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

Aug 17, 2026

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Pentagon, Phnom Penh Restart Joint Military Drills

Joint military exercises with the United States will start again in 2027 after a decade-long freeze that began when Phnom Penh scrapped the Angkor Sentinel drills in early 2017, not long after holding its first Golden Dragon exercises with China. Prime Minister Hun Manet announced the resumption after meeting US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby in Phnom Penh. Colby also thanked Defence Minister Tea Seiha for the January port call by the USS Cincinnati, an Independence-class littoral combat ship that became the first US Navy vessel to dock at Ream Naval Base since its Chinese-funded renovation, and welcomed further US naval visits to the facility. Washington has pressed Phnom Penh for years over possible Chinese military use of Ream; Cambodian officials say the base is open to any friendly navy. Cambodia and China held their largest-ever joint exercises in 2025, featuring artillery, warships and robot battle dogs.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (Colby regional tour), Straits Times (territorial integrity), Khmer Times (Peace Accords support)

The Draft Gets a Rulebook

A 41-article sub-decree signed Thursday details how the government will run the conscription drive ordered a year ago, setting two years of service for men aged 18 to 25. Conscripts get 400,000 riel a month (that’s about $100), plus food, housing and family benefits comparable to professional soldiers, in addition to a guarantee that their job or school seat will be waiting when they return. The guarantee has a loophole though, since employers can decline to take workers back if they pay severance under the Labor Law instead, a provision labor rights group Central's Moeun Tola warns invites discrimination against returning conscripts. Specialists in engineering, IT, healthcare and mine clearance can apply for exemption by signing public-interest work agreements with the armed forces for a term equivalent to their service.

Hun Manet Sells the North as US Counts Scammers

Prime Minister Hun Manet stood in Stung Treng on Wednesday touting $2.7 billion in proposed investment in four northern provinces, tax breaks, cheap loans and 80,000 promised jobs, telling skeptics "our country has a war, our country has scams" but insisting investment "continues to be attractive." The pitch came days after immigration chief Sok Veasna announced more than 17,700 foreign scam suspects had been deported between January 1 and August 9, part of more than 50,000 total expulsions this year. Around the same time, US Chargé d'Affaires Aleks Zittle sat down with Justice Minister Koeut Rith to press for prosecutions of scam masterminds, not only the low-level suspects filling deportation flights. The scam industry reportedly swindles more than $12.5 billion a year worldwide. Cambodia says it has arrested about 800 ringleaders and shut more than 250 scam centers since July 2025.

Read more: The Star (analyst quotes), CamboJA News (70 project proposals), CamboJA News (sanctioned senators)

Hun Manet Courts Kem Sokha's Daughter

Prime Minister Hun Manet posted a photo of himself with Kem Monovithya, Kem Sokha's daughter and former CNRP deputy director-general of public affairs, calling it part of a "generational partnership." Two days later Senate President Hun Sen hosted Sokha, his wife and Monovithya for a three-hour sit-down, praising Monovithya as, in his words, "valuable human capital." The gestures come after Sokha's May royal pardon, which erased his 27-year treason sentence and later lifted his five-year overseas travel ban, though political restrictions from his conviction remain. Public meetings between senior ruling-party figures and prominent opposition families have been rare since the CNRP's 2017 dissolution. Commune elections are a year out, national elections two. No policy commitments, cabinet posts, or party registration changes have followed either meeting.

Bangkok Hands Out Land in Disputed Border Zone

Thai authorities parceled out land to Thai citizens on August 13 in Chouk Chey village, the patch of Banteay Meanchey between Boundary Pillars 45 and 47 that Cambodian families were evicted from during last year's fighting. Phnom Penh's Foreign Ministry protested two days later, as it said the handouts were an attempt to legitimize occupation before the Joint Boundary Commission finishes its demarcation. No Thai government response has been reported so far.

