Cambodia 20260406
Mekong Memo Cambodia Weekly: Business, politics, finance, trade & legal news.
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Headlines:
Licensed to Traffic
Four Hundred Families, $300 a Hectare, 15 Days to Leave
Barbed Wire at the Temple
Beijing Parks a Corvette at Ream
Kingpin's Fall Strands Depositors
Court Erases Opposition Advisor From the Ballot
Thai Boycott Fills Local Shelves
Fill Up Fast
Rat Gets a Monument (He Earned It)
Licensed to Traffic
Amnesty International found that the local gambling regulator renewed licenses for at least 12 casinos that have confirmed links to human trafficking, torture, and forced labor, despite the government's promise of a crackdown. The Commercial Gambling Management Commission approved layout plans for the Crown and Majestic casino complexes in Poipet and Bavet, whose former chairman Ly Kuong stepped down in December and was arrested a month later on charges including illegal recruitment for exploitation. Two survivors said they were confined for months at Crown Poipet, threatened with electric shock batons, and forced to open bank accounts. Authorities say they've shut down more than 250 scam sites and 92 casinos since July, but the regulator's recent approvals suggest the cleanup hasn't gone as far as the licensing office.
Read more: Jurist (report), Asgam (CGMC renewal), CamboJA News (scam centers), Sight Magazine (penalties), Al Jazeera (legal)
Four Hundred Families, $300 a Hectare, 15 Days to Leave
Provincial authorities in Preah Vihear gave nearly 400 farming families a deadline of April 13 to vacate land they've been cultivating for more than a decade, clearing the way for a Chinese-held economic land concession. The company, China Great Cause (Cambodia) Investment, got the concession through a 2012 sub-decree and has registered seven land titles that cover 5,871 hectares, but left portions undeveloped until last year when it started surveying who was farming there. Authorities are offering 1.2 million riel per hectare (about $300), as compensation.
Read more: CamboJA News
Barbed Wire at the Temple
Thai troops cleared land and hung up barbed wire near Preah Vihear Temple this week, rolling in armored vehicles to what Phnom Penh calls "illegally occupied areas" of Sra Em. The foreign ministry says the moves are in violation of the ceasefire agreement and has made its second formal protest in three days, after Bangkok sent soldiers and two armored vehicles to the O'Smach border crossing. Phnom Penh also rejected accusations from Thai ultranationalist Veera Somkwamkid that Hun Sen's Bodyguard Headquarters had “infiltrated Bangkok” in order to carry out espionage and assassinations, calling the claims "false and baseless."
Read more: Nation Thailand (oil smuggling), Cambodianess (barbed wire), Khmer Times (espionage), Khmer Times (probe officials)
Beijing Parks a Corvette at Ream
The first Chinese-built Type 056 guided-missile corvette docked at Ream Naval Base on April 4; a handover ceremony is planned for Wednesday. A second ship is about 70% done and due to arrive in June. The 1,300-tonne corvettes carry YJ-83 anti-ship missiles as well as HHQ-10 air defense systems, and are built for coastal patrol work. Thailand's Navy felt it was appropriate to make public reassurances that the arrivals "would not affect Thailand's maritime security in any way," claiming its own superiority in both number of warships and capability. The Thai statement also said that its Navy is "closely monitoring efforts by countries in the region to strengthen their naval forces."
Read more: Nation Thailand
Kingpin's Fall Strands Depositors
Li Xiong, former chairman of Huione Group, was extradited to China last Wednesday. He is up on charges including fraud, running illegal casinos, and the concealment of criminal proceeds, in what U.S. authorities have called a multi-billion-dollar laundering operation. The U.S. Treasury fingered Huione as a laundering node that processed at least $4 billion in illegal proceeds, from both North Korean thefts as well as the regional scam syndicates. Days after the extradition, customers of the National Bank of Cambodia received a letter saying the bank had no measures to resolve their frozen Huione Pay deposits and advising them to pursue legal action. The central bank said it has no legal basis to recognize customers as creditors.
Read more: AP News (network figures), CamboJA News (customer claims), CamboJA News (citizenship revocation)
Court Erases Opposition Advisor From the Ballot
The appeal court on Tuesday permanently stripped Rong Chhun of his political rights, upholding a 2025 incitement conviction over comments he made about online scams and the Cambodian border with Vietnam. Chhun, a former union leader and advisor to the opposition Nation Power Party, already served more than 15 months on a separate conviction in 2021. He is still on release pending a Supreme Court appeal but can't vote or run in next year's commune elections. Neither he nor his lawyer attended the hearing after their request to delay was denied.
Read more: CamboJA News
Thai Boycott Fills Local Shelves
Local products now have 30 percent of the domestic market, up from just 2 percent twenty years ago, as consumer anger over border clashes with Thailand continues to keep shoppers away from Thai imports. The spat with Thailand has given local SME producers their biggest opening in a generation, according to Te Tangpor, who leads the Federation of Associations for Small and Medium Enterprises. He told producers not to squander the moment by flooding the market with counterfeit or substandard goods, which could kill the fledgling trust that's taken years to build. Deputy Prime Minister Aun Pornmoniroth made the same pitch last September, telling businesses to deliver quality and hygiene if they want to change a boycott into a permanent brand advantage.
Read more: Cambodianess
Fill Up Fast
The Ministry of Commerce raised retail fuel prices twice in 72 hours, with diesel up to 8,100 riel (roughly $2) a liter on April 4 from 7,500 riel on April 1. That's up 8% in three days. Regular gasoline rose slightly as well in a smaller move. The ministry says current prices already include government subsidies and tax cuts which are intended to soften the blow, indicating that Phnom Penh doesn't have much more room to maneuver. The new rates are in place until further notice, which in practice means “until the next adjustment.”
Read more: Khmer Times
Rat Gets a Monument (He Earned It)
Siem Reap now has a statue of Magawa, an African giant pouched rat who sniffed out more than 100 landmines during a five-year career that started in 2016. The rodent cleared more than 141,000 square meters of land and in 2020 became the first rat to receive the PDSA Gold Medal for bravery. He died in 2022 at the age of eight. More than a million people still live and work on land that’s contaminated by mines and UXO, a 2030 mine-free target is still much-hoped-for.
Read more: BBC (Apopo training), Khmer Times (praise, successor)
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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