Cambodia 20260420
Mekong Memo Cambodia Weekly: Business, politics, finance, trade & legal news.
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Headlines:
Hun Sen Offers Critics a Rifle
Ream Gets Its First Ship With Teeth
American Carts, Chinese Capital
IMF Says 4%, Economists Say 3%, Pump Says Relief
Beijing Pours a Billion Into Koh Kong's Hills
Sihanoukville's Shells Get Squatters, Not Investors
First Project Bond Takes Home the Hardware
Erection for the Rat Who Outworked the Sappers
Hun Sen Offers Critics a Rifle
Cambodia's Foreign Ministry filed a formal sovereignty protest, claiming Thai military construction is taking place in three border provinces, including an observation post in Preah Vihear and bunkers in Oddar Meanchey. Phnom Penh said the activity is a push to consolidate what it termed "illegal occupation," a phrase that doesn't leave much room for quiet diplomacy. Senate President Hun Sen spent part of Khmer New Year on the back foot, releasing a voice clip after Australia-based analyst Seng Sary called his wounded-little-finger metaphor an insult to Khmer ancestors and fallen soldiers. Hun Sen's counter was that the only alternative to negotiation is the "hard way" of military confrontation, and he invited Sary to come home and join the front line if that's his preference.
Read more: Phnom Penh Post (locations), Nation Thailand (Thai rebuttal), Cambodianess (border blame), Cambodianess (quotes)
Ream Gets Its First Ship With Teeth
Hull number 622, a Type 056C corvette, pulled in to Ream Naval Base on April 4 and was formally handed over four days later, giving the Royal Cambodian Navy its first surface combatant capable of carrying missiles. The vessel is also bigger than the one that China keeps for itself, as satellite imagery puts the hull at roughly 95 meters, about five meters longer than the standard Type 056 variants used by the PLA Navy. Beijing is transferring this ship and a second corvette due in June as grant aid, not a sale. Until April, the Cambodian navy ran on small patrol craft.
Read more: Army Recognition (specs), Janes (hull comparison)
American Export Tops, Chinese Capital Growing
Cambodia's US-bound exports were $3.36 billion in Q1, up 38.4% year-on-year, raising the bilateral trade surplus to $3.23 billion as American buyers front-loaded orders at a pace that made the tariff headlines feel almost abstract. Exports for the quarter were $8.09 billion, with the usual trio of garments, footwear and travel goods sectors leading with $3.75 billion of that. That’s 46 cents of every export dollar. Japan trade grew at a more gentlemanly pace of 14.8% to $753 million. Behind those numbers, China put $1.169 billion into the country in Q1, nearly half of all registered investment capital.
Read more: The Star (deficit), Khmer Times (RCEP), Khmer Times (categories), Khmer Times (China investment)
IMF Says 4%, Economists Say 3%, Pump Says Relief
Five economists at an IBC lunch walked out with a number the IMF won't touch, calling for 3% GDP growth though 2026, down from earlier forecasts above 5%, as rising diesel and LPG costs flow through logistics, hospitality, and manufacturing. The IMF, presenting its Regional Economic Outlook in Washington, kept its Cambodia forecast steady at 4%, even as its own Asia and Pacific director reminded everyone that the region's oil and gas consumption is nearly 4% of GDP, almost double Europe's. Some relief arrived Friday, as Iran reopened the Strait (they later reversed course) and the Commerce Ministry cut diesel prices by 10.9% to 5,700 riels per liter, and bringing gasoline down 2.9% to 4,950 riels.
The government has been running roughly $50 million a month in fuel subsidies via reduced import duties on oil, gas, and a grab bag of EVs and stoves.
Read more: The Star (prices), Cambodia Investment Review (economist views), Khmer Times (regional)
Beijing Pours a Billion Into Koh Kong's Hills
Construction started on the Upper Tatay pumped-storage hydropower station in Koh Kong province, a $1 billion, 1-gigawatt project run by state-owned China National Heavy Machinery Corporation and expected to finish by 2029. The plant is designed to use intermittent solar and wind energy to fill the station and release water (and therefore produce electricity) on demand, solving the grid-stability problem that renewables are (in)famous for.
Read more: SCMP
Sihanoukville Shells Get Squatters, Not Investors
Months after the late-2025 scam crackdown pushed out another wave of Chinese workers (and capital), Sihanoukville's unfinished high-rises are still empty, their ground floors taken over by vendors and laborers who've turned the space into makeshift homes. Landowner Sar Muywang, who leased her family's plot to a Chinese developer for a nine-story residential building in 2019, says they'd finish the project themselves if they could afford it. A government recovery program now extended to 2027 keeps promoting investor incentives to an audience that isn't listening.
Read more: CamboJA News (recovery program), CamboJA News (Prince Group), Asian News Network (Mondulkiri raid)
First Project Bond Takes Home the Hardware
The SchneiTec Dynamic Green Project Bond, issued in March 2025 to finance a 60MW solar plant in Kampong Chhnang, picked up two prizes at the 2026 Environmental Finance Lasting Debt Awards, for Green Bond Structure Innovation (Asia-Pacific) and Green Project Bond. The KHR196.64 billion ($49 million) deal, listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange and backed by a credit guarantee from the ADB-affiliated CGIF, runs on a 20-year power purchase agreement with Electricite du Cambodge and is now the country’s longest-tenor corporate bond at 15 years.
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (investor detail), Khmer Times (emissions data)
Erection for the Rat Who Outworked the Sappers
Cambodia has erected the world's first statue of a landmine-detecting rat, honoring Magawa, an African giant pouched rat who sniffed out 100 mines and cleared 141,000 square meters of contaminated land before dying shortly after his retirement in 2022. Bred in Tanzania and trained by Belgian charity Apopo (you MUST go see their visitor center in Siem Riep if you have a chance), he was ableto sweep a tennis-court-sized patch in 20 minutes, work that would take a human with a metal detector days.
Read more: My Modern Met
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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Thank you - this is insightful. Since you seem to know your Cambodia politics, can I get your opinion on my latest piece. I wrote after a month in Vietnam and Cambodia, and have some firsthand experiences - I kept notes the whole time and converted the Cambodian stuff into an article.