Cambodia’s troubled status as an issuer of flags of convenience, which allow a company to register ships in a country different to their own, is on hold, with the government announcing yesterday it is seeking support from the EU to nationalize the process. Until recently, South Korean firm Cosmos Group had been contracted to run the registration process, but the contract was canceled on August 17, 2015, according to a statement posted to the Facebook page of Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol.
 

“Cambodia will no longer be a Flag State Administration, but a Port State Administration and Coastal State Administration,” wrote Mr. Chanthol. He said that by the end of the month, no ships would be flying Cambodian flags of convenience.
 

International vessel tracking website FleetMon.com lists 827 ships now registered in Cambodia. The move is not a halt to the controversial process, which potentially allows firms to avoid regulations and paying taxes in their home countries, but rather to allow for suitable training to bring the operation back under the government, ministry spokesman Chan Dara told Khmer Times.

 

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28703/flags-of-convenience-halted/

Interesting, but a drop in the ocean.  Almost literally.  Just about half the entire world's merchant fleet flies under these flags of convenience.  Fees, over-regulation, and non-competitive union-scale labor costs make it happen.  Cambodia not even among the most prolific issuers, such as Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands.  827 sounds like a large number, but I wonder how much deadweight tonnage that actually represents.