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Gov’t Protests Thai Trench-Digging at Border
The Foreign Ministry filed a protest after Thai heavy machinery was sent to dig trenches in the Chouk Krous area. The work is part of what Phnom Penh says is a series of border violations. The complaint comes after Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul visited the Chong An Ma area (Cambodians call it An Seh), in Preah Vihear province, territory Phnom Penh says Thai troops have occupied since 2025. Hun Manet said the situation remains "fragile," as Joint Boundary Commission survey work promised under December's ceasefire remains stalled while barbed wire, shipping containers and Thai land allocations for civilians are still in the disputed territory.
Read more: Cambodianess (boundary maps), Khmer Times (machinery protest), Cambodianess (Anutin visit), CamboJA News (Hun Sen)
Gov’t: Scam Compounds Shut, Trackers: No
Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith told nearly 50 foreign diplomats that Cambodia's 13-month enforcement campaign had cleared every large-scale scam compound in the country. The government says it has raided 624 of 793 identified sites, detained nearly 30,000 suspects (including 15 senior government and law-enforcement officials), and deported 58,266 foreign nationals. Independent anti-trafficking consultant Mark Taylor said the government's confidence was "severely misplaced." Blue Dragon Children's Foundation founder Michael Brosowski was gentler, saying calls from trafficked people have fallen sharply, though they haven’t stopped. The government's statement did admit that criminal networks have moved into guesthouses, condominiums, rental houses, vehicles and coffee shops, and that 855 more suspects remain at large.
Read more: Straits Times (enforcement claims), Phnom Penh Post (cybersecurity law), Cambodianess (rescues), Tdtnews (earlier crackdown)
MSC Sees Growth Sinking to 2.7% in 2026
Mekong Strategic Capital expects 2026 growth to come in at 2.7%, the weakest print outside the pandemic in 17 years and well below the government's 4.1% expectation. The IMF, World Bank, ADB and AMRO are all higher, at about 3% to 4.2%. The gap comes almost entirely from services, which MSC thinks will shrink as accommodation and food take the pain from a previously expected quarter-plus drop in international arrival numbers. Finance and real estate are also softening with rising loan losses and property oversupply. Industry tells a different story, finding growth of a little more than 7%, almost up to Vietnam’s level, as garments and other manufacturing keep moving. MSC expects growth to recover to 6% in 2027 if (big IF) tourism, finance and real estate come back.
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review
Casino Shutdowns Cut Gaming Revenue by a Third
Gaming duties collected by the Finance Ministry were down to $29 million in the first half of 2026, reduced from $39 million a year earlier, after nearly 100 casino licenses were cancelled after last year's sweep against scam-connected operators. NagaWorld, which still has the Phnom Penh monopoly, saw its duty payments drop 18%. The ministry blamed some of the damage on the closed Thai border, which has also hurt tourism, agricultural exports and remittances.
Read more: CamboJA News
Zero Tax on Top of 10% US Rate Sought
Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol is pushing Washington for Most-Favored-Nation status with zero added duty, trying to build on the momentum of a successful 10% Section 301 rate (2.5% less than what Vietnam and Thailand pay). The stakes are more than $7 billion in exports sent to the US (still Cambodia’s biggest market) in the first half of 2026. A separate USTR investigation into structural excess manufacturing capacity, focused on 16 economies including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, is expected to be finished soon and could result in further duties. US Representatives Jimmy Panetta, Jim Baird, Julie Johnson and Kristen McDonald Rivet recently met with Hun Manet at the Peace Palace, where the prime minister talked textiles, ag/ agro-processing.
Read more: Khmer Times (tariff push), Khmer Times (US delegation)
Ex-FM Chief Had 375 Accounts at 7 Banks
The Anti-Corruption Unit says Tho Samnang, the former director-general reassigned to an adviser post after an April royal decree, had 375 bank accounts in seven banks. That’s connected to the nearly $3 million traced to him and two colleagues from the sale of more than 12,000 official C and CEX visa forms to online scam operators. The ACU wants the courts to freeze/ seize the assets for the state and says it is still looking for any more money that may still be hidden.
Read more: Khmer Times
Microfinance Borrowers Refuse IFC Offer
Sixteen indigenous microfinance borrowers, including the widow of a complainant who died during the process, rejected the IFC's informal settlement offer, saying they feared for their safety and didn’t trust the mechanism. The refusal comes after the World Bank board rejected its watchdog's 188-page report, which found that the IFC broke its own rules and caused system-wide harm in the microfinance sector, including lost livelihoods, food insecurity, family breakups and intimidation. Yikes. Licadho and Equitable Cambodia, which filed the original complaint in 2022 on behalf of the borrowers, have stepped back, giving the IFC contact details for two other complainants. The World Bank says the IFC is considering its options for what to do next even as it hopes the sixteen will reconsider.
Read more: CamboJA News
Thai Boycott Boosts Local SME Demand
Demand for locally made goods has gone up by about a third in the past year as shoppers turn away from Thai brands, according to the Federation of Associations for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia. SMEs, formal and informal combined, generated almost three-fifths of GDP in 2025, but the Ministry of Industry's most recent numbers put almost all small businesses outside the formal system. A digital registration platform launched in late 2024 was intended to close that gap, but hasn’t yet been able to do so. The PM has told officials to expand the CamDX data-sharing platform to try and reduce the paperwork and bring more businesses into the fold.
Read more: CamboJA News
PM Rules Out Vietnam-Style Ministry Mergers
Hun Manet told the country's civil servants that the nation’s ministries are staying put. He put aside comparisons to Vietnam's ministerial mergers and provincial consolidations. He said that his approach would be to work towards "strengthening, not expanding." He conceded that consolidation might be able to cut overlap and reduce administrative costs, but argued that merging agencies risks creating institutions that are hard to manage without trimming payrolls or spending. He apparently hoped nobody else would notice the irony of his position.
Read more: CamboJA News
NGOs Get 80% of Budget from Foreign Donors
More than nine in ten social-delivery groups rely on foreign donors who, on average, cover about four-fifths of their budgets. That’s double the Asian norm, according to the Center for Asian Philanthropy and Society's 2026 Doing Good Index. Most surveyed groups said domestic funding was insufficient as US aid cuts and a global pullback squeeze the sector.
Read more: CamboJA News
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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