Economy

Imports
$41.6 billion (2021).  Gold ($10.9B), Refined Petroleum ($2.71B), Light Rubberized Knitted Fabric ($2.66B), Bi-Wheel Vehicle Parts ($611M), and Cars ($578M), importing mostly from China ($11.3B), Singapore ($11.2B), Thailand ($6.69B), Vietnam ($4.91B), and Hong Kong ($955M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 18% have an account with a financial institution
• 0.6% have a credit card
• 5.7% have a mobile money account
• 3.8% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Difficult to conduct business (rated 53.8 out of 100) 18th out of 25 Asia Pacific countries 144th worldwide out of 190 countries (2020, World Bank)

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 15th out of 17 South East Asia, East Asia,and Oceania, 97th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Exports
$27.3 billion (2021).   Knit Sweaters ($2.47B), Trunks and Cases ($2.04B), Knit Women’s Suits ($1.84B), Non-Knit Women’s Suits ($1.52B), and Leather Footwear ($933M), exporting mostly to United States ($9.59B), China ($1.94B), Germany ($1.89B), Vietnam ($1.88B), and Japan ($1.74B).

Main local online stores
Glad Market, Mall855 and MAIO Mall.
Other top websites include, RoseRb.com, Aliexpress, TaoBao, MyPhsar, BookMeBus, Nika and ECamShopping.

Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (56.5 out of 100) 24th out of 39 Asia Pacific countries 110th worldwide out of 186 countries (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Media

Media language Khmer, English

Information channels
Many Cambodian newspapers and private broadcasters depend on support from political parties. Prime Minister Hun Sen and his allies control several outlets. Media closures and the sale of a leading independent newspaper ahead of elections in 2018 mean that Cambodians “now only have access to news provided by major media groups directly linked to [Prime Minister] Hun Sen”, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The government uses “lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, massive tax bills and, occasionally, violent attacks” to intimidate the media, says the US-based Freedom House. BBC World Service broadcasts on 100 FM in Phnom Penh. Radio France International is also available on FM.

Ahead of elections in 2018, the government ordered ISPs to block access to 17 websites , including US-backed Radio Free Asia. Rules introduced in the same year require ISPs to install software to monitor and block content deemed illegal, including content on social media.

The press

Reaksmei Kampuchea (Light of Cambodia) – pro-government daily
Kaoh Santepheap – pro-government daily
Phnom Penh Post – English-language

Television

National Television of Cambodia (TVK) – state broadcaster
CTN – private
Bayon TV – private

Radio

National Radio of Cambodia – state broadcaster
Municipality Radio – commercial, jointly-run by Phnom Penh Municipality
Radio Bayon FM – commercial

News agency

Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP)

Internet Data

Internet users
67.5% penetration, 11.37 million

Share of web traffic by device
62.12% mobile phones, 36.35% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.53% tablet devices and 0% other devices

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
19.12  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
20.22 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 131.5%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 81.8%

Most popular web search engines
Google (95.98%), Bing (1.91%), Yahoo (0.76%), CoCoc (0.39%), PetalSearch (0.34%) DuckduckGo (0.18%)

Most used social media
Twitter (36.65%), Facebook (35.66%), YouTube (17.07%), Instagram (5.04%), Pinterest (4.49%), Vkontakte (0.5%)

Social statistics

Life expectancy
70 yrs (2021)

Gender
Women or girls should be respected at work or home. They are not allowed to touch, hug, kiss or sit with men (e.g. in the car, in a home) who are not relatives. Some families are offended when their girls are asked to go out without their permission. Women or girls are required to be calm and soft mannered, to stay home, do housework, cook and obey their husband. Sometimes they are not allowed to sit and talk with a group of men. Traditionally, men are the breadwinners and make all the decisions in the family. They have power or control over all family-related issues. Children are mostly the responsibility of the mother. Notwithstanding this scenario, some women are now in the workplace and today, an increasing number of women are in management roles.

Current education expenditure
15.7% of total expenditure in public institutions

Current health expenditure
7.51% of GDP

Corruption perceptions Index
Algeria scored 33 out of 100, ranked 126 out of 180 countries worldwide.

The CPI measures the perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption.

CO2 emissions
1 metric ton per capita

Religion
98 % of the people are Buddhist. The remainder are generally Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc. When participating in religious events such as rituals or ceremonies etc. you must follow religious tradition (ask local people if you do not know) such as bowing while kneeling, removing shoes and hat, sitting on the floor. Try to avoid dubious practices such as visiting fortune tellers.

Class
Cambodian society is divided, generally, into unspoken class categories: upper, middle, and lower. The upper class, usually, is very sophisticated and places more emphasis on wealth than on education. Sometimes, upper-class people can relate well with the middle class depending on their activities.

Ethnicity
There are some minority groups in Cambodia besides the Khmer ethnic group. They are Thai, Vietnam, Muslim (Cham), and Chinese. The Khmer ethnic group dominates society. There appear to be elements of discrimination against other ethnic groups due to historical events. Each ethnic group follows its own tradition. If you want more information you may need to contact each group or read local news. It is not considered very acceptable to marry someone from another ethnic group.

World Happiness Index
Cambodia ranked 115 out of 137 countries, with a score of 4.393.

The World Happiness Index measures happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, correlated with other life factors.