Economy and commerce

The Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) has announced that it will establish a staff development fund to stem the tide of cross-institutional recruitment in the competitive microfinance institution (MFI) sector. ...

The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation’s economic and technology exhibition 2017 kicked off yesterday in Phnom Penh to enhance trade and investment between China and Cambodia, plus other Mekong countries. ...

China is expected to purchase 300,000 tonnes of rubber from Cambodia in 2018, according to a commerce ministry statement.​ ...

AEON Mall, the first large-scale modern shopping mall in Cambodia, recently celebrated its third year of operation in the Kingdom, but with several new high-end malls slated to open over the next few years, analysts expect more competition and sweeping changes in the country’s retail ...

Just one day after the Kingdom’s microlenders mutinied and said they would not implement a government directive requiring all financial institutions to implement a 10 percent value-added tax (VAT) on fees for financial services, the Tax Department announced it would back down and temporarily suspend ...

A $20 million dry port and bonded warehouse within the Sovannaphum special economic zone (SEZ) in Kandal province is slated to open by October of this year ahead of the full completion of the 214-hectare zone by 2020, a senior management official said yesterday. ...

Cambodia rice mogul Song Saran, the CEO of one of the Kingdom’s top rice exporters, will diversify his agricultural business interests with the construction of a factory to clean and process locally grown pepper, he said yesterday. ...

The industry body representing the Kingdom’s myriad microfinance institutions (MFIs) threw down the gauntlet yesterday, announcing that its members had categorically rejected a government directive that orders them to charge a value-added tax (VAT) on financial services fees and would not apply it. ...

A Chinese firm that plans to invest $2 billion into developing the Kingdom’s first special economic zone (SEZ) dedicated solely to agricultural processing and storage has signed on a new partner to help jumpstart the stalled project, a top agriculture official said yesterday. ...

More than 50 business leaders and investors from Dezhou city, Shandong province in China, are seeking investment opportunities and Cambodian partners in the fields of agriculture, construction, machinery, food processing, technology and cars, renewable energy and sports equipment. ...

A proposal for a massive warehouse and silo that has attracted two Chinese investors aims to fill the Kingdom’s conspicuous gap in paddy rice storage capacity, which still falls 60 percent short of the level needed for the country to achieve its goal of 1 ...

The tax authority yesterday refuted local media claims that it had endorsed a private sector call to end Phnom Penh City Hall’s taxation of billboards and commercial signage throughout the capital, which advocates have said imposes an onerous levy on local businesses. ...

Mong Reththy Group (MRG), the Kingdom’s largest agro-industrial conglomerate, has secured a deal to export additional volumes of locally grown mangoes to France, the company announced yesterday on its Facebook page. ...

Mobile World Investment (MWG), one of the largest mobile phone and electronics distribution chains in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, has opened its first overseas store in Cambodia. ...

The strong inflow of Japanese investment is expected to continue on the back of both large-scale commercial projects and the consumer habits of Japanese expatriates residing and working in Cambodia, according to investment officials. ...

The British government has attempted to assuage the fears of least developed countries (LDCs) including Cambodia by assuring them that they will retain their trade privileges to the United Kingdom following the country’s exit from the European Union ...

The Tourism Ministry has outlined the potential of tourism services and investment opportunities to Russia, hoping to attract tourists and investments to Cambodia. ...

Global payments giant Visa is the first international financial firm to announce the roll out of a payment solution in Cambodia for quick response codes, or QR codes, those pixelated black and white squares designed to be read by a smartphone camera that have begun ...

The central bank hopes to launch its central shared switch mechanism next month after a trial run that has already connected the account records of three of the Kingdom’s leading financial institutions, allowing them to operate ATM and point-of-sale (POS) terminals in tandem, according to ...

Cambodia’s capital market regulator will meet soon to discuss a proposal to permit market orders for trading stocks on the Kingdom’s bourse, a move that would give investors more flexibility when buying or selling shares, officials have said. ...

Earlier this month Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) became the fifth listed firm on the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX) following an initial public offering that raised $27 million. The Post’s Brian Ng sat down with Shuzo Shikata, CEO of SBI Royal Securities (SBIR), the sole underwriter ...

Banking and financial industry figures have called on the government to abolish the 10 percent value added tax on the sector and asked for further discussion. The industry thinks the tax will increase the burden on financial service users. ...

The central banks of Cambodia and South Korea signed an agreement on Friday to jointly conduct research and analyse the relationship between exchange rates and inflation in the Cambodian economy, according to bank officials. ...

The central bank has issued new regulations governing the licensing of payment services providers (PSPs), requiring that all firms providing online services to accept electronic payments have at least $2 million in registered capital, a move expected to increase the stability of the sector and ...