Cambodian milled rice exports are gradually lessening their dependency on a single market by expanding their shipping destination in Asia, a sign insiders say is good news for the industry.
Kim Savuth, president of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters, told the Post yesterday that milled rice exports to European countries,... continue
Farmers can expect better rice paddy yields this year compared to last year after the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology yesterday predicted that the rainy season would run from mid-May until November with only a short dry spell. …
Chhomg Sopal, agriculture development cooperative officer with the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture said that farmers should see high yields if the ministry’s rainy season prediction is correct. …
To enhance Cambodian rice yields, the government should encourage private development of rice-seed production and focus its efforts on farmers’ education and regulations that ensure the quality of seed, industry experts say.
The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (MAFF) is the main source of high-quality seeds for distribution to Cambodian farmers.
According to David Van, deputy secretary-general of the Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia, MAFF does not have the resources to supply enough high-quality seed. …
A helicopter flight tour to Preah Vihear is just one part of the 10-day Cambodia Immersion for Millionaires Tour launched this week. The cost per person? $25,000.
According to Christopher Gramsch, sales manager for organiser Khiri Travel Cambodia, there is increasing demand among high-spending travellers and calls Cambodia a country with potential.
“What we want to show is that it is possible for even the most high-end clients to be able to experience the same level of luxury and quality that they could in Thailand or Vietnam.”
With its many sites and some high-end accommodation, Cambodia offers potential for luxury tourism. But although demand has been growing, mostly among foreigners, challenges such as a lack of infrastructure and marketing still limit high-end travelling, industry experts say. …
Farmers in Kompong Chhnang province locked in a land dispute with a local businesswoman are waiting for the government to make a decision on who owns the property after student volunteers measured the area earlier this month as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-titling program.
A team of student volunteers measured the 45 hectares of rice and cashew fields claimed by 76 families in Rolea Ba’ier district’s Kraing Leav commune on April 2 and 3. At the request of local businesswoman Moul Engly, the volunteers then measured the same area again on April 4. …
In his letter clarifying the role of the student volunteers in the land dispute, Mr. [Por] Vannith, the volunteers’ provincial coordinator, addressed a Supreme Court decision from 2010 involving a criminal case Ms. Engly had brought against eight local farmers for allegedly occupying her land illegally, and damaging her property.
While the Supreme Court ruled that eight villagers were not guilty of the allegations levelled by Ms.Engly, as had the Appeal Court before it, Mr. Vannith said the decision made by the Supreme Court had not settled the question of ownership to the land. …
Rubber exports from Cambodia were up over 17 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, but the revenue from rubber stayed steady as prices decline worldwide, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
The data showed that in the first quarter of this year, total export increased to 15,019 tonnes from 12,805 tonnes in the same period last year.
However, the price of rubber decreased sharply, by $461 per tonne for the three-month period, from $3,216.52 per tonne in the early part of the year, to $2,755.34 by the end of the quarter. Total revenue reached $41,382,434 so far
this year, compared with $41,187,582 the previous year. …
Entertainment Gaming Asia will open up it’s second Dreamworld Club in Cambodia in the Thai-Cambodia border town of Poipet, in Banteay Meanchey province, according to a media release from the US-listed company on Monday. …
Cambodian export values increased more than 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and officials said the rise was a positive sign for the Kingdom’s economic growth. …
According to the Ministry of Commerce’s export data obtained by the Post yesterday, exports reached over $1.65 billion in the first three month period this year, up from the goods exported during the same period last year, up from the goods exported during the same period last year, valued at $1.36 billion. …
The World Bank recently predicted that Cambodia’s GDP growth would reach 7.0 per cent for this year, up 0.3 percentage points from its last projection in December. …
Cambodia’s construction sector is facing a massive labor shortage due to a recent boom in construction projects throughout the country and workers migrating en masse to Thailand in search of higher wages.
In 2012, the construction sector expanded rapidly with the total value of approved projects totaling $2.11 billion, a 72 percent increase on the previous year’s figures, according to data from the Ministry of Land Management. …
But construction companies are in some cases having to wait months while they search for an able work force and economics say, will have to increase wages if they are to compete with jobs on offer over the border in Thailand. …
Peter Brimble, senior country economist for the Asian Development Bank, said that the construction sector is steadily planning a big role in Cambodia’s economy, which is expected to grow by at least 7.2 percent this year. Cambodia’s construction currently accounts for 6 percent of GDP and the International Monetary Fund said in January that Cambodia’s construction sector “is picking up thanks to the real estate rebound, in part fueled by rapid credit growth.” …
The volume of cargo passing through the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) rose 15 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the corresponding period last year. Experts say milled-rice exports and fuel imports contributed to the boost in activity.
From January to March, SAP, Cambodia’s largest port, processed a total of 759,897 tonnes, compared with 659,489 tonnes in the first three months of last year. …
U.S. listed gambling firm Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc. (EGA) will next month hold a grand opening for its second casino on the Thai-Cambodia border, the company said.
In a statement issued on Monday from Hong Kong, it said that Dreamworld Club in Poipet, which has been partially open since March 28, would be holding its grand opening on May 9.
