Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday told landowners in the coastal province of Kep to pay their taxes on unused land and increase the amount of investment in the area to attract more visitors.
According to the law, unused land is subject to a 2 percent tax that must be paid... continue
As Sihanoukville’s water shortage drags on, the price of water being delivered by private suppliers has skyrocketed with residents and business owners growing ever more desperate to get clean water into their homes, hotels and restaurants.
Over the past week, since a reservoir supplying the city with water completely dried up, the price of 2,000 liter tanks of clean water from Sihanoukville’s O’Pi water spring has more than doubled, rising from about $20 to more than $50, according to business owners and local officials. Some 60 percent of the city has access to little or no running water, according to officials. …
Like the telecommunications industry in Cambodia, the market for internet service providers (ISP), too, is overcrowded, leading industry experts to say that the situation is preventing new investment. …
Data from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications showed that at the end of 2012, Cambodia had 27 ISPs. Internet users in Cambodia numbered more than 2.7 million in 2012, an increase of 60 per cent compared to 2011, when there were 1.7 million users. …
Ban Borak, deputy managing director for Online, believes the Cambodian ISP market is much more crowded than the telco market. “If I were an investor, I would not enter into the current Cambodia ISP market,” he said. …
However, Ek Vandy, Secretary of State of Ministry of Post and Telecommunication told the Post that the ministry had raised no concerns over the overcrowding of ISPs. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China on Saturday to meet with the rising superpower’s new leadership, in a trip the government expects to yield nearly $2 billion in loans and aid.
Most significantly, the Government is hoping to secure Chinese funding for a 1.67 billion oil refinery project in Kampot province, which would ensure China’s prime position in Cambodia’s yet-to-take-off oil industry. …
The statement [from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation] lists eight deals including a memorandum of understanding between the National Bank of Cambodia and China Banking Regulatory Commission, an “agreement on economic and technical cooperation” worth 48.38 million, more than $73 million in concessional loans for an irrigation project in Kompong Thom province and a bridge in Kandal province.
According to the statement, the government also expects to sign a memorandum of understanding on a 5-million-ton-a-year oil refinery project, involving China Development Bank and China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, both Chinese state-owned companies, to the tune of $1.67 billion.
China’s development bank is known as one of China’s “policy banks”- meaning that it gives loans in support of Chinese foreign policy. Such banks have funded Chinese-built hydropower dams in Cambodia.
In December, China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp.- which is majority owned by state-owned industrial giant SINOMACH- and Cambodian Petrochemical Company- which is chaired by cigarette magnate Kong Triv- agreed that work would begin on the oil refinery this year. …
Two Chinese companies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China Petrotech Holdings ltd., have been grated exploration blocks off Cambodia’s coat to search for oil and gas. …
The National Assembly’s Commission on Economy on Wednesday rejected the opposition- proposed draft law on minimum wages for garment and state workers. …
The opposition group proposed the National Assembly to make a law to limit a monthly minimum wage of 150 U.S. dollars for garment workers and 250 U.S. dollars for civil servants and armed forces. “The Parliament’s commission decided to reject this proposed draft law, explaining that the proposed draft law is inappropriate for Cambodia’s real situation, and Cambodia holds a free-market regime, so the limitation of minimum wage is against this policy,” Sman Teath, vice-chairman of the Commission, told reporters after the meeting. …
Four days after the Labour Advisory Committee approved a monthly minimum wage increase to $75 starting in May, more than 500 workers at the Su Tong Fang garment factory yesterday demanded that their company begin the wage increase one month early. …
Wholesalers and retailers of bankrupt Cambodian telecommunications company Mfone are seeking compensation for their stock of the mobile provider’s obsolete scratch recharge cards.
Wholesalers say the issue is also affecting retailers’ confidence in purchasing recharge cards of other providers, and is slowing sales.
Pann Chesda, general manger of Sophat Phone Shop, formerly the main wholesaler of Mfone recharge cards, said he was still holding about $20,000 worth of cards and that close to 100 retailers had told him they were holding cards collectively worth at least $70,000. …
Cambodia Airlines, a majority-owned Cambodian company, and San Miguel Corp., the Philippines’ most diversified conglomerate, on Tuesday signed a joint venture agreement to set up a Cambodia-based airline – Cambodia Airlines – to service domestic and regional flights.
The agreement was inked between Cambodian tycoon Kith Meng, president of Cambodia Airlines, and Ramon S. Ang, president of San Miguel Corporation and Philippine Airlines, under the presence of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An. …
Under the agreement, Kith Meng will have a 51-percent controlling share in the joint venture, while San Miguel Corporation will hold the remaining 49 percent stake. …
Cambodia and Russia on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding, aiming at promoting bilateral cooperation in all fields, particularly trade, investment, tourism and education, officials said.
