News

Two agreements worth more than €67 million, about $70 million, were reached by Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth and German ambassador Christian Berger on 28 November. These are the first loans the Federal Republic provides to the Kingdom. According to a press statement, the loans are directed towards improving the government’s four priority sectors – human resources, road infrastructure, energy and water.

In line with Cambodia’s national long-term economic and energy ambitions and during the Clean Energy Week Cambodia, the German Business Group Cambodia (ADW) and EuroCham welcomed a delegation of German businesses involved in industrial and commercial solar who was visiting Cambodia in order to explore business opportunities on 4 November 2019.

The prevalence of unlicensed foreign vessels operating in Cambodian waters as well as the practice of vessels trading catches at sea rather than at port has become such a problem that in 2015 the EU restricted the import of fisheries products from Cambodia. Consequently, in August 2019 Minister of Agriculture H.E. Veng Sokhon announced that every fishing boat in the country will be tracked with EU-funded support by 2023. German company Weatherdock AG offers technologies related to real-time tracking of ships and boats; its tracking systems provide detailed position reports of objects in a “closed user group” in real time via AIS technology.

September went on, October went on… and most people seem to miss something that has become a custom even in Phnom Penh for years: typical German food, cold beer, original music from Bavaria, and a lot of fun. Thanks goodness, the waiting comes to a near end as Oktoberfest 2019 opens the gate at Hops Craft Beer Garden next week.

In Berlin, official celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall started on Monday. On 9 November 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced that all citizens of Eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR) could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany unified within one year while it also symbolizes the end of the Cold War.

In line with Cambodia’s national long-term economic and energy ambitions and during the Clean Energy Week Cambodia, the Delegation of German Industry in Myanmar, the GIZ Project Development (PDP) and Global Business Network (GBN) Programmes, and the German Business Group Cambodia (ADW) together with other partners organise the conference “Energy solutions made in Germany” on the 5^th of November 2019 at Raffles Hotel Le Royal.

During the visit of a Cambodian inter-ministry senior delegation led by Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng to Germany from September 24^th to October 1^st, both countries have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation to improve human rights and development in education, health, forestry management, public order and security management. Mr Kheng was accompanied by Health Minister Mam Bun Heng, Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron, Environment Minister Say Samal, and Chhieng Yanara, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister.

For its second edition, the Cambodia Waste Summit brought together executives from the Cambodian and German business community, policy makers and line departments as well as environmental organizations. The event was mainly hosted by ADW, the Cambodian Education and Waste Management Organization (COMPED) and was supported by the GIZ Global Business Network Programme and EuroCham.

A Cambodian government delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Samdech Sar Kheng, Minister of Interior, is going to visit Germany next week in order to study German decentralization. The delegation will further consist of Minister of Environment Say Samal, Minister of Education Hang Choun Naron, and Minister of Health Mam Bunheng. Originally, the study tour was scheduled for November 2017, but was postponed indefinitely after the dissolution of the main opposition party by court decision in the same month.

The 2019 Cambodia Waste Summit brings together executives from the Cambodian business community, line departments, environmental organizations and start-ups, who are working on innovative, efficient and sustainable waste management practices, recycling and resource recovery strategies in the Kingdom.