News
PM: China will open markets
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that China gave assurances that it will grant greater access for Cambodia’s agricultural products to enter its markets. “It is my mission to ensure that domestic goods, especially agricultural products, can be exported to China in greater quantities. I just ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29640/pm--china-will-open-markets/
Value chain in decline: WTO
Cambodia is one of only two economies worldwide to have declined in global value chain (GVC) participation since 1995, according to the World Trade Organization’s latest study. The WTO’s World Trade Report 2014, released Monday, shows Cambodia’s overall percentage of GVC participation – one country’s contribution ...
Eddie Morton
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/value-chain-decline-wto
Shops unfazed by annual bootleg DVD crush
The Ministry of Culture steamrolled 300,000 bootlegged DVDs Monday in its annual celebration of efforts to stamp out piracy. But at DVD shops across Phnom Penh, where pirated movies are sold for $1.50 or less, owners said they see little threat to their businesses. ...
Sek Odom and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/shops-unfazed-by-annual-bootleg-dvd-crush-60424/
Longans longing for storage
The amount of land used to grow longans has doubled in the past two years, but a lack of supply-chain infrastructure is hampering farmers’ ability to get top dollar for their product, the fruit’s body says. Sreng Sreang, deputy director of the Pailin Longan Farmers’ Community ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/longans-longing-storage
GI products closer to fruition
Three of Cambodia’s most iconic natural products – Thma Koul rice, Kampot durian and Cambodian silk – have been earmarked by the government to obtain the World Trade Organization’s Geographical Indication (GI) status. Speaking to reporters after a press conference on GI registration at the Ministry ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gi-products-closer-fruition
S Reap fish paste production halts over weak demand
Villagers in Kampong Khlaing commune in Siem Reap province’s Sotr Nikum district have halted Kamlearnh fish paste production due to lagging demand, according to the industry’s representative body. Proum Hong, president of Kampong Khlaing Fish Paste Producers Association (KKFPPA), said the inflated price of the product, ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/s-reap-fish-paste-production-halts-over-weak-demand
PM decries copyright theft
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on government bodies, local authorities, international organisations and the private sector to dial back Cambodia’s widespread theft of copyrighted works, like film and music, and encouraged the creation of more original, home-grown cultural works. Copying other countries’ cultural output – ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-decries-copyright-theft
Long-term plans for durian
Though an occasional mango or pineapple can be spotted on Eung Uy Kheam’s sleepy farm in Kampot province, it’s the 130 durian trees that the fourth-generation farmer calls his cash crop. In Kampot, on Cambodia’s southwest coast, a pilot project led by the provincial Department ...
Chan Muy Hong and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/long-term-plans-durian
Cambodia’s pepper takes off
Through a canopy of palm leaves, sunlight falls onto 1,000 four-month-old pepper plants, each one climbing about two feet up a wooden pole in the ground. “We will be ready to harvest pepper from here in about 18 to 20 months,” says one of Kep ...
Daniel de Carteret and Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-pepper-takes
Rip-offs strike wrong chord
Slapping Khmer song lyrics over international hits or ripping off the creative content of foreign-produced music videos is a practice in the Kingdom that must end within one year, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts officials said at a conference in the capital yesterday. A crackdown ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rip-offs-strike-wrong-chord
‘No Rush’ For Cambodia on Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, Experts Say
Two ambitious trade negotiations are moving forward in the Asia Pacific, but Cambodia should first pursue a regional partnership before joining in with all of the Asia Pacific, trade experts say. Cambodia should build momentum on the existing Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an Asean-driven agreement, before ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/no-rush-for-cambodia-on-trans-pacific-trade-agreement-experts-say-cambodia/1794961.html
Law Aimed at Protecting Local Products Approved
The Council of Ministers has approved a draft law aimed at protecting the patent rights of traditional Cambodian products, which if violated could be met with a fine of up to $5,000 and a five-year jail term. The law on geographical indication (G.I.), a status given ...
Hul Reaksmey and George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/law-aimed-at-protecting-local-products-approved-46855/
GI benefits yet to be fully realised
While Kampot pepper and Kampong Speu palm sugar carry the brand-building Geographical Indication (GI) status, newcomers seeking the same tag continue to wait for funding to get their products off the ground. In 2010, Kampot pepper and Kampong Speu palm sugar were the first Cambodian goods ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gi-benefits-yet-be-fully-realised
Kampot pepper demand dips
Sales of Cambodia’s World Trade Organization-certified pepper from Kampot province fell to 21 tonnes at the end of this year’s harvest season, a slight decline from 22 tonnes after the end of last year’s season. Nguon Lay, president of the Kampot Pepper Association, said fast-changing ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kampot-pepper-demand-dips
Sales of palm sugar not so sweet
Sales of Cambodia’s World Trade Organization-certified palm sugar from Kampong Speu province dipped to 12 tonnes at the end of the harvest season this year, about a 30 per cent decline from 2012. Two districts with palm trees in Kampong Speu province were granted geographical indication ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/sales-palm-sugar-not-so-sweet
Cambodia Far From Intellectual Property Targets
Cambodia is still a way off implementing World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on intellectual property rights, despite a deadline to do so in just over a month. At the end of June, the group of the world’s 49 least developed countries (LDCs), including Cambodia, run out ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cambodia-far-from-intellectual-property-targets-26805/
The Snap Look at Software Business
IT businesspeople see the potential demand in business software. Ms. Sok Channda, CEO and President of ANANA Group, tells Business Circle Magazine that because most businesses need to be controlled and managed systematically, demand for software development is experiencing an upward trend, including Point of Sale (POS) systems, inventory management systems, and software ...
http://www.bcmagz.com/the-snap-look-at-software-business.html
Milled rice boost: Cambodia gets US$1 million grant for milled rice exports
Cambodia has received a US$1 million grant in order to develop its milled rice industry and strengthen the country’s exporting capacity, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce. It is part of a larger, US$3-4 million grant from the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), a partnership ...
Cambodia receives $3m grant
Cambodia will receive a grant of US$3.3 million from the World Trade Organisation to support rice milling, silk production and development of the Department of International Cooperation, according to Heng Sovannarith, communication officer for Trade Wide Sector Approach. Sovannarith said the Ministry of Commerce would receive the grant from ...
Cambodia to Miss 2013 Copyright Deadline
Cambodia will not meet the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) deadline to enforce copyright laws by 2013 and will likely ask for an extension, an official at the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. The deadline was already extended once by the WTO in 2005 after it ...
Weak spots seen in Kingdom trade
While the World Trade Organisation yesterday lauded Cambodia’s economic achievements since joining in 2004, officials pointed to the lack of much-needed financing for the Kingdom’s burgeoning trade sector. Cambodia lacks the capacity to finance the manufacturing and agriculture exports that would allow the country’s industries to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110852601/Business/weak-spots-seen-in-kingdom-trade.html
WTO review of Kingdom trade policy expected
The World Trade Organisation today will conclude its first-ever review of Cambodia’s trade policies and practices and issue its concluding remarks. The trade review, which began on November 1, is the first time the Kingdom, which was the first least-developed country to fully accede to the ...
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
Minister wants e-trade by end of year
Cambodian government officials have called on the US-ASEAN Business Council to help finalise implementation of the Kingdom’s first e-commerce law by year’s end. However, US-ASEAN Business Council councillor Frances Zwening said Google did not provide an “in-depth response” to the request for assistance, but added ...