Cambodia 20260504

Mekong Memo Cambodia Weekly: Business, politics, finance, trade & legal news.

May 04, 2026

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Sokha's Sentence Sticks, Plus Five Years Grounded On Top

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeal upheld Kem Sokha's 27-year treason conviction on April 30, then obliged in going a step further when prosecutors asked for a heavier sentence, tacking on a five-year international travel ban that will begin after he finishes serving his time under house arrest. The 72-year-old's conviction rests on a 2013 speech he gave in a Melbourne suburb, in which he discussed election strategy advice from US-based pro-democracy groups, including a reference to the model that ousted Slobodan Milošević in Serbia. Condemnation came quickly. The US State Department said it was "troubled" by the ruling, UN High Commissioner Volker Türk said he was "deeply concerned," and embassies from the UK, Australia, and the EU, among others, weighed in. Sokha's lawyer Pheng Heng said he and his client have yet to decide whether to take a final appeal to the Supreme Court. In a separate case, Thel Thylen shouted “I need freedom of expression,” after his judge wrapped up by handing him a 22 month sentence. A Phnom Penh court convicted 37 activists Wednesday of incitement over social media posts criticizing the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area, a regional pact the government itself later scrapped. Judge Nhem Pisal gave Srun Srorn, Phoeng Sorphea, and San Seth the maximum two years apiece, plus fines of 4 million riel (about $1,000); the other 34 got between 18 months and two years. Only 14 defendants showed up for the verdict, with the rest convicted in absentia. Many had already spent nearly as long in pre-trial detention as the sentences they received.

Read more: AP News (incitement convictions), Straits Times (activists convicted), Human Rights Watch (2027-28 election legitimacy), CamboJA News (Australia, EU reactions), EFE (CNRP dissolution), CamboJA News (CLV-DTA Criticism Sentences)

Sunshine in the Survey but Years in the Cells

The Information Ministry celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 3 with a survey finding more than four-fifths of 570 journalists found that the media environment should be rated “positively,” and PM Hun Manet called press freedom "a strategic capability for promoting information security." Civil society has… different numbers. CamboJA reported 61 violations against 57 journalists in 2025, plus 14 more cases from January to April 2026, including two reporters held in pre-trial detention and two sentenced to 14 years for supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defense. RSF's yearly index moved Cambodia up 10 places to 151st of 180, but that’s still firmly parked in the "very serious" bracket alongside the world's least press-free states.

Read more: Cambodianess (RSF regional rankings), Cambodianess (LICADHO dissent), CamboJA News (environmental reporter safety), Cambodianess (Hun Manet framing), CamboJA News (press-card rules)

Poipet Gets a Cleanup, Right on Cue

Cambodian police raided a Poipet condominium on Saturday, finding nearly 4,700 mobile phones and more than 400 computer monitors in a building suspected of running scams targeting Thai citizens. They then deported about 600 nationals back across the border on Thursday. A second raid on Wednesday netted mostly Chinese nationals from another suspected compound in the same city. The first operation came two days after the US Treasury sanctioned Cambodian senator Kok An, whose Crown Resorts properties in Poipet, Washington alleges, have been converted into compounds running digital asset fraud and other scams. Thirty of the 635 Thais are still being processed by Cambodian authorities over alleged criminal offenses.

Growth Slips to 4.3, Deficits Double

AMRO's latest country assessment cuts Cambodia's 2026 growth forecast to 4.3 percent, down from an estimated 5.3 percent in 2025, with the current account deficit expected to more than double, from 3.6 to 8.5 percent of GDP. The drivers are nothing new, but they’re starting to pile up. Higher oil prices are pushing expected inflation to 3.9 percent, tourism is still weak, and remittances are dropping as migrant workers have departed from Thailand. Non-performing loans are above 8 percent, and recent bank liquidations have shaken confidence in the overall financial system. Public debt is still less than 30 percent of GDP, a bright spot that leaves the government a little room to move on targeted fiscal support.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Angkor Empties Out, Ministry Sells the Rain

