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Thai FM Brings Rockets, Landmines to UNCLOS
Three days into the UNCLOS conciliation process in Singapore, the Gulf of Thailand's $300 billion dispute was hamstrung by in issues of a rocket attack, a leaked phone call and landmines. Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow spent much of his opening statement blasting Cambodia for "playing the role of a victim" with "self-righteousness" and "hypocrisy," by talking about last year's border fighting instead of the 26,000 sq km seabed the five-member commission is supposed to help decide. Nonetheless, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn stuck to his script, and asked for a delimitation treaty or, failing that, a joint development deal to share the gas and oil that’s in the Overlapping Claims Area. Thailand wants borders decided first, a division of resources later, and says it offered six months of direct talks before Cambodia went to the UN.
Read more: Reuters (gas reserve), Phnom Penh Post (commission members), The Diplomat (UNCLOS legal basis), CamboJA News (report timeline), Courthouse News (dispute history)
20k Still Out of Home, Thai Trench Gets Protest
Ke Sovann, Cambodia’s ambassador in Geneva, told the UN Human Rights Council that more than 20,000 Cambodians are still unable to return home because of the dispute with Thailand. He says that nearly 4,000 square kilometers of seven provinces remains contaminated by unexploded ordnance, much of it cluster munitions. The Cambodian Foreign Ministry has filed another new protest that again accuses the Thais of digging a trench near Boundary Pillar No. 9 in the Ta Tum area of Oddar Meanchey's Anlong Veng district. That’s the same area that Cambodia protested about Thai road construction in July.
Read more: Phnom Penh Post (displaced services impact), CamboJA News (fatalities tally), Khmer Times (Pen Bona), Migrant Times
House Chairs Want Sanctions for Manet's Cousin
Brian Mast and John Moolenaar, chairmen of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Select Committee on China, have given State (Rubio) and Treasury (Bessent) 180 days to decide whether 28 people/ entities in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar meet the bar to get sanctions over their (alleged?) scam-network ties. The list includes both businesspeople and a pair of current Cambodian ministers. A report from Harvard Asia Center fellow Jacob Sims, published by the National Democratic Institute and Inca Digital, specifically identified Hun To as a person of interest. To is a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet who has admitted owning a 30% stake in Huione Pay, the now-collapsed payment platform that the US Treasury says laundered billions from scams targeting Americans.
Read more: House Foreign Affairs Committee (sanctions letter), National Democratic Institute (full report), CamboJA News (Hun To and blockchain findings)
State Tells Tourists to Beware
The U.S. State Department's September 15 advisory keeps Cambodia at Level 2 overall but has a 50-kilometer strip along the Thai border at Level 4, "Do Not Travel," because of the risk of fighting between Cambodian and Thai forces. Phnom Penh has a warning because of street crime because phone and bag snatchings are apparently frequent in areas that foreigners gather. The official advice is "Do not physically resist any robbery attempt.” Seven provinces, including Siem Reap, Preah Vihear and Battambang, still have unexploded-ordnance warnings reminding visitors not to touch unknown metal objects and to make sure they hire local guides in forests and dry rice paddies. Travel insurance with evacuation coverage also gets a specific mention.
Read more: US State Department (official advisory), Khaosod English (robbery warning)
$100M Bar for Casinos, But Not In Siem Reap
Cambodia's number of casinos count is going down as Hun Manet says that the current count is already “excessive” for an industry he says barely registers in the wider economy. Of 195 inspected facilities, 72 have already been shuttered in the past year by way of cancelled licenses or failed renewals. Anyone who passes those review and still wants a permit, however, is going to need $100 million in capital AND real infrastructure (not just a shophouse), to keep operating. Siem Reap remains off the table, a position Hun Manet says has been the status quo since his father ran the government. Online betting connected to land-based casinos is expected to be suspended from early October.
