Cambodia 20260907

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

Sep 07, 2026

News from Southeast Asia directly to your inbox every weekday.

The Mekong Memo is proudly presented by:

Horton International is your premier partner for executive search in Southeast Asia. Whether you're a small startup or a global corporation, our reliable and effective recruiting solutions are tailored to meet your unique needs. With extensive experience and offices across the region, we excel at overcoming recruitment challenges and securing top talent for your organization.

Click here to learn how Horton can make your life easier.

The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.

Please go to https://www.mekongmemo.com/account to select country editions you would like to receive without affecting your overall subscription status.

Bangkok Tears Up Thaksin's Oil Deal

Bangkok's cabinet scrapped a 2001 maritime MoU with Cambodia, taking advantage of Article 56 in the 1969 Vienna Convention to claim the right to exit a treaty with no withdrawal clause. For nearly 25 years the document was the only framework that governed the management of the 27,000 square kilometer Overlapping Claims Area, which is estimated to hold 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of gas. Phnom Penh condemned the move, said it was a breach of international law, and claims it will work to get conciliation under UNCLOS Annex V. The Thai Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Bhumjaithai Party, swept February's elections on a hardline nationalist platform.

Phnom Penh Rolls Out a Crisis Package

On Friday, Economy and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth introduced a $1.22 billion economic intervention program that he says will work as a cushion against the battering of both global and regional shocks. July inflation was 5.5 percent, which was the biggest cost of living squeeze seen in years. The World Bank reckons a 10 percent rise in fuel prices would push the poverty rate up 1.4 percent, forcing families that already spend most of their income on food and transport to the brink. The government did not say how the $1.22 billion will be divided between direct relief, business support, or infrastructure.

Read more: Khmer Times, Khmer Times (electricity cost)

End of COVID-era Loan Forbearance

The National Bank of Cambodia has rejected a bank and microfinance industry ~~plea~~ request to keep COVID-era forbearance rules through to the end of this year. The change will bring an end to a practice that currently allows lenders to classify restructured loans as “performing.” No prizes for anyone who guesses what comes next. Gross NPLs were already 9.6 percent through 1H 2026, up from 8.3 percent at the end of 2025, and the ratio is expected to keep moving higher as banks (are forced to) reclassify loans previously parked off the bad-debt books. The IMF had repeatedly pushed for the change because the forbearance has been hiding the real state of bank balance sheets. Borrowers in genuine distress will still be able to negotiate restructuring, but without the benefit of the regulatory shortcut.

Garment Unions Reopen Wage Fight at $210

Cambodia's National Minimum Wage Council opened 2027 talks on Tuesday, and garment unions are pushing past last year's bump that brought the floor up to $210 monthly. Labor Minister Heng Sour said the first meeting is simply a data review, not a negotiation, and expects four tripartite meetings on September 14, 18, 28 and 30 to settle on a workable number. The wage has been creeping up in small steps ($200 in 2023, $204 in 2024, $206 in 2025, $210 for 2026), but unions (to say nothing of the workers themselves) say the increases haven't kept pace with the cost of living. Employers have already tried to warn unions against "excessively high" figures, and Sour says the 19% US export tariff (down from 49% earlier), is a reason to weigh competitiveness alongside inflation.

Thai Helicopter Strays Into Battambang Airspace

A Royal Thai Air Force helicopter flew about 400 metres into Battambang province near the Daung International Border Checkpoint last week, in a move that resulted in a protest from Phnom Penh. Border fortifications, razor wire, shipping containers, permanent structures, and troop movements, have kept almost 20,000 Cambodian civilians in "waiting villages" instead of the homes they were told they could get back to under the December 27 truce, but eight-plus months on there’s been little progress for them.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (grievances timeline), Phnom Penh Post (senator rebuttal), Phnom Penh Post (attaché briefing), Phnom Penh Post (UNCLOS conciliation), Khmer Times (damage assessment)

a view of a city at night from across the water — Photo by SAM sokkolinmony on Unsplash

Cambodia and US Revive Angkor Sentinel Drills

Cambodia's army confirmed Friday that "Exercise Angkor Sentinel 2027" will be run again in February. It will be the first joint drill with US forces since Phnom Penh froze the program in 2017. The announcement comes after Hun Manet's August 14 meeting with Elbridge Colby, the third-ranking official at the Department of Defense, and a separate sitdown between US Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Steve Koehler and armed forces chief Gen. Vong Pisen, who floated reviving a suspended bilateral maritime exercise too. Washington's underlying worry hasn't changed - China bankrolled an upgrade to the Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, and the US still suspects Beijing has been given secret access privileges there, but it’s a story that officials in Phnom Penh keep saying is fiction.

