In the petition to the National Road Administration, Deputy Director of the HCM City Department of Transportation – Mr. Duong Hong Thanh, reported that at the time the Vietnam-Cambodia agreement on land transportation took effect, only 40 cars of each country were allowed to cross the border. However, the number of vehicles has increased to 450, with a lot of problems. …
Through Cambodian-managed agents and companies in Vietnam, these cars transport Vietnamese passengers for free from Vietnam to Cambodia to gamble. Cambodian buses also transport Vietnamese traveler within the territory of Vietnam. …
Koh Kong province’s mangrove forests have changed from being a source of charcoal to serving tourists who help to protect their biodiversity. The forests have now become a popular destination for Cambodian tourists. …
Yem Yan, Peam Krasorb commune chief in Koh Kong, said gradually visitors have been coming from different provinces in the country.
He said Peam Krasorb community earned about 140 million riel ($35,000) from selling tickets to 40,000 visitors – Cambodian visitors pay 3,000 riel and foreigners pay 5,000 riel per day – per year in the last few years. …
Yem Yan said mangrove forests were being destroyed in the 1990s because villagers made charcoal, but since the year 2000 there has been strict protection of mangrove forests. …
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit Macau in September to participate in the Second Global Tourism Economy Forum. Prime Minister Hun Sen called for more investment in the country by Chinese and Macau entrepreneurs, and direct flights between Cambodia and Macau.
According to Xinhua, the Prime Minister met with Edmund Ho Monday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, to discuss further expansion of bilateral ties in economics, trade and tourism. Ho is the former Macau Chief Executive and also a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,
Speaking at the meeting at the Peace Palace, Edmund Ho, who is also chairman of the Global Tourism Economy Forum, said his visit to Cambodia was to further promote China-Cambodia relations and cooperation, particularly between Cambodia and Macau …
[Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance] Keat Chhon noted that from 1992 to present, China has provided USD2.7 billion in soft loans and grants to Cambodia for rehabilitating and building infrastructure. Keat Chhon and Edmund Ho also discussed ways to promote tourism.
Local charter carrier Tonle Sap Airlines has suspended flights until June, in what appears to be the latest of a series of disruptions affecting the airline, which has also recently encountered financial turbulence.
The airline, which operates chartered flights from Siem Reap to China, Taipei, and Hong Kong, has suspended its services since April 29, and plans to resume them after June 3, the Taipei Times wrote last month. Chartered flights are typically hired via private arrangements with large tour groups or companies, while scheduled flights operate on fixed schedules. …
Since this period is not Cambodia’s peak tourism season, [Air Explore Airlines CEO Martin Stulajter] speculated that Tonle Sap chose to suspend flights instead of “having its planes sitting there doing nothing”.
But finance issues appear to have fueled Tonle Sap’s decision too. Tonle Sap ceased operations “with the intention of refinancing” itself, aviation website Ch-aviation said, without giving further details. …
In February 2012, a plane leased by Tonle Sap was grounded after its lessor, a Taiwanese airline, said Tonle Sap still owed it about $105,000, leaving more than 200 tourists stranded for ten hours. In September 2011, a flight suspension by the airline left over 800 tourists stuck in China.
Cambodia’s tourist arrivals registered a 19.9% growth in February according to the country’s statistics and tourist Information Department.
The country welcomed 385,760 visits compared to 321,870 during the same month in 2012.
Released by the Ministry of Tourism, Monday, data showed neighbouring Vietnam was the top supplier with 58,750 visits, an increase of 4.4% over 56,297 visits in February last year. …
In February, 52.8% (203,453) of all international visitors arrived by air. Siem Reap airport received the major share, 34.9% (134,465), while Phnom Penh Airport received just 17.9% (68,988) mainly business travellers who needed to contact government departments or budget travellers who starting or finishing their overland trips. …
Data hints of the massive imbalance between tourist arrivals to Siem Reap and the rest of the country. The tourism authority has urged travel enterprises to provide more information and tour programmes on other destinations to encourage visitors to Angkor Wat to explore the country in more detail. …
Serge Mostura, French Ambassador to Cambodia, said he wanted to boost economic diplomacy between Cambodia and France. …
Citizens of France visits Cambodia only as tourists or for study, but none have placed investments in the country, so he vows to attract small and medium sized French companies to invest in Cambodia, [personal assistant to Hun Sen Leng Sophatlet] quoted Serge Mostura as saying. …
He [Prime Minister Hun Sen] also called on France to pay attention to the commerce and investment sectors of the country, which are factors to strengthening the relationship between the two countries.
China’s assistance to Cambodia is very important for the country’s economic and social development, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Keat Chhon said Tuesday. …
He said from 1992 to present, China has provided 2.7 billion U. S. dollars in soft loans and grants to Cambodia for rehabilitating and building infrastructures. …
Cambodia’s National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a draft law on fire prevention with jail term punishment for arsonists, neglected firefighters, and false information providers on fires.
Ninety-four out of ninety-seven lawmakers, who were present at the session, passed the law, saying it would help maintain security, social safety, and public order, and protect lives, public health and properties. …
He [Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng] said the law was an important legal instrument to define fire preventive measures and to contribute to maintaining security, social safety, and public order, and protecting lives and properties as well as building confidence for investors and tourists. …
Cambodia and Bangladesh on Friday signed a visa-free agreement for diplomatic and service passport holders in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties in politics, trade, investment and tourism, officials said.