The deal was inked between Sun Saphoeun, secretary of state of Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Alexander Radkov, head of Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, at the 7th session of the intergovernmental Cambodia- Russia commission for trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation. …
The bilateral trade volume is relatively small–it was about 50 million U.S. dollars a year. On the investment side, Cambodia attracted about 617 million U.S. dollar investment from Russia from 1994 to 2012, according to the record of the Council for the Development of Cambodia. …
Hun Sen said salaries for civil servants and garment workers will increase yearly coinciding with the growth in the economy.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) at the Koh Pich center on Tuesday, he said during the general assembly of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) last month, it was agreed that wages will not be raised by 20 percent every year, but depending on economic growth. …
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. It will include rehabilitation of the six kilometres of tracks from Aranyaprathet station to Klong Luek, opposite Poipet district in Cambodia, and improvement of the existing tracks from Klong Sip Kao station to Aranyaprathet.
A bridge between Klong Luek and Poipet must be improved, and negotiations will take place with Cambodia on possible cost-sharing of the construction, the minister added. …
The one-metre gauge tracks will connect with the Cambodian railway to Phnom Penh and onward to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Cambodia is improving its 337km line from Phnom Penh to Poipet, expected to be completed some time between next year and 2015, according to the Phnom Penh Post.
The project is financed by a loan from the Asian Development Bank, and also includes the 256km line linking Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. The line was reopened in December last year.
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 water company said yesterday.
Faced with widespread blackouts stemming from the country’s patchy power grid, officials at the state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) decided earlier this month to cut power to a pumping station operated by Anco Water Supply Co. Ltd. at the Kbal Chhay Waterfall and redirect that power to households and businesses in Sihanoukville, said Ngy Sun, the manager of Anco Water supply. …
“The water in Prek Tup [lake] started drying up quickly when Kbal Chhay [waterfall] could not supply sufficient water because it did not receive enough electricity,” Mr. Sun said. …
Anco Brothers Co. Ltd., the parent company of Anco Water Supply, is owned by well-known business man and CPP Senator Kok An. Anco Brothers have the rights to import Evian mineral water and Budweiser beer into Cambodia. It also has a transmission line from Thailand to Kandal province and a 45-megawatt power plant outside Phnom Penh, according to the company’s website. …
Currently Anco sells water to the provincial government for 1,000 reil, or about $0.25 per cubic meter. The provincial department of MIME then resells the water on to users for between 1,500 and 2,000 reil, according to Mr. Chanroeun, who declined to say how much revenue the resale of water brings into provincial coffers.
“We use this revenue to pay tax to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and also for the provincial hall,” he said, declining to elaborate on how much, and where those funds were being spent. …
Althought the initial book value – purchase cost minus depreciation – of the assets of bankrupt Cambodian telecommunications firm Mfone was estimated at $105 million, employee representatives claim the estimated market value is closer to $30 million to $40 million.
Bou Kunthea, an Mfone employee representative, told the Post yesterday that the figure of $105 million was just the book value of the initial assets list, but the actual market value would be much less. She said she was advised by court-appointed liquidator Ouk Ry that it was in the range of $30 million to $40 million. …
Meanwhile, employee representatives were at odds with the Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC), which led a protest of about 200 former employees at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation, demanding the situation be resolved soon.
Employees’ representatives stayed out of the protest, concerned CLC would charge workers for the successful resolution of the dispute. “They come to lobby the employees so they can protest to get a faster solution and provide all payments that employees should get by just paying 10 per cent to the union when the protest is successful,” Kunthea said. …
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 sub-region, Myanmar had a staggering increase of almost 52% in arrivals, while Cambodian and Lao PDR reported gains of 24% and 22% respectively. …
According to the figures by the Ministry of Tourism, the number of visitor arrival in 2012 was 3,584,307, an increase of 25 percent in comparing to 2011 and earned 2 billion US dollars for nation income this year. Through tourism industry, it created 350,000 labor forces and in 2015, it is expected that it will attract about 4.5 million foreign investors and in 2020, it could reach to 7 million. …
The Can Tho city and Cambodian province of Battambang have signed a memorandum of understanding on economic co-operation that covers commerce, investment, and tourism.
The two sides will create favourable conditions for businesses from the two localities to co-operate in areas like processing of farm produce, goods distribution, investing in processing plants for farm and aquaculture produce, animal husbandry, and tourism. …
Several Can Tho businesses are seeking opportunities to co-operate with their Battambang counterparts to purchase and process paddy and rice for export.