Read more: The Star, Khmer Times, CamboJA News (psychological distress)

a large building with a clock on the front of it — Photo by sam onn chan on Unsplash

Garment Bosses Told to Buy Robots

Some 845 new factories opened in the first half of 2026, adding more than 90,000 jobs and moving the Labour Ministry's employment forecast up to 11 million workers by year's end. Garment exports were $11.4 billion last year, part of a $15.5 billion apparel, footwear and travel-goods total that grew almost 16 percent. But at last week's textile fair in Phnom Penh, Industry Minister Hem Vanndy told an industry that employs around 700,000 workers (mostly women), that its edge is going to depend on AI, robotics and automated cutting lines. The 2026 minimum wage for garment workers is $208 a month.

Read more: The Star (expo exhibitors), Fibre2Fashion (wage history), Khmer Times (skill gaps)

Timor Sea Veteran to Chair Gulf Maritime Panel

Australian diplomat Katrina Cooper, the DFAT deputy secretary for Southeast Asia who served as Canberra's co-agent in the Timor Sea conciliation that produced the 2018 Australia-Timor-Leste maritime boundary treaty, will chair the five-member UNCLOS commission arbitrating the Cambodia-Thailand dispute over the Gulf of Thailand's Overlapping Claims Area. Cambodia picked Peter Taksøe-Jensen of Denmark and Jean-Marc Thouvenin of France; Thailand picked Rüdiger Wolfrum of Germany and Albert Hoffmann of South Africa; the four then settled on Cooper, who doubles as Australia's special envoy for the multi-billion-dollar Greater Sunrise gas project. No date has been set for substantive hearings on the oil and gas reserves in the zone. The process began June 2 after Thailand ended a 25-year memorandum governing the zone, and Bangkok filed its formal response on June 19. Phnom Penh says it expects the commission's first procedural meeting within weeks.

Read more: Cambodianess, Khmer Times (12-month report deadline)

Kuehne+Nagel Triples Down on Phnom Penh

Kuehne+Nagel is building a 20,000-square-metre Container Freight Station in Phnom Penh, more than tripling its Cambodian handling capacity when it opens in June 2027. The site is near Phnom Penh International Airport and the road connects to Thailand and Vietnam, with Sihanoukville Autonomous Port handling roughly 1.3 million TEUs last year and Phnom Penh's port about 600,000. The warehouse is designed for five-tonne-per-square-metre floor loads and targets ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 certification, with solar panels, battery forklifts and rainwater capture built in. David Roussiere, the firm's managing director for Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, said the facility will serve consumer goods customers moving cargo in the region.

Ritz-Carlton Books Phnom Penh for 2032

Marriott and Kith Meng's Royal Group have agreed to build the country's first Ritz-Carlton on Norodom Boulevard in Daun Penh, with 152 rooms, 119 branded residences, and a Grade A office tower in the mixed-use complex. No financing details were disclosed. Opening is expected for 2032, well past the current tourism slump that has Siem Reap discounting rooms to fill them. Kith Meng says it is "a symbol of prosperity for the entire country," pitching the residences as "the pinnacle of ultra-luxury living."

Gov’t Sets $30 Million Startup Target for 2030

The National Strategy on Startup Development 2026-2030, launched Tuesday at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel by Deputy PM Aun Pornmoniroth, targets $30 million in total startup investment, 300 startups in incubation programs, and 100 startups receiving funding by 2030. It also wants to lift the country's Startup System Performance Index classification from "Growing" to "Expanding." Individual ministries will be required to set their own KPIs aligned with the four national targets.

Bou Meng, Who Painted Pol Pot to Survive, Dead at 85

Bou Meng, one of only seven known survivors of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 torture center, died Friday at 85 of age-related illness. His ability to paint Pol Pot's portrait was what kept him alive at the prison, where he was held for almost two years starting in 1977 and where an estimated 16,000 people were killed. He testified in 2009 against commandant Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, and recalled being ordered to paint Ho Chi Minh's head on the body of a dog. Duch was convicted in 2010, sentenced to life, and died in prison in 2020 at 77.

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