Economy and commerce

Despite the recent downgrading of two of Cambodia’s major banks by ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, bankers said yesterday that profits are up, loan portfolios are growing at a fast tick and non-performing loans are shrinking. In Channy, president and CEO of Acleda Bank, ...

Cambodia and Australia are one step closer to getting daily direct flights between the two countries, an aviation official confirmed yesterday. State Secretariat of Civil Aviation deputy cabinet director Long Chheng said his department had passed the proposal submitted by a “state-owned” Australian airline and sent ...

The US firm marketing what will likely be the first forest-based carbon trading scheme in Cambodia has bought $900,000 worth of political risk insurance to back the project, according to a media report. ...

Thailand’s worst floods in decades have not slowed trade with Cambodia, a Thai official in Phnom Penh said yesterday, claiming many products sought by Cambodia came from areas free of flooding. Bilateral trade between the two countries rose nine per cent year-on-year in the first nine ...

As part of a continuing push to bolster rice exports, the government has agreed to waive all export tariffs on milled rice and will also eliminate value-added tax (VAT) on paddy rice purchased domestically. According to a promulgation signed last month by Finance Minister Keat Chhon, ...

The Center for Study and Development of Agriculture (Cedac) is calling on the government and microfinance firms to issue low-interest loans for flood-stricken farmers in order to save this year’s dry season rice harvest. Floods have destroyed 10 percent of the rainy season rice crop and ...

Rubber growers and exporters in Cambodia stalled exports as rubber prices continued a sharp decline that companies attributed to flooding in Thailand and economic turmoil in Europe. Heng Sreng, general director of Long Sreng International Co Ltd and owner of Boeung Keth Rubber Plantation in Kampong ...

The Kingdom’s first centralised credit bureau was on track to launch in February, officials said yesterday, although it had originally been slated to start by the end of this year. Credit Bureau Cambodia will collect and provide consumer and institutions’ financial information, which they can use ...

Both Cambodia and the World Trade Organisation this week called on the United States to follow China’s lead in promising zero-tariff treatment to Least Developed Countries. Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a speech at the G20 summit in Cannes, France, on Friday, announced China would grant ...

While the World Trade Organisation yesterday lauded Cambodia’s economic achievements since joining in 2004, officials pointed to the lack of much-needed financing for the Kingdom’s burgeoning trade sector. Cambodia lacks the capacity to finance the manufacturing and agriculture exports that would allow the country’s industries to ...

Cambodia plans to expand its exports of milled rice and other agricultural products to the United Arab Emirates, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said yesterday. The UAE seeks a replacement for the milled rice it would otherwise import from Thailand, where the worst flooding in decades ...

The number of flood-related insurance claims has been fewer than expected despite the Kingdom’s worst flooding in a decade, industry insiders say. Although the floods, which began in late August, had affected large sections of the country, few claims had been made, Infinity Insurance chief executive ...

The first garment factory in Koh Kong province is slated to open in April of next year in what insiders say is a harbinger of manufacturing along the Thai border. Thai-owned KKN Apparel had signed a contract with the Koh Kong Special Economic Zone to launch ...

Cambodia’s draft budget law for 2012 will seek to increase concessional borrowing by about 75 per cent compared to 2011, according to a copy of the draft obtained by the Post. A lack of aid commitment may have led to the increase in proposed borrowing, experts ...

Government officials are at odds over how much Cambodia’s national debt amounts to. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia’s debt stands at just $2 billion, contradicting information provided by CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap last week that the number is actually $7 billion, or 63 ...

Five years after the government established the country’s special economic zones (SEZs), the Phnom Penh SEZ, Sihanoukville II SEZ, and Manhattan SEZ in Svay Rieng province are at last starting to attract more business. According to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), ...

Advertising companies generated $73.6 million in revenue during the first nine months of the year, a 28 percent increase compared to the same period in 2010, according to data released by marketing research firm Indochina Research. Beverage and telecommunication companies led the way, spending $12.75 million ...

For the fifth time in a row, Cambodia’s top investment partner, China, has been ranked among the most likely to pay bribes, according to an international corruption perception report published yesterday. Transparency International’s Bribe Payer’s Index classed China as second-to-last among 28 of the world’s biggest ...

Economic growth in Cambodia is being hampered by poor sanitation and hygiene, and rising food prices are leaving people struggling to afford basic produce for a balanced diet, according to a report released yesterday by the UN Development Program (UNDP). The UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Report ...

South Korean investors were in Phnom Penh yesterday seeking opportunities in electronics manufacturing, an industry that experts have said could represent the next stage of growth for Cambodia’s economy. Eleven delegates from Changwon City, South Korea, a manufacturing hub in the country, met with 70 local ...

Freight shipments through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Cambodia’s second largest port, increased more than 30 per cent year-on-year through October, according to official figures ...

Camcontrol revenues for the first nine months of the year hit US$7.9 million, surpassing the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s revenue goal of $6 million for the year. Kong Putheara, director of the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics department, this week said the unexpected growth came from ...

The World Trade Organisation today will conclude its first-ever review of Cambodia’s trade policies and practices and issue its concluding remarks. The trade review, which began on November 1, is the first time the Kingdom, which was the first least-developed country to fully accede to the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday added his two cents to the ongoing debate on what Cambodia’s debt to China actually is, declaring it stands at only US$2 billion. At a ground-breaking ceremony marking the beginning of construction on Phnom Penh’s Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge, the premier rejected ...