Only 322,004 tourists passed through Angkor Archaeological Park between January and April, a number that’s down a third (along with revenue) when compared to the same stretch last year. April was the worst single month, with 51,093 visitors and $2.39 million in receipts. Angkor Tour Guide Association president Khiev Thy says the slide has been building since late 2025. The government's answer is to rebrand the problem. Tourism Minister Huot Hak launched the "Visit Cambodia in the Green Season" campaign on May 3, trying to reposition the monsoon months of May through October as a selling point rather than a deterrent, with discounted accommodation and packaged eco-tours. The five top source markets, the US, China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, all reported steep drops.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (airline cuts), Travel and Tour World (night visits), Travel and Tour World (eco-tour destinations), Khmer Times (2025 baseline), Travel and Tour World (Thim Sereyvuth mandate)

Fertilizer Bills Rise, Farmgate Won't Budge

The cost of imported fertilizer is up 25 to 30 percent, and that’s pushing Cambodian rice farmers toward the uncomfortable choice of eating the loss or switching to lower-input rainy-season varieties and quietly walking away from the export-grade crops that are the backbone of the Cambodian rice trade. Fuel is are piling up on top of the fertilizer issues. Industry groups want subsidies and duty cuts.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Payday Promises in Poipet

Nearly 700 workers found themselves outside locked gates Monday when ML Intimate Apparel locked its Poipet factory doors shut without warning. Hours of protest yielded a deal that should see wages paid in two phases on April 28 and May 28, with company assets transferred to the Labor Ministry for liquidation if the money doesn't arrive on schedule. Workers signed off on the deal, but confidence is thin on the ground. "I'm worried that when May 28 comes, they might find another reason not to pay," said Kim Tonich, a staff representative who says wage disputes had recently been a topic almost monthly. The economic zone he works in once held many factories, but now only one remains.

Huione's Depositors Take It to the Doorstep

Dozens of Huione Pay customers came together outside the National Bank of Cambodia again hoping their same actions will lead to new results as they asked for for new news on funds tied up since the payment platform collapsed. The NBC still hasn't laid out any coherent plan for relief.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

The Central Bank Picks Its Shade of Green

The National Bank of Cambodia this month published a 110-page Lasting Finance Taxonomy, its first rulebook that sorts green finance into a traffic-light system, with green assigned to near net-zero activities like solar and electric mobility, amber for transitional projects that need to clean up by 2040, and red for the likes of coal. Version 1 deals with energy, transport, and buildings; follow-on editions are expected to add climate adaptation criteria. NBC Governor Chea Serey says the framework is scaffolding for Cambodia's 2050 carbon neutrality objective.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Tokyo Still Paying for Sihanoukville Pier

Hun Manet went to Preah Sihanouk province on Friday for the 30th anniversary of Japan's ODA to Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, using the occasion to ask Tokyo to keep the money flowing for the next round of expansion. A day earlier in Phnom Penh, Deputy PM Sun Chanthol met with JICA Executive Senior Vice President Miyazaki Katsura on the same general subject of infrastructure cooperation. Japanese Ambassador Ueno Atsushi was also on hand for Friday's ceremony.

Read more: Khmer Times (TEU targets, timeline), Khmer Times (JICA visit)

Treasury's Crime Desk Calls on the Central Bank

NBC Governor Chea Serey hosted Maida Furnia, who runs the US Treasury's Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes for Asia-Pacific, at the central bank's Phnom Penh headquarters on April 30. They reportedly discussed “closer coordination” on illicit financing and securities regulation.

Delhi's Soldiers Drop In on Kampong Speu

One hundred and twenty Indian Army troops, mostly from the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment, arrived at Camp Basil in Kampong Speu on May 4 for CINBAX-II, a two-week drill with 160 Royal Cambodian Army staff to practice counter-terrorism, drone operations, mortar handling, and sniper tactics. It's the second edition of the exercise.

Read more: Social News XYZ (UN Chapter VII), Deccan Chronicle (Maratha Light Infantry)

Gold Refinery Number Seven

K88 Industry opened the country's seventh gold refinery on April 22, a $40 million facility that sits on the Kampong Thom-Kratie border and employs 375 workers. Minister Keo Rottanak reported on the sector's five-year tally of nearly 18 metric tons of gold produced between 2021 and 2025, as well as more than $200 million in state revenue produced.

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