Cambodia 20260202
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Headlines:
Bavet Bust Bags Thousands
Border Kerfuffle Costs a Million Tourists
UK Grants Three More Years of Duty-Free Exports
Sewing Machines Beat the Slowdown
First “Homegrown” EVs Roll Off the Line
Smart’s 5G Sprint: 283 to 600 Sites in 27 Days
Life Behind Bars for 1.5-Tonne Drug Run
Betting on Climate Apps
Bavet Bust Bags Thousands
Phnom Penh is finally doing something, after months of Beijing’s pointed complaints about apparent sanctuaries of online fraud. Police raided a 22-building casino complex in Bavet on Saturday, and bagged 2,044 foreigners (almost 1,800 of them are Chinese nationals). The bust brings total arrests over the past seven months to 5,106 suspects from 23 nationalities. Four and a half thousand of them have already been deported. Interior ministry spokesman Touch Sokhak is now not record saying that the kingdom is “not a safe haven, but a hell for criminals.”
Read more: The Star (Raid Details), DotDotNews (Arrests), Bernama (Deportations)
Border Kerfuffle Costs a Million Tourists
The tourism industry missed out on more than million visitors in 2025 as it saw a steep drop down from 2024 arrivals as December clashes along the border with Thailand gutted the high season. Thai arrivals cratered, changing a reliable source market into a cautionary tale. Vietnamese visitors also dropped 8.8%, so maybe all the poor numbers can’t be pinned directly on the ruckus. Chhay Sivlin, of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, says the fighting caused many cancellations and “a growing sense of fear” from international tourists. The Ministry of Tourism wants to make a trilateral push with Laos and Vietnam under a “Three Countries, One Destination” banner to stem the tide. As a footnote, China did provide a bright spot as their arrival numbers were up more than 40%.
Read more: Travel and Tour World (Decline), Travel and Tour World (Cooperation), The Star (Demarcation Stall), Khmer Times (UN Dispute), Asia News Network (No Deal)
UK Grants Three More Years of Duty-Free Exports
The Kingdom and the UK crossed the billion dollar bilateral trade threshold last year, but the real news for exporters is that Britain has promised to keep duty-free, quota-free access in place through at least 2032 - three years past the scheduled 2029 graduation from Least Developed Country status. That transition from LDC typically means losing trade preferences, so the extended runway will be helpful for anyone planning capex or thinking about supply contracts. The possibility of extended tariff-free treatment under the UK’s “Enhanced” tier is also being floated.
Read more: Khmer Times (Trade Forum), Cambodia Investment Review (Relationship)
Sewing Machines Beat the Slowdown
The kingdom added 310 garment factories last year and the sector now employs 2.14 million workers and ships (at last count) $15.5 billion in garments, footwear, and travel goods annually. The Ministry of Labor is trying to beat the drum on “investor trust” in workforce development, but the real draw is the same as it ever was: preferential access to US, EU, Canadian, and Japanese markets, AND labor costs that still undercut Vietnam and Thailand.
Read more: Khmer Times
First “Homegrown” EVs Roll Off the Line
The first locally assembled electric vehicles (a batch from BYD’s new Phnom Penh plant) are hitting the road. The Chinese automaker is betting big with plans for what it calls the country’s largest “Car Centre” meet demand. For a country whose manufacturing base has been stuck in garments (see previous story) for decades, putting EVs together is progress.
Read more: Khmer Times
Smart’s 5G Sprint: 283 to 600 Sites in 27 Days
Smart Axiata just pulled off one of the faster 5G buildouts in Southeast Asia, rolling out hundreds of new sites in 21 provinces in less than a month. The sprint more than doubled a network that sported only 283 towers on New Year’s Day. Phnom Penh got the lion’s share with more than 400 towers; Sihanoukville and Siem Reap picked up about 40 each. The telco says it now has 750,000 ADU will cover all 25 provinces by end of this year. Speeds are reportedly in at 100-200 Mbps range, which is nothing to write home about, but it’s enough to make it useable for a large part of the population.
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review
Life Behind Bars for 1.5-Tonne Drug Run
Six Chinese, one Taiwanese, and one Indonesian were the recipients of life sentences and ~$100,000 fines for trying to push 1.5 tonnes of ketamine and meth through Stung Hav Port toward Taiwan. The operation moved product from Laos through Preah Sihanouk province before authorities grabbed it (980+ kilos of ketamine and 530+ kilos of meth) in January 2024. The haul is substantial, but if a multi-country smuggling ring can pull together nearly a tonne of each drug and almost make it to a shipping container, it would be interesting to know how many loads didn’t get caught. Cambodia sits at the crossroads of Golden Triangle production and East Asian demand in a location that makes it attractive for transit whether or not customs are paying attention.
Read more: The Star
Betting on Climate Apps
“Digital” is always a hot topic when it comes to solving any industry’s ills, but the test is whether anyone will actually use what’s been built. A new Cambodia Agrometeorological Service started operating last Friday (Jan 30) in the four northern provinces of Oddar Meanchey, Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, and Siem Reap, and it is expected to serve weather forecasts and planting advisories for mangoes, cashews, organic rice, and leafy vegetables by way of a mobile app and voice messages. The platform is the result of the Green Climate Fund-backed PEARL Project, was implemented by the FAO, and has been a joint effort between the agriculture and meteorology ministries to get science-based guidance into the hands of farmers. Let’s see if it helps.
Read more: Cambodianess
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Great roundup on the border situation's impact on tourism. The million-visitor drop is staggering when that's basically 17% of the sector in one hit. Intresting how the trilateral push with Laos and Vietnam might help reposition things, but hard to see turists flocking back when the border tensions are still unresolved.