Hun Sen’s Niece Brings Hard Rock Restaurant to Cambodia
March 25, 2013
By Joshua Wilwohl and Kaing Menghun
The Cambodia Daily
Hun Kimleng, who is the niece of Mr. Hun Sen, and is married to National Police Chief Neth Savoeun, is the chairwoman of Worldwide Investment Group. Ms. Kimleng’s company is also an investor in at least two other restaurant chains—Australian coffee company Gloria Jean’s and Chinese restaurant Emperors of China—as well as HML Law Firm and Consultants.
Hard Rock Cafe, the iconic U.S. restaurant franchise known for its collections of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, will open restaurants in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, in a deal with a local firm owned by the niece of Prime Minister Hun Sen, company representatives said Friday.
According to U.S. public relations firm Coyne PR, which represents Florida-based Hard Rock Cafe, the global chain has signed a franchise deal with local companies Worldwide Investment Group and Meas Development to open two restaurants in Cambodia.
“As part of this new agreement, the companies plan to open a new Hard Rock Cafe location in Siem Reap, and later, a second cafe in Phnom Penh,” Coyne PR said in a statement.
“A long-term lease has been signed on a colonial building across from the Old Town and the River, which will be home to the new Hard Rock Cafe Siem Reap. The new Siem Reap cafe will be part of a beautiful development, where 11 other restaurants and retail shops are going to be installed during 2013,” the statement added.
Hard Rock’s announcement on Friday comes after U.S. fast food chain Burger King opened its first restaurant in Cambodia at Phnom Penh’s airport in February and after the recent arrival of U.S. ice cream chain Dairy Queen, reflecting the growing confidence of brands in the country’s stability and economic potential.
Worldwide Investment Group’s chief operating officer Bearring Phang said the company’s investment in the Siem Reap Hard Rock restaurant is about $3 million. The capital investment for the Phnom Penh Hard Rock would depend on the location, which had not yet been secured, he said.
“We hope to open in Phnom Penh sometime in 2014,” he said.
“Hard Rock is a well-known brand. We believe Hard Rock is a real franchise with several locations in 58 countries, and it will be popular in this country.”
Hun Kimleng, who is the niece of Mr. Hun Sen, and is married to National Police Chief Neth Savoeun, is the chairwoman of Worldwide Investment Group. Ms. Kimleng’s company is also an investor in at least two other restaurant chains—Australian coffee company Gloria Jean’s and Chinese restaurant Emperors of China—as well as HML Law Firm and Consultants.
According to the HML law firm website, “[Ms.] Kimleng has extensive experience as a corporate shareholder and a high management profile in many businesses and has good relation with various ministries.”
Worldwide Investment Group is also a partner of land development firm TTY Corporation Co. Ltd.
Meas Development is operated by Belgian restaurateur Alain Dupuis, who is the majority shareholder in the Blue Pumpkin franchise, the Emperors of China and several other local restaurants.
Hard Rock, which was founded by Americans in London in 1971, currently has 141 cafes and 18 hotels around the world. The company is owned by the Seminole of Florida, a tribe of Native Americans.
9 comments:
Cambodia will live with or without someone, who want to turn Cambodia back to the stone time.
Please don't blame the investments people. They just want to do business. They are going the places, where they can make money, because of trust and believe. They will not do business with someone, they don't have much trusts.
Please open your eyes and transform your party and maybe one day you can compete with the your opponent the CPP.
I agree with you 3:03. I don't care it is Hun sens niece or whoever, as long as they respect people and the law. But yes I do have problem with Hun Sen and yes I do have problems with Sam Rainey too. Ki media and all must work hard to earn people trust instead of just label names. It is a low way of competting for trust. 303 you sound like a reasonable cpp to me if you are one.
Yes absolutely,a place where Hun's clans can shoot and kill innocent Khmer people when they look at theire clans that sit across the table from them and get away with murder like they already have done many times before.Hun To and Hun Sophia and many more Hun's can eats there with gun on their hand ready to shoot some one look at them.Avoid Hun's Rock fellow khmers if you want live a bit longer...
Cppdaddy
Hun family's PROUN SONGKUM.
Kompouch ah Dongkov ach!
Ah hun sen will cheat and give away all business opportunities to his clan.
Stupid Families of Dictatorship.
He is the most dumb leader of the world.
9:12 PM
I never have in mind, that the Khmer people just have only 2 different faces. The One is Hun Sen-CPP and the another One is Sam Rainsy-Opposition party. For me they are just the Khmer citizen and our brother-sisters.
Most of our Khmer citizen are so nice, friendly, therefore we first should think, support them and help them to develop their level of working process and their level of life standards. We have to use our mind and brain to resolve some misunderstanding or problem and not by force. The Force using can help or can destroy the life of other people, the whole society and of course the country stability.
Some of us still love so much to be politician. Because they believed, that only the politicians have all the power and moneys to do everything.
We can't destroy something, that we don't agree or don't like. But we can change it for a better situation. Our country will not develop and will have a better democracy, when most of us still hate and attack each other, because we don't like this and that.
Will the opposition party able to change the whole situation in our country, after they won the election ? Will the opposition build all the (ភ្លឺស្រែ ចាក់កៅស៊ូ) or change the life standard of the Khmer citizen from one day to another day into something else, that the opposition themselves are not sure, that most of the Khmer want to be. Easier to make a promising, but not easy to achieve the dreaming.
To avoid another war, that most of the Khmer citizen don’t want to have, the opposition party have to send all the so called CPP-party and their member to Vietnam or out of the country to somewhere else.
Very sure that most of the posts in this KI are from oversea Khmer and not from inside of Cambodia, because there in Cambodian, they don’t have access to this blog.
I agree with all the critics, but please don't attack or send a critic with a love level or ghetto language. Remember that I am also a Khmer and want very much, that our Khmer citizen have a better life like most of us, who have the better chance to live in peace outside of our country.
ភ្លឺស្រែ ចាក់កៅស៊ូ?
HAhahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...ha aaa!
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