News
Job security low as unemployment drops
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) released the latest data from its EU-funded project Monitoring and Assessing Progress of Decent Work this week, showing that despite an improving environment, including low rates of official unemployment , 75 per cent of workers are in vulnerable jobs. This includes the self-employed or ‘own ...
Border Management Technology Advances in Cambodia and Vietnam
Using techincal solutions developed by INTERPOL, Cambodia and Vietnam can now instantly conduct real time searches of INTERPOL’s global databases. The joint European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) “Enhanced exchange of information between INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs) in the ...
ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Focuses On Mutual Benefits
The ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) 10 + 1 Session with 10 ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners, namely, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America were held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 11 July 2012. They focused on cooperation ...
UK foreign office minister in Cambodia delivers message of assurance despite EU troubles
Jeremy Browne, UK foreign office minister, told officials in Cambodia during a two-day visit that despite the current problems the European Union is having with its currency union and economies, ASEAN should not be discouraged from pursuing closer economic and even political coordination within the 1.0-member bloc. Speaking at the Council of Ministers in Phnom ...
Garment Exports Grow 15% in First Quarter
Garment and footwear exports from Cambodia increased 15.29 percent to $1.29 billion in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2011, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. While exports to the European Union rose 46.76 percent to $376.14 million in ...
World Bank outlook for Cambodia positive
The World Bank’s biannual report on Cambodia was largely positive given dire economic prospects in Europe, which economists agreed were closely tied to the Kingdom’s key export sectors. The report, released yesterday, predicted 6.6 per cent growth in gross domestic product Manufacturing is predicted to slow slightly this year, ...
Commodities Prices a Risk, Bank Says
Despite offering an uplifting outlook for Cambodia’s economy this year, economists at the World Bank said yesterday that it could still succumb to volatile commodities prices, particularly food and gas. Speaking to journalists after the release the bank’s East Asia and Pacific Economic Update for 2012, ...
Cambodia garment sector fears competition from Myanmar
The lifting of EU sanctions against Myanmar is bound to have an impact on the Cambodian garment sector, Cambodia Sin Chew Daily reported on Thursday. The European Union announced earlier this week that it was lifting sanctions against the country. Japan and Canada have made similar announcements since the end of last week. ...
Cambodia must seek new trade partners
Cambodia will no doubt look to partners other than the US and the European Union to bolster its economic growth as those key export markets continue to struggle, a senior International Monetary Fund official says. One way in which Cambodia would forge new and growing relationships with higher-income ...
Close ASEAN cooperation urged to promote growth
Cambodia, the current ASEAN chair, has called for stronger financial cooperation among its member countries to promote economic growth. The main agenda is to ensure that Southeast Asia is on track to meet an ambitious goal of transforming in three years into a European Union-like ...
Hun Sen Urges Action to Double Region's Bailout Fund
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday urged the economic leaders of the Asean bloc to go through with a plan to double a bailout pool, funded largely by China, Japan and South Korea, to prevent future financial crises in the region. Opening the Asean Finance ...
Kingdom's exports up 42% on garments, food
Cambodia’s total exports surged 42 per cent through November to US$4.5 billion from $3.16 billion, official data from the Ministry of Commerce showed, as the Kingdom’s staple products of garments, textiles and agriculture led the move. Rising global demand, new trade agreements with regional neighbours and ...
First 10 months of year's exports up 32.9 percent
Exports from Cambodia increased 32.9 percent to $3.7 billion during the first ten months of this year compared to the same period in 2010, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce yesterday. Milled rice exports saw the biggest increase with a 161.5 percent jump ...
Kingdom's exports jump 44%
Cambodia’s total exports rose more than 40 per cent year-on-year through October, carried by strong growth in agriculture shipments. Total exports reached US$4.05 billion in the first 10 months of 2011 compared with $2.82 billion during the same period last year, an increase of 44 per ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112552966/Business/kingdoms-exports-jump-44.html
Boeng Kak evictees deliver petitions to embassies to pressure government
Some 100 former residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community yesterday delivered petitions to 10 embassies and the offices of the World Bank and European Union asking them to pressure the government into increasing the compensation for their evictions. Sam Vanna, a representative of the residents, ...
Chinese 'no-strings' loans come at a cost
As government borrowing from China continues to increase, a new study released yesterday showed that Chinese concessional loans carry higher interest than any others. According to the study, released by the NGO Forum on Cambodia at a workshop in Phnom Penh, China’s average interest rate on ...
EU organizes a seminar on food security
The Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia in collaboration with the Council for Agricultural and rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and three of the EU-funded projects (CEDAC, HKI, WHH) on October 6 organized a Food Security Project Workshop “Improving Food Security—Lessons ...
EU raises concerns over human rights
Land evictions, poor prison conditions and the lack of an independent judiciary were among the concerns listed in the European Union’s 2010 review of human rights in Cambodia. According to the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2010, which charts ...
Boeng Kak families reach out to embassies, EU
Members of 34 families facing eviction from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community yesterday called on five foreign embassies and the European Union to pressure the government into granting them land titles. They are among the 46 poor and untitled families living in Boeng Kak who have ...
Minister asks for export break
Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh yesterday called on the US to allow duty-free entry for Cambodian exports, a benefit the Kingdom already enjoyed with the European Union. The introduction of preferential tax treatment from the US would result in the Kingdom’s share of that country’s ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011090751485/Business/minister-asks-for-export-break.html
Land Grabs Mar Cambodia’s Investment Boom
The evictions and so-called “land grabs” have angered aid donors, putting at stake hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid as well as a trade scheme that gives Cambodian produce tariff-free access to the EU. International donors and lenders such as the World Bank ...
'Land Grabs' Mar Cambodia's Boom, Rattle Investors
Phnom Penh–Kong Song’s farmland was his family’s livelihood for three decades until the bulldozers moved in and tore down his home in rural Cambodia to make way for a multimillion dollar foreign-led business. His family was one of 253 forcibly evicted five years ago in southern ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/01/cambodia-evictions-idUSL3E8JD2DV20110901
Donors Mum On Aid Forum Postponement
Cambodia’s foreign donors are staying largely mum about the government’s decision to indefinitely high-level aid meeting, though one donor conceded that the move had caught it off guard. Economists also said yesterday that a delay in holding the donor meeting would have little effect, but ...
Exports Increase 45.9% in First Six Months
Cambodian exports increased 45.9 percent to $2.15 billion in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2010, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce yesterday. Of the total value of exports, 80 percent, or $1.74 billion, were ...