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

Jul 13, 2026

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IMF Cuts Growth Forecast to 3%

Real GDP growth is expected to slow to 3% in 2026, the IMF said, which is appreciably down from 5.3% last year and would be half the 6.0% pace posted in 2024. Inflation is expected to find 5.6% this year as higher fuel prices run into a mix of problems, including reputational damage from the cyber scam industry, tepid tourist arrivals, weak external demand, and a real estate sector still struggling as regulatory forbearance winds down. The Article IV mission recommended targeted cash support for vulnerable households instead of broad fuel subsidies, as well as putting the heat on Phnom Penh to expand the tax base instead of leaning further on debt. The riel has stayed more-or-less steady against the dollar, which remains an anchor for the heavily dollarized economy.

Read more: Nikkei Asia (border fallout), Cambodia Investment Review (IMF review)

US Takes 42% of Exports

Merchandise exports were $17.09 billion in 1H 2026, up almost a fifth year-on-year, and the United States bought $7.17 billion of it. Garments, footwear, and travel goods, the sector that keeps 1.1 million workers on payroll in 1,800 factories, grew more slowly (6.2% to $7.99 billion) and still made up almost half of all exports. Vietnam was a distant second at $2.52 billion, followed by China at $943 million, Japan at $907 million, and Canada at $634 million. Imports rose faster, coming in at $19.76 billion and leaving a $2.67 billion trade deficit for the half.

Read more: Khmer Times (export markets), Fibre2Fashion (product mix), Xinhua (trade deals)

Border Blast Wounds Four in Green

A blast in an Oddar Meanchey cashew plantation on July 5 wounded four Cambodian soldiers. Phnom Penh says it was an unexplained explosion behind a departing patrol, but Bangkok insists its troops were only guarding road construction and that the detonation happened on Cambodian soil. No independent evidence has supported either story. Malaysia's defense chief, General Malek Razak Sulaiman, took a tour of the ASEAN Observer Team's post in Banteay Meanchey on July 8 before promising closer military ties with Vong Pisen, another visit Phnom Penh is using to put outside eyes on the border. The resettlement effort is also taking shape, with six new Rong Cham villages outside Slakram, nicknamed "Waiting Villages" by Hun Sen, built to replace the shuttered Kandorl Pagoda tent camp. The Interior Ministry claims that more than 640,000 people are still affected and 20,840, including 6,066 children, remain unable to go home because Thai troops are still in their villages.

Read more: Cambodia Daily (blast site), Khmer Times (new villages), Asian News Network (observer team), Cambodianess (military ties)

Phnom Penh Files Another Protest Over Razor Wire

Cambodia has filed a new protest accusing Thai troops of building fortifications inside its territory. Phnom Penh says that’s in violation of the December 2025 ceasefire. The Foreign Affairs Ministry documented two incidents in Oddar Meanchey, saying Thai soldiers excavated an embankment and strung razor wire near Boundary Pillar No. 14 in O'Smach commune, then laid more wire near Boundary Pillar No. 22 in Banteay Ampil district. Phnom Penh says the work breaches the 1904 Franco-Siamese Convention, the 1907 Treaty, and the de-escalation measures agreed at the December 2025 General Border Committee meeting. It wants Thailand to stop construction at the two named sites and "any other areas unlawfully occupied by Thai forces since last year."

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (diplomatic protest), Khmer Times (site damage)

El Nino Dries Out Rice Paddy

Rainfall has been reduced by as much as half since early 2026, and the Water Resources Ministry expects El Nino to continue getting stronger. Hun Manet told his people to coordinate monitoring, secure food reserves, and make sure that emergency response plans were refreshed.

Read more: Cambodianess (farmer concerns), CamboJA News (weather outlook)

a large building lit up at night with a clock tower — Photo by sam onn chan on Unsplash

H-Pay Liquidator Says the Money Is Gone

Reach & Partners, the liquidator for H-Pay, said that the payment platform is insolvent and had been operating beyond the license granted by the National Bank of Cambodia. The company was offering loans, crypto remittances, and fixed-term deposits that its permit… did not permit. The reveal comes three months after H-Pay and predecessor Huione Pay put a freeze on withdrawals, and weeks after Washington extended sanctions to H-Pay as Huione Pay's successor over alleged billions in scam-connected laundering. Creditors had until May 25 to file claims, and authorities have already said that nobody is likely to get his money back. Huione Pay’s its license was quietly revoked in September 2024, but the central bank didn’t disclose that publicly until December 2025.