According to the statement, EGA has invested $7.5 million in the new project, which houses 300 gaming machines in a nearly-1,500-square-meter-site. …
EGA opened its first Cambodian gaming venue, Dreamworld Palin in May, and that operation made the company 1.3 million in revenue in the last three months of 2012. …
Cambodia had granted operating licenses to 606 new companies in the first quarter of this year, a 33 percent decrease compared with the 904 firms at the same period last year, the Commerce Ministry’s report showed Tuesday. …
Yim Rom, an official at the ministry’s statistics and planning department, said the drop in new business registration was due to the ministry’s restrictions on registration procedures by thoroughly examining proposed companies’ business plans in order to ensure fair competition and to avoid duplicated trademarks. …
In the whole year of 2012, Cambodia granted operating licenses to 3,385 new firms, a 9 percent rise year-on-year, the commerce report said.
Acleda Bank, a leading commercial bank in Cambodia, on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UnionPay International on payment services for mutual benefits, according to the bank’s statement.
Xu Luode, president of China UnionPay and vice-chairman of UnionPay International, said currently, UnionPay cards reached more than 3.5 billion, and UnionPay network has been extended to 141 countries and regions in the world. …
Internet search giant Google on Friday launched a new service that for the first time allows users to instantly translate Khmer script into other languages.
Khmer is the most recent addition to the 66-strong collection of languages between which words, sentences or whole websites can be translated back and forth in the Google Translate service, which can present the results as script or phonetically. Regional languages Lao, Vietnamese and Thai are all already available on the service.
Divon Lan, a project manager in Google’s next wave emerging countries division, who worked on the new service, said the launch had been timed as a gift to Cambodians in the week of Khmer New Year. …
According to the World Bank’s last estimate, the number of Internet users in Cambodia was less than 450,000 in 2011. But the number is likely to have grown since then with the expansion of mobile Internet services.
In order to boost the Kingdom’s trade performance and improve the quality of lives of farmers along the Thai-Cambodia border, Thailand has agreed to remove import restrictions on Cambodian cassava and maize.
Speaking to reporters after the forth meeting of the Joint Trade Committee between Cambodia and Thailand yesterday, Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said the committee aims to develop greater economic relations and bilateral trade between the two countries, targeting a 30 per cent increase of trade activity per annum. …
According to export data from the ministry of commerce, Cambodia exported 20,443 tonnes of maize to Thailand in 2012, down 42 per cent from 35,381 a year earlier. Despite this downturn the Kingdom’s total Cassava exports jumped by 160 per cent in 2012 to 722,273 tonnes from 2011. …
Hundreds of indigenous minorities in Ratanakkiri province are being made worse off by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme which, rather than securing their property rights, is contributing to the loss of their ancestral lands, according to a new report.
The report supports complaints aired since last year by minority communities in the country’s northeast that the prime minister’s land-titling initiative, known as Directive 01 and launched in June, is depriving them of their rights to communal land titles.
Produced by seven organizations, including the Community Legal Education Center and the Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, the authors of the report surveyed 79 villagers in Ratanakkiri province where indigenous communities had started the application process for communal titles.
The survey found that 26 of those communities, or roughly 1 in 3, had all or parts of their land demarcated for private land titles under Directive 01, and 25 of those 26 communities were disappointed with the project and the private titles on offer.
“One of the their most common reasons for dissatisfaction was because the policy did not secure their communal land, and in fact caused them to lose more land,” the report says. …
Besides jeopardizing their traditional farming practices and very ways of life, Mr. [Chhay] Thy [Adhoc's Provincial Investigator] said, indigenous families were worried about making ends meet without their communal lands and on the low salaries offered at rubber plantations. …
Canada-based life insurance company Manulife has launched a product intended to provide parents with security for their children’s education, and officials at the firm say they are optimistic about its prospects. …
Manulife’s research found that even families who were financially struggling would take advantage of opportunities to secure funds for their children’s future.
The product was created to help parents set aside money and protect their finances for their children’s higher-level education. …
The commerce affairs office in northeastern Surin has reported robust trade along the Thai-Cambodian border despite unresolved Phra Viharn [Preah Vihear] temple dispute.
Mr. Sitthiporn Bangkeaw from the Office of Commerce Affairs Surin revealed that even though the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s public hearings in the Phra Viharn case were on for most of last week, trade situation along Thailand’s border with Cambodia has been bright and active. …
He added that such favorable circumstances have helped drive up Thai exports of fuel and consumer goods while its imports of farm products, particularly tapioca, also went up. …
The US embassy in Phnom Penh intends to hold a webinar on doing business in Cambodia, providing information on the benefits and challenges of working in the country for US firms.
“This is the first webinar that will focus on investment opportunities and an overview of Cambodia’s current business climate,” Sean McIntosh, the US embassy’s publicaffairs officer, told the Post yesterday. …
In 2012, Cambodia’s exports to the US were worth about $2 billion, 36 per cent of the Kingdom’s total exports, according to figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Furthermore, figures from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) show that from 2005 to 2011, US investment reached about $922 million. …
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has overturned two injunctions filed against bankrupt mobile operator Mfone, saying the decision will help the court-appointed administrator in charge of Mfone’s assets pay back creditors the money they are owed. …
The court issued Eltek’s injunction in October and Huawei’s injunction in January. Eltek is seeking $3.73 million it is allegedly owed in service charges and Huawei is claiming $65 million. At a meeting with creditors on April 11, administrator Ouk Ry announced that the judges were considering dropping the injunctions to pave way for him to sell off Mfone’s assets. But Eltek’s lawyer Kouy Thunna, yesterday called the court’s order “illegal.” …
Lawyer for Huawei Aron Zheng did not respond to requests for comment, though he has said in the past that the court must provide a legal basis to any decision to drop the injunctions against Mfone. …
