News
More capital for factories
The government approved 103 factories with a combined investment of $660 million last year a big increase from the previous year’s 52 factories valued at $230 million, according to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia. Industry representatives and economists said the sharp ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361912/Business/more-capital-for-plants.html
Siamese Rosewood Elevated to Protected Status
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 ...
USDA Hikes 2013 Export Projections for Cambodia, India, U.S.
The USDA increased its rice export forecasts for India, Cambodia and the U.S. mainly due to higher production estimates in these countries. Cambodia’s 2013 rice export estimates was increased 150,000 tons to a record 975,000 tons, up about 21% from last year, said the USDA in ...
http://oryza.com/content/usda-hikes-2013-export-projections-cambodia-india-us
Waterways may reduce export costs
Cambodia’s waterways are significantly under-used for the transport of commodities such as rice, and enhanced infrastructure and a review of government fees is needed at the Kingdom’s ports to make exports more competitive, industry experts say. According to figures from the Alliance of Rice Producers and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031261877/Business/waterways-may-reduce-export-costs.html
At Fuel Pumps, Price and Quality Are Anybody’s Guess
PHNOM PENH – Cambodia imports all of its fuel from abroad, but little regulation in the sector means everyday Cambodians see all kinds of prices at the pumps. Prices are high in Phnom Penh, while sometimes cheaper on the outskirts of the capital and even ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/at-fuel-pumps-price-and-quality-are-anybody-guess/1619374.html
The drugs don’t work: Despite the best efforts of the authorities, producers of fake medicines are making a killing in Cambodia
“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 ...
US Firm to Open Its Second Casino in Cambodia
A U.S.-listed gaming company is set to open its second casino in Cambodia next month, the company said as it announced its revenues had grown to more than $20 million in 2012. Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc. (EGA), which is backed by Macau-based Melco International Development Limited ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-firm-to-open-its-second-casino-in-cambodia-14421/
Hana plugs into Cambodian market
Hana Microelectronics Plc is investing 1.5 billion baht to build a new factory in Lamphun and another in Koh Kong, the latter marking a plunge into the Cambodian market. Chief executive Richard Han also hinted yesterday that the SET-listed electronic-parts maker could relocate some production from ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/339371/hana-plugs-into-cambodian-market
A smooth ride?
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. ...
Survey Says Cambodia Lacks Fiscal Transparency
The government has failed to improve transparency of its finances, according to a global report released yesterday, which ranks Cambodia among the worst countries in the world for openness over budgets. The Washington-based International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey 2012- conducted in Cambodia by NGO Forum- ...
Farmers of crocodile say no to skin exports
Cambodian crocodile farmers prefer selling young live crocodiles directly rather than raising crocodiles and selling their skins for export as they believe there is no market, despite officials encouraging crocodile farming for skin exports. Heng Chheng, a crocodile farmer from Battambang, has raised crocodiles since 1984. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761796/Business/farmers-of-crocodile-say-no-to-skin-exports.html
Rosewood gambit fails
A disguised shipment of nearly eight cubic metres of illegal rosewood worth an estimated $50,000 was snagged yesterday in a Forestry Administration dragnet in Siem Reap province after agents in Banteay Meanchey alerted authorities the shipment was headed their way, Forestry officials said. Siem Reap Provincial ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761814/National/rosewood-gambit-fails.html
Construction costs low, but could rise
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761790/Real-Estate/construction-costs-low-but-could-rise.html
General Accused of Smuggling $1M In Goods
Military police in Preah Sihanouk province said yesterday that they impounded four trucks carrying retail goods worth about $1 million that a lieutenant general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces had imported from Thailand without paying tax duty. The unpaid import duty amounted to about ...
New palm oil plant for $16m
Mong Reththy Group (MRG) will begin construction on a US$16 million crude palm oil refinery next month in Preah Sihanouk province, where several thousand hectares of palm trees are grown, insiders said yesterday. Mong Reththy, president of the eponymous firm, told the Post that his company ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661772/Business/new-palm-oil-plant-for-16m.html
Thailand, Vietnam Seek Controls on Rosewood Trade
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 ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thailand-vietnam-seek-controls-on-rosewood-trade-12299/
Thais to set up maize plant
THAI agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods is setting up a new silo and drying plant for maize in Pailin province. The exact investment cost is not known. According to a newspaper report in The Nation, the plant, together with a planned feed-meal plant in Laos, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561742/Business/thais-to-set-up-maize-plant.html
Demand for wage increases rejected
Cambodia, with over 400 garment and footwear factories, has become an Asian clothes manufacturing center, and hugely profitable for the factory owners They have rejected a demand by the Cambodian Confederation of Unions to double the minimum monthly wage of factory workers from $61. The ...
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Demand+wage+increases+rejected/8044435/story.html#ixzz2MYys4mpC
Siem Reap Power Cut Hurts Tourism Industry
Three days after it went out, power had yet to be restored to large parts of Siem Reap province yesterday, badly impacting local businesses in the popular tourist hub of Siem Reap City and seeing a rush of people to buy generators. The power failure followed ...
Second-hand, first in imports
Cambodia imported almost 10 times as many used clothes as new ones in the first 11 months of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Some 79,217 tonnes of used garments worth $61.5 million were brought in during that period, compared ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030461731/Business/second-hand-first-in-imports.html
Cambodia sees sharp rise in trade volume with its neighbors last year
Cambodia has seen a remarkable rise in trade volume with its neighboring Vietnam and Thailand in 2012, official statistics showed on Friday. The bilateral trade with Vietnam was worth 3.3 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 18 percent year-on-year, according to a data from the Vietnam ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-03/01/c_132200604.htm
Mekong nations urged to protect migrant workers
The Mekong Migration Network yesterday ended a three-day symposium by urging countries in the Mekong basin to provide migrant workers with sufficient legal protections and to improve their working and living conditions. The network brought together 72 representatives of governments, academic institutions, INGOs, NGOs and migrant ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Mekong-nations-urged-to-protect-migrant-workers-30200972.html
Boeung Kak Evictees Ask City Hall For Better Compensation
About 100 women forcibly evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak neighbourhood protested outside City Hall yesterday asking for upgrades to the compensation they accepted under duress to give up their homes. The women said they were representing 739 of the more than 3,000 families forced out ...
Cambodia to earn $50 mln a year from cassava exports to China
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. ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YjdjMmVlNGJmZDQ