Authorities Deport 1,362 Scammers

Cambodia sent 1,362 foreigners from 24 countries home during a 10-day sweep of online scam compounds, including 79 Thai nationals. The pace, more than 136 removals a day, suggests authorities are clearing suspects out rather than letting cases pile up in court. No breakdown of the other 23 nationalities was shared.

Tokyo Kidney Broker Arrested Over Transplant

Tokyo police arrested Hiromichi Kikuchi, 66, his son Mitsuru Kikuchi, 42, and Takaki Ando, 66, on charges of brokering a living-donor kidney transplant for a Tokyo patient at a hospital in central Phnom Penh. Japanese media said it is the country's first criminal case over paid organ-transplant arranging. The patient gave roughly 25 million yen in U.S. dollars to a Chinese coordinator in January for "local medical expenses," then wired another 12.3 million yen to the trio's Tokyo association as physician honoraria and administrative fees. Chinese doctors performed the surgery. The donor was reportedly a Cambodian woman. Kikuchi arranged this transplant after being released on bail from a 2023 arrest for running unauthorized transplants in Belarus, a case that ended in an eight-month prison sentence. The Phnom Penh hospital director told Asahi Shimbun only, "I do not want to talk about it."

NIAID Signs $36 Million Disease Research Deal

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Cambodia's Ministry of Health agreed to a five-year, $36 million research pact, the first Asian deal under Washington's "America First Global Health Strategy." Four institutions, including the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology, and Malaria Control and the National Institute of Public Health, will work with NIAID on dengue, chikungunya, zika, H5N1, and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. The US Embassy said the goal was to "contain outbreaks before they reach the United States."

Baby Is Fifth Bird Flu Case This Year

A nine-month-old girl from Prek Takong village in Phnom Penh's Meanchey tested positive for H5N1 this week, the fifth human case this year. Doctors have her in intensive care while health teams try to find the source, sample close contacts, and distribute Tamiflu as a precaution. The previous case, in April, was a 66-year-old woman in Svay Rieng near the Vietnam border. In Kandal's Koh Thom district, dengue has affected more than 570 people, with six severe cases sent to Kantha Bopha Hospital.

Read more: Khmer Times (public advisory), Khmer Times (health ministry), Cambodianess (poultry risk), Outbreak News Today (animal carriers)

France Previews Trade Agenda Before Macron Visit

Nicolas Forissier was in Phnom Penh this week laying the groundwork for the arrival of Emmanuel Macron for the Francophonie Summit in mid-November. With Mines and Energy Minister Keo Rottanak, Forissier talked about an 800-megawatt hydropower project valued at $1.2 billion, and a Phnom Penh waste-to-energy plan, though France wants more details (read: studies) before it cuts any checks. Forissier interestingly mentioned that French airlines are looking into direct flights, which would be a boon.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (trade agenda), Cambodianess (business forum), CamboJA News (energy plans)

Kem Ley's Archive Opens

Ten years after Kem Ley was gunned down at a Phnom Penh gas station, digital security consultant Nget Moses released a 71,000-file, 48-gigabyte archive of his speeches, notes, and research, including the full 2016 "Country Road Map" that pushed for opposition wins in the 2017 commune elections. LICADHO and ADHOC used the anniversary to renew their calls into a new investigation of who, if anyone, helped Oeuth Ang plan the killing that he blamed on a $3,000 debt. .

Read more: The Star (anniversary protest), CamboJA News (archive release), Cambodia Daily (accomplice questions), Khmer Times (reconciliation)

High Fuel Prices Drive EV Sales Boom

Cambodia has registered 14,056 EVs since 2021; 3,693 of them in March through May as fuel prices went through the roof. BYD and GAC lead sales.

$43 Million Tiger Plan Stalled by Lack of Prey

Cambodia hopes to fly in tigers from India to repopulate the Cardamom Mountains, nearly twenty years after the last confirmed sighting was caught on a camera trap. The $43 million reintroduction would bring several of India's more than 3,600 tigers into protected rainforest in the southwest. There’s a hitch, however. Indian tiger biologist Ullas Karanth, who once led surveys of Cambodia's tigers, says prey populations "went extinct" and have not recovered enough to feed the new arrivals. Consultant Jimmy Borah of Aaranyak disagrees, however, and says that camera trapping shows that there’s enough prey for initial arrivals and that "the conservation message is more important right now than worrying about prey availability." Tigers were meant to arrive in 2024. A May plan approved by the Environment Ministry now proposes arrivals beginning next year, but funding is still being negotiated after a carbon-credit project that was expected to finance the effort fell through.

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