The deal was inked here between Long Visalo, secretary of state at Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Kazi Imtiaz Hossain, Bangkok-based Ambassador of Bangladesh to Cambodia. …
Trade and investment ties between the two nations are relatively small. On tourism side, only 1,367 Bangladeshis visited Cambodia last year, up 4 percent year on year, said a tourism report.
Cambodia has so far signed mutual visa exemption agreements for diplomatic and official passport holders with all ASEAN member countries as well as India, China, South Korea, Australia, Iran, Pakistan, Cuba and Uruguay.
While tourism in Cambodia has historically slowed in advance of general elections, tourism leaders in the government and private sector have said they expect this year’s July elections to have little impact on tourist arrivals. …
Tourism numbers dipped by 10.9 per cent for the 2003 general election. During the 2008 general election, tourism arrivals increased but at a much slower pace than previous years, slowing from an 18.5 per cent increase in 2007 to just 5.5 per cent in 2008.
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t going expecting to look out the bus window and see all the blue bags along the roads and in the fields,” said 27-year-old Christopher Convery, who is currently backpacking for the first time in Cambodia. …
In 2010, Mr. Hun Sen lambasted the widespread use of plastic bags as a principle cause of flooding in Phnom Penh. Meetings were called, supermarkets were advised and appeals were made for the public to be educated about throwing away non-biodegradable waste that blocks the city’s drainage pipes. It spurred the then Phnom Penh governor Kep Chuktema to authorize police to fine people who they saw littering.
“Every day now we are issuing fines of up to 20,000 reil [about $5] to individuals and vendors,” said Em Sambath, chief of municipal public order, who adds that fines total about 2 million reil, or about $500 a month, which goes into the municipal budget. …
The government has made some progress in the past few years to reduce flooding in Phnom Penh, notably with a $350-million dollar drainage system funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). …
“The current [drainage] project we are assisting will finish in 2015 and is still ongoing…[it] will take some time for the system to be fully effective,” said Seng Solady, programme officer for JICA, “But we still consider garbage as a problem for Phnom Penh’s drainage system.”
The environmental implications of such consumption are well documented: Each plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade and as they do, they clog and contaminate soil, waterways and choke or poison animals. …
Tourism is also potentially suffering, with all the discarded rubbish leaving a negative impression on visitors that Cambodia is a dirty place. …
Implementing a tax on plastic bags to encourage people to reuse is another [alternative] answer. The Ministry of Environment is currently working with the Ministry of Tourism to get retailers to charge 500 reil for each plastic bag by 2015, according to Mr. Sam An at City Hall. …
Illegal border movements, illegal logging, drug trafficking, illegal fishing and unofficial cross border trade are among the issues being confronted by Laos and Cambodia along their shared border at the moment.
The report was made during a meeting held between Champassak provincial authorities from Laos and Strung Treng provincial authorities of Cambodia, in order to discuss various cross border issues which are affecting public order and security in the region. …
In addition, the two provinces agreed to support and facilitate the implementation of the cooperation projects stipulated under Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle Area. …
Japan agreed Tuesday to provide a loan package of 90 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for the improvement of a stretch of the national road No. 5 and two bypasses in northwestern provinces, according to a statement from Japanese Embassy to Cambodia. …
The statement said the loan would be used to widen a 47- kilometer stretch of the national road No. 5 between Battambang province and Sri Sophorn town of Banteay Meanchey province and to construct two bypasses in the two provinces.
The loan’s interest rate is 0.01 percent per annum with the repayment period of 40 years including 10 years of grace period, it said. …
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.
Cambodia’s economic growth is forecast at 7.2 percent in 2013, picking up to 7.5 percent next year as recovery in Europe and the United States takes hold, according to the Asian Development Bank’s annual economic outlook released on Tuesday.
The United States and Europe are the largest purchasers of Cambodia-made garment and footwear products. …
The report noted that net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Cambodia surged by an estimated 75 percent in 2012, to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, funding new industries including automotive parts, electronics, and processing of agricultural products, as well as diversifying garment production into higher- value products and tourism into new areas. …
The first consultative meeting between Cambodia and Slovakia was held here [Phnom Penh] on Tuesday to discuss ways to promote bilateral ties and exchange views on regional and international issues.
The meeting was co-chaired by Cambodian Secretary of State for Foreign Ministry Ouch Borith and the visiting Slovakian Deputy Foreign Minister Peter Burian.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ouch Borith said on bilateral relations, the two countries agreed to enhance cooperation in politics, economics, trade, tourism and education. …
Despite current tensions between North and South Korea, Cambodia’s tourism minister said yesterday that the number of tourists from South Korea to the Kingdom had not dropped. …
[Minister of Tourism Thong] Khong said that so far there appears to be nothing to worry about. “There are no reports that it [the stand-off] is affecting our tourism industry. But, normally, during the hot season, the number usually declines a bit,” Khong said, adding that in the first two months, the number of tourists from South Korea had jumped eight per cent compared to the same period last year, making it the largest source of tourists for the Kingdom. …
The Prime Minister appealed Wednesday to Australian investors to increase their investments in Cambodia, especially in the agriculture and the tourism sectors.
The comments were made during a meeting with the outgoing Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, Penny Richards, at the Peace Palace. …
He said, because of the cooperation, Australia had increased their grants from $60 mln to $80 mln per year for agriculture, health, infrastructure and the judicial sectors in Cambodia. …
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. …
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.
