News

The World Bank upgraded Monday its GDP growth forecast for Cambodia to 7.0 percent for this year, up 0.3 of a percentage point from its last projection in December. “In Cambodia, a likely stabilization in high-income country conditions should support further improvements in garment production and ...

After years of immersion in a vicious price war, battle weary and capital-haemorrhaging [sic] mobile operators in Cambodia’s oversaturated telecommunications sector may finally have reason to breathe a sigh of relief; 2013 might be cited as the year the tide turned. Tarred by legal threats, ...

The Thai owners of a pair of sugar plantations in Koh Kong province accused of forcing hundreds of farmers off their land will give the land back if it can be proved that those evicted legally own the land, rights workers and a village representative ...

Going by the World Bank’s method of grouping nation states by their wealth, Cambodia this year could become a lower-middle income country. Not satisfied, however, with this graduation—a feat in itself from Cambodia’s position of extreme poverty just two decades ago when gross domestic product (GDP) ...

New car sales noticeably increased in the first quarter of this year, a contrast to the year earlier period when sales dropped compared with the first quarter of 2011, officials said. Major car dealers in Cambodia said yesterday the jump is due to improvements in ...

France said it plans to boost its exports to Cambodia as French foreign direct investment in the country – worth $3.18 million in 2012 – continues to rise, officials said on Wednesday. Among this year’s investments, concessions and construction company group Vinci, the largest building ...

Not enough priority is given to research in Cambodia, threatening its long term development, economists and other experts say. Larry Strange, executive director of the Cambodian Development Research Institute, says the country cannot plan for major reform, build its economy, or reduce poverty without proper analysis ...

Cambodia’s Royal Group of Companies is in negotiations to purchase a satellite from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation for its telecoms operations in Cambodia, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said Wednesday. Tycoon Kith Meng currently owns the kingdom’s largest mobile phone operator, Mobitel. ...

Betagro (Cambodia) readies for the construction of its new feed mill in Phnom Penh SEZ. The feed mill is to be constructed in the capital’s Special Economic Zone, located 12km from the city center. The company is investing USD$17.2 million in the new project. The plant construction ...

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday handed over country-specific roadmap to Pakistan ambassadors to Thailand, Uzbekistan and Cambodia that would help strengthen liaison, increase bilateral trade and promote economic cooperation. The Ambassador to Thailand Sohail Khan, Ambassador to Uzbekistan Riaz Hussain Bukhari ...

The European Union (E.U.) last year continued to import millions of dollars worth of duty-free sugar from Cambodian plantations that have forced hundreds of families off their land despite calls from European lawmakers for the trade benefits to end, according to the latest E.U. data. Thailand’s ...

Cambodia ranks last in travel and tourism competitiveness among eight Southeast Asian countries, according to a recently published study by the World Economic Forum. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, which excluded Laos and Myanmar, said Cambodia comes 106th out of 140 countries this year, ...

In the light of growing tensions between North and South Korea, officials from the Ministry of Labour will head to Seoul on Thursday for a weeklong visit to inform Cambodian workers on emergency evacuation procedures. An estimated 25,000 Cambodians, a figure that includes roughly 5,000 illegal ...

Mong Reththy Group (MRG), Cambodia’s largest exporter of palm oil, hopes to expand its exports to European markets this year. Mong Reththy, president of the firm, said the quota-free and duty-free trade frameworks provided by European governments factored heavily into the decision. “About 50 per cent of ...

A Lao government delegation visiting the Kingdom’s capital last week anticipates that a joint visa scheme that would allow entry to both countries on a single visa will take at least two to three years to implement. Manoxay Vilayhane, second secretary at the Lao embassy in ...

Siem Reap town – one of Cambodia’s biggest tourist destinations – faced yet another power outage yesterday after the provincial energy supplier cut power for 12 hours during the day. Energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) informed residents that power would be cut from 6am to ...

Prior to 2013, Dom Dorn, a farmer in Phnom Sruoch district of Kampong Speu province, used oxen to farm his white-rice paddies; now, after just his second harvest of sowing phkarmalis (also known as jasmine or fragrant rice), he is using a kor yun, or ...

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will call an e-auction on April 10 on work to renovate damaged tracks connecting Thailand with Cambodia at the Aranyaprathet-Poipet crossing, Transport Minister Chadchat Suttipan said on Tuesday. The railway agency estimated the project will cost 2.8 billion baht. ...

The water shortage that has led to tens of thousands of households in Sihanoukville without running water for the past week occurred after provincial officials decided to limit power to a water pumping facility operated by the tourist town’s privately-owned distributor, a manager at the ...

Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...

Asia and the Pacific continued as a hot spot for international tourism in 2012, attracting what is expected to be in excess of 350 million international visitor arrivals, expanding its collective inbound count by more than 5% and generating more than 18 million additional foreign visits, year-on-year. Within this ...

2012 has been an impressive year for Cambodia’s economic resilience. Among the many sectors that had positively grown are the construction and property development [sic] and they are expected to be among the highest growth achievers in the current year as well. In 2012, the ...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has raised its forecast of global paddy production in 2012 by about 1.5 million tonnes to 730 million tonnes (487 million tonnes, milled). The scaling up of production mainly concerned Asian countries, in particular Cambodia, ...

Climate change will have a significant effect on major industrial and food crops in the Lower Mekong basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, says a new study. The study, conducted by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project for the U.S. Agency ...