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Min Aung Hlaing Gets KH State Visit, Deals
Cambodia signed four agreements with Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing during his state visit, including deals on double taxation, investment protection and cultural cooperation. Cambodia is the fourth ASEAN member to host the coup leader turned president since April, despite the bloc’s continued refusal to allow him to participate in high-level summits. Fortify Rights and Human Rights Watch asked Phnom Penh to arrest him and hand him to the ICC, where the former prosecutor has been trying to get a warrant for alleged crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (visit), Phnom Penh Post (deals), The Star (rights groups), Khmer Times (official talks), Khmer Times (fraud conference)
Cambodia, Thailand Take Dispute to Singapore
Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and his Thai counterpart Sihasak Phuangketkeow are taking their teams to a UN Conciliation Commission session in Singapore. It will be the first formal hearing since Bangkok exited the framework that had been the foundation for Gulf of Thailand talks for twenty years. The Permanent Court of Arbitration will run the process under the terms of UNCLOS Annex V. That’s a regulation that has only ever produced a single settlement, so… place your bets. Oil and gas reserves in the gulf could be worth as much as $300 billion. For context, that’s about 20 times Cambodia's annual GDP. The commission is expected to come back with a report in about a year, but its recommendations won't be binding.
Read more: The Star (minister), Cambodianess (analyst), CamboJA News (reserves)
UXO Cleanup at Preah Vihear Could Cost a Billion
The Cambodian Mine Action Centre estimates that clearing unexploded ordnance after the border dispute with Thailand will cost $1 billion and take more than a decade. You read that correctly - that’s the estimated toll for THIS conflict, and would be in addition to the costs of contamination left by earlier wars. Cambodia has also filed a complaint with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons because of Thailand's alleged use of chemical weapons. A joint UNESCO and ICOMOS mission reported 562 impact sites at Preah Vihear temple and documented 70,000 stone fragments for restoration - work that will undoubtedly require more money still.
Read more: Phnom Penh Post (cleanup), Phnom Penh Post (temple damage), Phnom Penh Post (Ta Moan Thom), Phnom Penh Post (restoration), Phnom Penh Post (chemical allegation)
Unions Push for $250.66 Minimum Wage
Six trade unions have asked the Labor Ministry to set a $250.66 minimum wage for garment, footwear and travel goods workers for 2027, a figure that’s 20 percent above than the current $210. Union leader Yang Sophorn says basic household expenses are now in excess of $500 a month, forcing workers into overtime just to keep up. Hun Sen put a stake in the ground via Facebook where he said that Cambodia's wage floor is already higher than those of seven regional competitors. Labor Minister Heng Sour has not indicated when formal negotiations will start.
Read more: CamboJA News
Ministry Threatens Oknha Over Posts
The Land Management Ministry is threatening defamation and incitement charges against tycoon Leng Navatra, his brother Leng Nimol and singer Ton Chanseyma because of their Facebook posts attacking its freeze on Navatra's assets. The freeze is on his stake in Borey Leng Navatra 6A, which is a gated community just outside Phnom Penh where about 1,500 houses have been unfinished for several years. Nimol claimed that the ministry had also frozen buyers' assets, but he (belatedly?) deleted the posts. The article also says that Navatra has asked for his Oknha title to be revoked, but it’s not clear why he would do that.
Read more: CamboJA News
LOLC Lists $20M Sustainability Bond on CSX
LOLC has listed a $20 million sustainability bond on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. Officials shared no detail on how the money is expected to be used. Hean Sahib pitched the listing as a route away from costly foreign loans with short repayment terms. The source does not say whether the issuance carries a state credit guarantee. Caveat Emptor?
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review
NGOs Demand Release of Thy Thorn
Forty-seven civil society groups are demanding the "immediate and unconditional" release of activist Thy Thorn, the 25-year-old KSILA vice president who was sentenced to seven years for protesting against the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area. Courts at every level, including the Supreme Court, have so far rejected his bids for bail and early release. Human Rights Watch said the plotting charge was baseless, and his father claims that the trial produced no evidence of a conspiracy.
Read more: CamboJA News
Nidec Pulls Production to Thailand
Nidec, one of the world's largest electric motor makers, is getting its production out of Cambodia in a move to Thailand. The Japanese company claimed the move was because of fallout from the border conflict but gave no timeline or details about which plant or plants will be affected. Thailand already is host to a substantial part of Nidec's Southeast Asian manufacturing base.
Read more: Nikkei Asia
China Funds the Entire Funan Techo Canal
China Exim Bank has agreed to a loan worth almost a billion cold ones with a Cambodian and Chinese JV to finance the Funan Techo Canal. In addition to a $200 million loan that was previously announced in July, Beijing is now financing the waterway's entire estimated $1.2 billion cost. That’s about 9 percent of Cambodia's total public debt. The 180 km canal is expected to connect the Mekong directly to the Gulf of Thailand in order to reduce reliance on Vietnamese shipping routes. Formally, it is still 51 percent Cambodian owned, but there’s no doubt that the debt will afford Beijing considerable leverage over operations and governance.
Read more: CamboJA News
Trade Tops $50B, US Surplus Widens
Total trade from January through August was $50.69 billion, up a fifth y-o-y, but imports continued to outpace exports and the deficit widened to $2.36 billion. Garments, footwear and travel goods were almost half of exports ($11.76 billion +~7%). Rice volume to the United States almost tripled to nearly 10,000 tons ($10.68 billion). The $10.25 billion surplus offsets much of the $12.92 billion deficit with China. RCEP members are now responsible for more than three-fifths of total trade as the country continues counting down to the loss of its LDC tariff breaks in 2029.
Read more: The Star (garments), The Star (trade), Khmer Times (US surplus), Cambodianess (rice), Khmer Times (RCEP)
Interior Minister Increases Drug Surveillance
Usually citizens fear that technology employed to target “bad guys” will eventually be retooled in order to target political opponents, but in Cambodia, Interior Minister Sar Sokha has told local police to build "secret" surveillance on drug dealers using the methods that were previously used on opposition activists.
Read more: CamboJA News (drug surveillance)
Russian, Indian Warships Dock at S’ville and Ream
Russia's Baltic Fleet training ship Perekop has pulled up at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port for a two-day unofficial call. It’s the first return since 2019 and the third Russian naval visit this year. The 138-meter ship arrived with about 400 people aboard, including some Cambodian cadets who are participating in a six-year training program. Separately, India's INS Kulish docked at the Chinese-renovated Ream Naval Base the following day as part of an Eastern Fleet deployment.
Read more: Khmer Times (Perekop), Tripura Star News (Kulish)
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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