Cambodia 20251208
Mekong Memo Cambodia Weekly: Business, politics, finance, trade & legal news.
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Headlines:
Border Skirmish Turns Airborne
Cambodia Banks $38 Billion in Assets
Border Neighbors Schedule Another Handshake
Guns, Selfies, Shared Borders Bloom
SEA Games Price Tag
Temples Visitor Numbers and Revenue Down
Tech Seeds Sprout Past Killing Fields
Crude Dreams Offshore
Digital Archeology Resurrects Khmer Memory
Border Skirmish Turns Airborne
Thailand launched airstrikes on December 8 after what it says were Cambodian attacks that killed two soldiers and wounded four in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani’s border area, hitting weapon depots and command centers and requiring the evacuation of more than 385,000 civilians. Cambodia’s Lt. Gen. Maly Socheata is denying his forces fired first and claims Thai strikes hit Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey without provocation - the usual fog-of-war contradiction that makes sorting who started what almost impossible to figure out from the outside.
Read more: Khmer Times (Mine Action), Khmer Times (Cluster Bomb Impact), UCA News (Landmine Victim), Cambodianess (Border Economic Shift), Khmer Times (Border Trade Impact)
Cambodia Banks $38 Billion in Assets
Cambodia’s banking sector tallied up $38.3 billion in total assets last year, a figure that’s up 7.5% from 2022, with consumer deposits rising 16% and 2.5 million microfinance borrowers now in the system. Minister Aun Pornmoniroth says public confidence is what is driving the expansion, though whether that confidence rests on fundamentals or China’s $45 billion in FDI over the past three decades is an open question. GDP hit $46.3 billion in 2024, but the gap between headline numbers and what actually trickles down to wages and storefronts is still the story no one’s fully telling.
Read more: Kiripost (Bank Trust), Bernama (Cybercrime Commitment), Cambodia Investment Review (FDI Dependency)
Border Neighbors Schedule Another Handshake
Cambodia and Vietnam will co-chair their 21st Joint Commission today and tomorrow in Siem Reap, where foreign ministers are expected to review a master plan on economic connectivity through 2030 and catch up on decisions from a March 2023 meeting in Hanoi. The agenda is an indication of how often neighbors meet to talk about talking - this happens to be the 21st such session. The 18th Cambodia Trade Expo wrapped up yesterday at PH Grand Hall with nearly 300 booths, most of them MSMEs trying to move product in a region where official cooperation and actual commerce don’t always line up. Whether any cross-border connectivity translates into freight that moves faster or tariffs that drop lower is still the gap between ministerial communiqués and truckers waiting at checkpoints.
Read more: Khmer Times (Trade Expo), Cambodianess (Diplomatic Meeting), Vietnam+ (Business Networking), Khmer Times (Tech Collaboration), Nhan Dan (Market Expansion), Kiripost (Export Challenges), Asia News Network (Rice Export), Khmer Times (Activist Trial)
Guns, Selfies, Shared Borders Bloom
Cambodia’s defense minister flew to Vientiane in early December for Laos’ 50th anniversary celebrations and left with refreshed promises to be tougher on border crime coordination - the kind of vague cooperation that is easier to announce than enforce. A week later, Vietnam’s PM and Cambodia’s Hun Manet cut the ribbon on the Tan Nam-Meun Chey border gate connecting Tay Ninh and Prey Veng, a crossing that will help to streamline trade if customs doesn’t turn it into a bottleneck.
Read more: VNA (Border Growth), VOV.VN (Border Opening), Khmer Times (People Diplomacy), Khmer Times(Defense Cooperation), Xinhua (Tourism Policy)
SEA Games Price Tag
Cambodia spent $130 million on the SEA Games last May, an amount that Senate President Hun Sen insists came entirely from government coffers, though China happens to be the contractor behind the Morodok Techo Stadium that hosted the events. The distinction matters because Chinese money is flooding in elsewhere - 52% of Cambodia’s $7.8 billion in approved FDI this year came from Chinese sources, part of a 30-year accumulation that now totals $45 billion.
Read more: Fulcrum (Strategic Flexibility), Cambodianess (Energy Grid Plan), Cambodia Investment Review (FDI Dependency Critique), Global Times (SEA Games Funding), The Star (Games Budget Defense)
Temples Visitor Numbers and Revenue Down
Cambodia’s Angkor Archaeological Park saw 867,195 foreign visitors through November, a number that is just a little below last year’s figure, with Thailand’s closed border and global belt-tightening doing most of the 3.5% damage. Revenue dropped in line 3.4% to $40.5 million. Siem Reap’s airport is adding two more airlines to reach 15 total.
Read more: Blooloop (Tech Tourism Innovation), Khmer Times (Tourism Visitor Trends), The Star (Culinary Heritage Recognition), Cambodia Investment Review (Hospitality Leadership Profile)
Tech Seeds Sprout Past Killing Fields
Cambodia’s tech ministry is pushing for a unified ASEAN tech ecosystem at Malaysia’s Cyberjaya summit, leaning on the APASTI 2026-2035 framework to close gaps that might let the region compete. It is a curious sight to find a country that buried millions in the 1970s now pitching digital integration. Malaysia’s MIGHT think tank warned in a concept paper that without reform, ASEAN is likely to miss its SDG targets.
Read more: Khmer Times (Startup Breakthrough), Khmer Times (Tech Ecosystem Reform)
Crude Dreams Offshore
Angkor Resources wrapped a 350-kilometre seismic survey in September on Block VIII, a 4,095-square-kilometre slice of offshore Cambodia, and says it is identified three anticline structures - South Bokor, Central Bokor, and North Bokor - sitting in what they’re calling the Mussel Basin, a rift formation that is likely to produce hydrocarbons. The company, which is listed on the TSX-Venture exchange and holds the exploration license for the entire block, expects to finish interpreting the data by the end of this month, at which point we’ll know if the structures are traps with oil or just geological curiosities. Cambodia has been chasing offshore crude for decades with little to show for it.
Read more: Khmer Times
Digital Archeology Resurrects Khmer Memory
Pascal Medeville launched the “Wonders of Cambodia” project last month as a multilingual site publishing research-heavy articles on Cambodian history and daily life in French, Khmer, and Chinese, with Vietnamese and Japanese editions in the works. The editor says he is trying to fill a gap between tourist fluff and sensationalism as he looks to find a space where actual context might survive. Check it out!
Read more: Cambodianess (Interview), Wonders of Cambodia
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