Economy and commerce
Dry season rice crop jeopardized
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 ...
Floods and crisis sink rubber price
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 ...
Credit bureau plans for early 2012 launch
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 ...
Kingdom, WTO call on US to drop tariffs
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 ...
Weak spots seen in Kingdom trade
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110852601/Business/weak-spots-seen-in-kingdom-trade.html
UAE considering Kingdom's rice
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 ...
Insurers hit with few flood claims
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 ...
Koh Kong's first garment factory to launch next April
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 ...
State borrowing may spike
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 at odds over debt levels
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 ...
Three special economic zones gaining steam
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), ...
Dene-Hern Chen, p.25
Beverage firms, telcos lift revenues
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 ...
Cambodia's top investor sits at bottom of bribery list
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 ...
Subpar sanitation, high food prices curbing growth, UN says
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 manufacturers eye Cambodia
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 ...
PPAP shipping numbers up
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110352507/Business/ppap-shipping-numbers-up.html
Regulator sees growth
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110352505/Business/regulator-sees-growth.html
WTO review of Kingdom trade policy expected
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 ...
PM weighs in on China debt debate
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 ...
Private firms plan CSX IPOs
A logistics firm and two garment manufacturers planned to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange during the second half of 2012, underwriter Phnom Penh Securities said yesterday. The companies are the first known private businesses to confirm their intentions of listing on the Kingdom’s still-dormant bourse. Manufacturing ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110352509/Business/private-firms-plan-csx-ipos.html
Mega-projects lead to big growth in approved investments
Approved investments in Cambodia reached $5.6 billion during the first nine months of the year, a 305 percent increase compared to the same period the year before, according to data from the Council of the Development of Cambodia (CDC). Last year’s approved investments during the same ...
Fund raising: Kingdom may borrow more in 2012
Cambodia could borrow US$1.1 billion from other countries in 2012, 75 per cent more than this year, to help repair infrastructure damaged in flooding and support efforts to increase rice exports to one million tonnes by 2015, a senior official said yesterday. Cheam Yeap, chairman of ...
S&P downgrades Acleda, keeps outlook stable
Hours after downgrading Cambodia’s long-term sovereign credit rating, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said it had also decided to lower the credit rating for Acleda Bank to B from B+, though it maintained its outlook for the bank as stable. The decision follows a similar decision ...
S&P downgrades national sovereign debt rating
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s yesterday lowered Cambodia’s long-term sovereign credit rating by one notch to B due to the country’s continued inability to diversify its economy and increase government spending. The decision by Standard & Poor’s comes after the agency said in September that constraints ...