Hun Manet Tours Cleared Scam Compounds

Hun Manet strolled through an emptied Dara Sakor compound in Koh Kong, taking a look at some of the sites which are reportedly under “round-the-clock” surveillance. The visit was a feather in the cap of a 14-month campaign that resulted in the closure of 86 compounds, the freezing of more than $300 million, and the appearance of nearly 4,000 defendants from 29 countries in front of the courts. Fifteen officials are facing charges including a former Foreign Ministry director-general, a deputy prosecutor, and a deputy Phnom Penh police chief. The operators have not retired, however. Networks have moved on to Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (repatriation count), SCMP (regional loss estimates), Asian News Network (locations inspected), Khmer Times (CCOS follow-up), Asian News Network (device seizure tally)

Ex-FM Official Sold 6,000 Visas to Traffickers

A royal decree has acted as shepherd’s crook for Tho Samnang as Foreign Ministry adviser after he confessed to a visa-theft scheme that likely netted millions on the black market. The former director-general of the ministry's Legal, Consular and Border Affairs Department admitted stealing 10,000 C-class visas, which are paper stickers given to Cambodia's NGO workers, and selling 6,000 of them to human traffickers. Tho says he destroyed the other 4,000, but without any proof, authorities are still looking for them. The visas don’t have any digital record and will pass through Immigration with no vetting, gaps the ministry now says it will close.

Read more: Khmer Times ($3M estimate), UCA News (growth forecast cut)

Logging Roads Breach Dam Zone in the Cardamoms

Satellite images show logging roads as far as 3 kilometers past the authorized 2,898-hectare reservoir zone at the Stung Russei Chrum Kandal dam, which is inside Phnom Kravanh National Park. That’s one of the largest protected rainforests and is home to Asian elephants in addition to the critically endangered Sunda pangolin. A sawmill is outside the permitted boundary, and it is apparently fed by a network of small roads that match no publicly available construction plans. Residents of the O'Soam commune say checkpoints staffed by men in RCAF uniforms (the developer says they’re for “forest protection”), now also block waterways that they used to use for fishing.

Jakarta's Scam-Victim Fund Runs Dry in Phnom Penh

At least 475 Indonesian nationals are sleeping rough in a warehouse at the old Pochentong Airport, as they wait for passports, or plane tickets (or both), after getting out of scam compounds during the crackdown. Many entered Cambodia illegally to work in the centers, overstayed their visas once they expired, and now have no money or documents that would allow them leave. The Indonesian embassy had been covering food and emergency travel papers, but stopped all that on August 30, saying it had run out of money.

Seven Years for a CLV-DTA Protest

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has sentenced Thy Thorn, Mean Chanthon and Soueng Kunthea to seven years each. the decision closes out nearly all convictions from the 100-plus arrests that came along with the 2024 protests against the CLV-DTA pact, a deal that the government has since withdrawn from. All three of the recently sentenced had already spent more than two years in pretrial detention; Chanthon and Kunthea were deported from Thailand in November 2024 before being charged. Defense lawyer Son Chum Choun said that the social media posts were "constructive criticism," not treason, and plans to appeal.

LOLC Prices KH’s First CGCC-Guaranteed Bond

LOLC (Cambodia) closed a KHR 80 billion ($20 million) bond on September 6. It’s notable because it is the first Cambodian corporate issue that comes with a guarantee from the Credit Guarantee Corporation of Cambodia. The offering was oversubscribed, major local financial institutions wanted to get in on the strength of CGCC's khAAA rating instead of LOLC's. Yuanta Securities (Cambodia) was lead manager in running the deal, the bond will list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. CGCC was accredited as the market's bond guarantor in January 2024, but this is the first issue priced under that agreement. It will be lost on few readers that it took more than two and a half years.

CSX Rallies 18% Through August

The CSX Index was up 18% in August to close at 541.02, tipping 560.09 on August 26, its highest reading since March 2022. The lift brought year-to-date gains to nearly 28%. Average daily trading value roughly quadrupled to about $800,000, compared to July’s $230,000 turnover. New account openings numbered 2,006, more than double January's 949, and active traders were reported 7,901, up 28% from July. The exchange is crediting institutional buyers for the liquidity boost.

The Mekong Memo

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?