Read more: GGRAsia (license revocation breakdown), AGB (CGMC framework), SCCG Management ($100M minimum), GGB Magazine (framework review date), iGaming Today (hospital launch)
Airport's 15 Million Capacity Gets 656,000 Takers
Techo International Airport opened last year built to handle up to 15 million passengers a year, but through the first five months of this year it recorded only about 656,000 arrivals. That’s about a quarter less than were seen in the same period of 2025. Nationwide, air passenger traffic was down 9 percent to 3.71 million through the first seven months of the year, and the number of flights slipped 1 percent to 37,248 even as cargo was up 21 percent to 57,103 tonnes.
Read more: Cambodianess
Wage Talks Stall at $210
The National Council on Minimum Wage finished up its third tripartite session with employer representatives still stuck on the current $210 monthly rate, unchanged from the second meeting earlier that week. Most worker delegates are asking for $225.30, but a small share is looking for $250.60, with their claim supported by a 2025 study showing workers take home $287 a month even thought they suffer $391 in median household spending. Labor Minister Heng Sour said that were a handful of reasons to hold back, and that new jobs would lift household income better than simply a higher minimum wage. The next round of discussions is September 28.
Read more: Phnom Penh Post (sectors covered), CamboJA News (union rep)
Oknha Families Launch $1 Billion Fund with UK Manager
WorldBridge chairman Sear Rithy and a coalition of Oknha families, including Peng Huoth's Hieng Bunpeng, TSNR's Thai Seang, Borey Phnom Penh Thmey's Bun Hay and Premier Angkor Palace's Ly Hong, signed an MoU with UK-based Beryllus Capital to launch the Mekong Growth Fund. The fund is targeting $200 million to $500 million at first close, with a long-term goal of more than $1 billion. The vehicle will divide money between Cambodian and Mekong infrastructure, global public markets, and private equity, and is being pitched as the local route to getting a piece of the $210 billion a year the Asian Development Bank says ASEAN requires for infrastructure spending through 2030. The general partner plans to donate 1% of net profits to a Cambodian charitable foundation.
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review
Concessional Borrowing Doubles to $460 Million
Phnom Penh signed $460.26 million in concessional loans in the first half of 2026, up 134 percent from the same period a year earlier, pushing the public debt stock to $13.56 billion (almost a fifth of GDP). Bilateral lenders came up with 57 percent of the new financing, multilaterals the rest. The government also was able to sell $515.77 million in securities, which is almost the entirety of the annual legal ceiling of $517 million, mostly in riel. Debt-service payments were up 31 percent year-on-year to $389.46 million, and disbursements from existing loans were $401.93 million, with infrastructure taking 82 percent. The Finance Ministry's preliminary 2026 assessment is still claiming that the debt is manageable and at low risk of distress.
Read more: Khmer Times
GAC Starts Assembly in Kampong Chhnang
GAC Group and local partner TH Automotive switched on a knock-down assembly line in Kampong Chhnang this week. Hun Manet and China's ambassador Wang Wenbin were on hand for the festivities. The plant will assemble up to 10,000 GS3, EMKOO, GS8 and GN8 models a year, Its GAC's first local manufacturing attempt after seven years of selling imports in the country and its opening brings the national assembly plant count to 15, with a combined capacity of 35,000 vehicles. The plants represent $248 million invested (72 percent foreign), and 2,774 new skilled jobs.
Read more: Gasgoo (retail expansion 2026), Charleston Gazette-Mail (executive attendees), Khmer Times (Chevrolet assembly), Market Screener (2024 launch date), Gasgoo (model lineup names)
Canadia's Impact Fund Backs an AI Shop
Canadia Impact Fund has taken a seed stake in Newwave Tech Foundry, a 17-person Phnom Penh AI and software outfit that sports more than 70% of its client base from the US, UK, France, UAE and Australia. Terms were not shared. This is only the fund's second deal since it launched in 2025, following last-mile courier Jalat Logistics.
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review
ABA Bank 31st in Forbes Ranking
Forbes and Statista's first World's Top Performing Banks list, listing 500 banks in 89 countries on profitability, capital strength and asset quality, put ABA Bank 31st among "Lower Mid-Size" banks ($10-20 billion in assets), for Cambodia's highest showing. ACLEDA was 107th in its tier. No other Cambodian bank made the cut.
Read more: Cambodia Investment Review
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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