Economy and commerce

Cambodian microlender Hattha Kaksekar Ltd (HKL) has secured a $15 million cash injection to expand its business operations from its parent company, Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya, Hout Ieng Tong, president and CEO of HKL, confirmed yesterday.  ...

Sany Heavy Industry, one of the biggest manufacturers of heavy construction machinery in China’s Hunan province, plans to expand in Cambodia to tap into rising infrastructure development. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia will develop a blockchain-based payment system with help from a Japanese financial technology startup to offer people a secure, low-cost way of sending and receiving money.   ...

The state-owned enterprise that operates Cambodia’s only deep-sea port officially announced that it will launch its six-day bookbuild and public roadshow starting next Tuesday with an expected initial public offering (IPO) on the Kingdom’s stock market set for May 31, the company’s sole underwriter said ...

After Cambodian rice exports declined dramatically in March, caused by what millers claimed was a stricter enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures by the Chinese government, the Ministry of Agriculture announced yesterday that it would lobby on the sector’s behalf to allow more millers ...

Cambodia’s financial sector saw healthy growth last year with increased deposits and profits amid slower credit growth, reflecting sustainable development and increased public confidence in the sector, according to a recently released central bank report. ...

Cambodian rice exports declined dramatically in March, causing the average export growth of the Kingdom’s dominant cash crop to increase by only 3 percent during the first quarter of this year, nearly wiping out the double-digit growth seen in January and February. ...

Smart Axiata Co., Ltd. and AIA (Cambodia) Life Insurance Plc. have jointly announced a long-term partnership in bringing differentiated life insurance products and services to people in Cambodia to meet their growing financial protection and long-term saving needs.   ...

The World Bank has predicted that Cambodia’s GDP will grow at a more modest 6.9 percent this year and next, and slow slightly to 6.7 percent in 2019.   ...

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings will team with Toshiba to manage power grids in Cambodia, hoping to secure a new earnings source as the utility grapples with soaring cleanup costs for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. ...

The World Bank on Thursday forecast a slight dip in the country’s economic growth rate by 2019 amid declining foreign investment, rising inflation and a slowdown in the expansion of garments manufacturing, and advised improvements to infrastructure and training to keep the economy on its ...

The vast majority of local companies lack corporate governance standards and provide insufficient business information, requiring investors and regulators to do heavy due diligence work that stops businesses from tapping into additional funding sources, officials said yesterday. ...

Trade between China and Cambodia swelled to $4.8 billion last year, up by about $200 million from the year before, while Beijing has now given the government $4.2 billion in grants and loans, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that China has been playing a critical role in contributing to the development of the Cambodian economy through direct investment and helping to develop infrastructure.  In 2016 trade reached about $4.8 billion of which exports from Cambodia amounted to ...

With the interest rate cap of 18 percent in full force for all new and restructured microfinance loans after the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) issued a populist measure to curb high interest rates, microfinance institutions (MFIs) are starting to give predictions for lower profits ...

Lack of trust from investors has so far limited the growth potential of the growing number of Cambodian technology startups. Five-year old Khmerload, a Cambodian entertainment news website modeled after the American media giant Buzzfeed, has become one of the country’s first local tech startups ...

Representatives from global ride-hailing behemoth Uber confirmed the company’s interest in starting operations in Cambodia during a meeting this week with Transportation Minister Sun Chanthol, according to one of the minister’s aides. ...

The Cambodia Chamber of Commerce and the Korea International Trade Association have announced a partnership to bring more South Korean investors to Cambodia. ...

Cambodia’s economic growth remained strong last year though the Kingdom must now address major systemic challenges to build on its ascension into lower-middle income status in order to maintain healthy levels of development, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in its annual report yesterday. ...

South Korea is pushing forward with discussions to hammer out a double taxation agreement (DTA) with the Kingdom that would provide an additional incentive for Korean businesses to set up shop and increase fiscal transparency while shielding individuals and corporations from being taxed twice. ...

Total revenue for the listed state-owned enterprise Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) increased 7.49 percent by the end of December last year, giving it a net value of $16.5 million compared with $15.35 million a year earlier.   ...

Cambodia’s startups have clamoured to attract foreign venture capital, and now even Silicon Valley is paying attention. Last month, local media and entertainment site Khmerload – described by some as Cambodia’s version of Buzzfeed – secured $200,000 in investment from the regional arm of California-based ...

Amid concerns that the European Union could reject shipments of Cambodian rice, exporters are pushing for more access to China as an alternative market for the Kingdom’s principal agricultural commodity. ...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port attributed its growth in profits last year to a rise in container traffic and shipments through the capital’s river port, as well as increased profits from leasing equipment and returns on interest, it said in a filing to the Cambodia Securities ...