projected at 3.5 per cent for 2012, according to a new report from global estate agents CBRE. The company says the minimal increase is due to the ...

The 2013 China’s Zhejiang and Cambodia matchmaking symposium was held here on Tuesday to seek opportunities to expand business ties between China and Cambodia. Gong Zheng said the Chinese firms are doing businesses in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure development, construction and real estate, mineral ...

With locals demanding dialogue with the Chinese firms behind a proposed multibillion dollar rail line to Preah Vihear province, an NGO report released yesterday highlights the dearth of information that has been made available on the project. Chinese company Cambodia Iron Steel Mining Industry Group (CISMIG) ...

AFTER finishing in the black every year since its launch in 2009, Cambodia’s flagship airline is forecasting a loss for the first time, in a situation that an industry analyst has described as “not necessarily typical”. Cambodia Angkor Air’s (CAA) loss is projected to span two ...

Less than five months from the national elections, Prime Minister Huns Sen yesterday warned the public that his ruling CPP party would stop making charitable donations towards infrastructure and national development if the party is not re-elected. Speaking at the inauguration of a Chinese-funded expansion of ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday broke ground for the construction and enlargement of a 248-kilometer stretch of national road No. 6A, saying that the road is vital for the development of the economy and tourism. The road will be widened from the current 7 ...

The Council of Ministers has revealed that its new Airbus A320, meant for shuttling Prime Minister Hun Sen and a select few others around the world, is being leased from China Southern Airlines but refrained from disclosing how much the deal was worth. Last month, CPP ...

Thailand and Vietnam have called for strict controls to be placed on the international trade of rosewood in an attempt to prevent the luxury wood species from be­ing logged to extinction. Cambodia currently exports thousands of cubic meters of the wood to China each year, and ...

Cambodia milled rice exports reached 49,815 tonnes in the first two months of this year, an increase of 106 per cent from the same period last year. Jasmine rice was the biggest part of the exports, followed by long grain white rice, data from the ...

A GROUP of Japanese businessmen yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Sonatra Group chairman Sorn Sokna to develop a special economic zone along the Mekong River at the site of the Prey Veng ferry terminals. The ferry service is expected to become redundant when the ...

The long-running Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) monitoring programme is in urgent need of reform, according to a new report, which suggests the country’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is “wearing thin”. The report, “Monitoring in the Dark – an evaluation of the International Labour ...

Cambodia will earn about $50 million a year from exports of dried cassava to China through Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly said Thursday. Cambodia’s agricultural exports previously went through Vietnam and Thailand, amounting to between 7,000 and 8,000 tons a year. ...

Property experts say foreign companies are coming to invest in Cambodia’s property sector, as they see the growth and potential of the Kingdom. Sung Bonna, director of Bonna Realty Group, said that the number of foreign companies in the sector has grown, and most are from ...

Amid reports that a second Cambodian has been killed this year by Thai armed forces while illegally logging in Thai border territory, officials had little detail yesterday on a government directive that is aimed at ending the international demand for rosewood from Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun ...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Better Factories Program (BFC) has responded to a scathing report released last week by Stanford University, which said the ILO program was ineffectual as it had not helped secure Cambodian workers a significant wage increase since the program started over ...

Activists are welcoming Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public vow to prevent logging and rosewood trafficking, but they also say it’s too little too late to have any serious impact on protecting Cambodia’s already decimated forests. In a speech on Friday at the Ministry of Interior, Hun ...