Located in the north-west of Cambodia nearly 300km from the capital Phnom Penh, Battambang has a population of over 1 million of whom 81 per cent are farmers. The province harvests 2 million tonnes of rice a year and has innumerable ponds and lakes suitable for aquaculture. …
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, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam, but also western African States, such as Guinea, Mali and Senegal. …
Cambodian milled rice is becoming more popular throughout Asia, particularly in Malaysia, which is the number one importer of milled rice from the Kingdom. …
Hean Vanhorn, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and director of the single-window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports, said though Malaysia ranked highest for milled rice exports, Cambodian could further capitalise on Malaysian demand for fragrant rice. …
But Cambodia also still faces challenges in managing the use of different seeds grown in different areas, he said, adding that officials could not always control the quantity of these unspecified seeds. …
The Cambodian government is targeting to increase rice exports to 1 million tons by 2015, and is investing in rice processing facilities and providing credits to farmers. …
A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. …
On March 20, the provincial water authority distributed letters to more than 5,000 customers in the province asking them to either use their own water sources or reduce the consumption of water because Prek Tup Lake- the 15-hectare reservoir that stores up to a half-million cubic meters of water during the rainy season- had dried up.
With no water coming from Prek Tup Lake, Anco Water Supply Co.Ltd., which has an exclusive contract to provide water to Sihanoukville, opened pipelines connecting Sihanoukville with Kbal Chhay, a waterfall 16km outside of the city, according to Prak Chanroeun, the director of the provincial department of industry mines and energy.
But because of insufficient pipelines and frequent power outages in the area due to the nationwide shortage of electricity, Anco has only been able to pump about 5,000 cubic meters of water into the city each day, about half of the 10,000 cubic meters demanded by customers, according to Mr. Chanroeun. …
Ngy Suy, the manger of Anco Water Supply also said… that the high price of diesel fuel used to power the generator was making it difficult for Anco to provide water at 1,000 reil, or about $0.25, per cubic meter, to the provincial water supply. …
Anco, which is owned by local tycoon Kok An, met with provincial officials yesterday and agreed to build two additional 200-cm wide water pipe networks between Kbal Chhay and Shianoukville in order to ensure that residents are able to access water all year round.
But for residents and business owners in Sihanoukville without their own well, a more pressing concern is where they will find water now. …
As in Sihanoukville, residents in Phnom Penh have been experiencing regular power outages, mostly due to the lack of water running through the country’s dams. …
The Government’s increasing pressure on investors and business owners, particularly in the tourism sector, to provide what in most countries would be considered public services and utilities is an issue that must be addressed, said Ho Vandy, co-chair of the Government-Private Sector Working Group on Tourism. …
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 for International Development, marks the first step of the project’s aim to help communities in the four countries to develop local climate change adaptation assessments and action plans.
Considered one of the most fertile areas of Southeast Asia, the Mekong basin is known for its production of rice and maize. About 70 percent of the basin’s population of 60 million people earns a living as farmers and fishers. …
Aside from the looming danger of climate change, plans to build a series of mega-dams across the river to generate electricity also pose a threat to the Mekong countries, experts say. …
“By blocking the transport of sediment, the dams will contribute to even greater erosion in the fertile Mekong Delta, which is already threatened by increasing saltwater intrusion as a result of rising sea levels,” Aviva Imhof, [International Rivers] group’s campaigns director told Voice of America.
The border trade in Surin province has reportedly reached 1 billion baht for the first time. The figure is said to be the new record high as the situation on the border of Thailand and Cambodia remains calm.
Surin’s trade official Sitthiporn Bangkeaw … said these factors have prompted the export of fuel and everyday items from Thailand, while we need cassava from Cambodia for the industrial sector.
According to Mr. Sitthiporn, the export to Cambodia last year through the checkpoint was valued at 888 million baht, while the import from the country was worth 173 million baht. … …
Other products in demand in Cambodia include fruit juice and condensed milk, whereas Thailand imports cassava, used clothes and plastic items.
The Cambodian government on Thursday dismissed media reports in Australia linking Prime Minister Hun Sen to a mining company under investigation there for corruption.
Earlier this week, The Age newspaper reported on Australian documents that described officials from BHP Billiton seeking a special meeting with Hun Sen prior to being given mineral exploration rights in 2006.
The government’s Quick Reaction Unit, which deals with media, said in a statement Thursday the report was “exaggerated” and meant to “dishonor” Hun Sen ahead of the July national elections. …
