News

Southeast Asia is a growth market for the mobile industry, with Indonesia and the Philippines being key markets for growth, particularly in smartphones, reports GfK Asia. The Southeast Asian mobile phone market is on the rise, having grown by 24% in volume in the past 12 ...

The disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea are approaching a tipping point. As former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said last month: “The disputes cannot be resolved anytime soon, if at all. The most that can be done is to prevent them developing into armed ...

Natural rubber (NR) production in Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) this year is set to rise by 4.9% to 10.83 million tonnes from 10.33 million tonnes in 2011 The members of ANRPC are Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, China, Papua New Guinea, the ...

Overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Brunei and Cambodia who need to shuttle between these countries and the Philippines can now avail themselves of the multiple travel exit clearance (MTEC), according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The Memorandum Circular No. 7 issued by POEA ...

Southeast Asia’s rice-exporting nations are in talks to create a formal alliance aimed at boosting prices and increasing export revenues, a move that could cause tensions with rice-importing nations. An alliance of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar will aim to share information and cooperate ...

A Chinese academic with close ties to China’s state security apparatus has claimed that Beijing coordinated with the Cambodian government to influence the outcome of the Asean meeting in Phnom Penh, according to the Financial Times. In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Chen ...

The Philippines has summoned Cambodia’s ambassador over comments linked to Manila’s territorial row with Beijing. Hos Sereythonh was asked to explain remarks accusing the Philippines and Vietnam of playing “dirty politics” over the issue of Asean and the South China Sea. [H]e did not turn up on ...

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Friday put the blame for last week’s failure among Asean countries to release a joint communiqué on territorial disputes in the South China Sea firmly back on Vietnam and the Philippines. More than a week since discussions related to the territorial dispute between Asean’s members ...

The “one community, one destiny” motto Cambodia adopted when it took over the rotating chairmanship of Asean this year could not have sounded more hollow as it did Friday when the 10-member bloc failed to produce a joint closing statement for the first time in ...

A dispute over territory in the South China Sea is once again set to hang over talks when China and the U.S. join in on a week of high-level Asean meetings that start in Phnom Penh on Friday. So far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ...

The planned theme of yesterday’s ASEAN defence ministers roundtable was military cooperation between countries, particularly in times of natural disaster, but it was a theme invariably pushed to the background by other regional developments. Among them was what appeared to be a cooling-off period in the ...

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. ...

A code of Conduct governing the South China Sea remains only an “eventual” prospect, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, despite it dominating discussions during this week’s ASEAN Summit. From the beginning of Monday’s Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the question of China’s potential involvement in the drafting ...

Maybank launched yesterday its locally incorporated company in Cambodia, Maybank (Cambodia) Plc, and will also build a 10-storey corporate office with the aim of becoming one of the top five banks there by 2015. Currently ranked seventh in terms of assets among 33 banks operating ...

The rift between Cambodia and the Philippines over the role of China in addressing the South China Sea issue continued to widen yesterday, with the Philippines’ president telling his counterparts during an Asean Summit meeting that China should be left out of discussions on a ...

Rights groups pushed for increased employment of disabled Cambodians and the ratification of a UN convention on their rights at the launch of the ASEAN Disability Forum yesterday. Ngin Saorath, executive director of the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation, said groups will draft a declaration over the ...

President Hu Jintao today becomes the first Chinese head of state to visit Cambodia in 12 years, in a trip days before Southeast Asian leaders gather for talks that may touch on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Hu’s visit, which lasts until April 2, ...

Low international rice prices have further stymied Cambodia’s milled-rice exports, millers reported yesterday, but large orders – reportedly the first ever – from the Philippines have encouraged at least one of the Kingdom’s biggest rice exporters. Mega Green Imex Cambodia this year to date has received ...

October marks the start of the main rice harvest in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of the grain. Traders are waiting to see the full impact of flooding on the crop, but it’s already clear that output across Southeast Asia will fall substantially. The U.N.’s ...

Rice futures jumped the most permitted by the Chicago Board of Trade, advancing to a one- month high, as flood damage to crops in Southeast Asia boosted prospects for U.S. exports. Storms since September damaged 12.5 percent of paddies in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, and ...

Depending on who you believe, the South China Sea could be the next Persian Gulf due to its untapped oil and gas deposits. It’s also a key shipping lane that the US Navy has guarded for decades. That’s why so many countries are sparring over remote ...

Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., a listed company owned by the group of former Trade minister Roberto Ongpin, acquired Tidemark Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong company that owns 25.9 percent of Forum Energy Plc, an oil and gas firm controlled by Philex Mining Corp. Atok-Big Wedge said ...

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 ...

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index 2011-2012 ranked the Philippines 75th out of 142 economies, up from 85th out of 139 in the 2010-2011 report. Last year’s placing marked a reversal of 2009’s slide to 87th in a list of 133, from 71st ...