Economy and commerce
Budget pushed through
Cambodia’s 2012 budget passed through the National Assembly yesterday unopposed, without a single question asked and no parliamentary debate in a situation the government, opposition and observers all said was unfortunate. It took just over three hours for the law to be passed, 86 to 0, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112552980/National-news/budget-pushed-through.html
No consultation as government develops new urban planning policy
The Ministry of Land Management and Urban Planning announced yesterday that it will soon complete a new draft sub-decree that aims to guide and regulate urban development in towns and cities. Land and human rights groups, however, criticized the ministry for failing to consult them on ...
French financing: Cambodian MFI fetches $5m loan
Hattha Kaksekar Limited, one of Cambodia’s largest microfinance institutions, has received a US$5 million loan from a French development organisation in order to meet rising demand among its client farmers. PROPARCO, which is a joint venture between the French Development Agency and public and private shareholders, ...
Hun Sen rebukes World Bank
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday rebuked the World Bank for revising downward its outlook for gross domestic product growth in the Kingdom, claiming the bank’s projections could cause market panic. The premier also announced a new government projection of 6.4 per cent GDP growth this year, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112452947/Business/hun-sen-rebukes-world-bank.html
Renewable energy to power Takeo milling plant
A Japan energy company yesterday said it planned to build a rice mill fuelled by rice husks in Cambodia’s Takeo province. New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) confirming cooperation ...
Banks offer millions to millers
Two Cambodian banks have set aside US$200 million for loans to bolster the Kingdom’s struggling rice-milling industry, officials said yesterday. The move comes as the Cambodian government has called on the private sector to boost loans to rice millers during the harvest season as a way ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112352914/Business/banks-offer-millions-to-millers.html
Koh Kong families demand better eviction compensation
A group of about 30 families in Koh Kong province’s Botum Sakor district said yesterday that they would continue to resist attempts to evict them in order to make way for a Chinese mega-tourism project, unless authorities improve their compensation offer. Villager Prum Sann said the ...
World Bank cuts growth outlook to 6%
Devastating floods as well as the economic slowdown in Europe and the US have prompted the World Bank to lower its outlook for Cambodia’s economic growth this year to 6 percent, down from a previous projection of 6.8 percent. In its economic update for the region ...
Garment shipments jump 30% on low prices
Cambodia’s garment and textile exports grew by more than 30 per cent year-on-year through October, according to Ministry of Commerce data. The exports increased by nearly US$880 million, reaching $3.47 billion, the data showed ...
Group urges regional bank to press government on NGO law
A group of international NGOs urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday to press the government on abandoning its plans for a law regulating the country’s non-governmental groups despite a recent pledge to drop its most controversial provision. “The ADB should convince the Cambodian authorities to ...
SMEs not yet ready for CSX
Small and medium-sized enterprises, which are expected to play a key role in the Kingdom’s emergent stock market, are far from ready to list, insiders say. Most important, many SMEs lack the standardisations and controls required of publicly traded companies by the Securities and Exchange Commission ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112152859/Business/smes-not-yet-ready-for-csx.html
Chinese firm to build $500m steel plant in Preah Vihear
China’s Guangxi Nonferrous Metal Group announced on Friday that it is planning to invest $500 million to build a steel plant and industrial zone in Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district, according to Chinese media reports ...
Australian grant to assist railway families
The Australian government is committing $1 million to help families being forced out of their homes to make way for a railway rehabilitation project it is co-funding with the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Australian Embassy said in a statement Friday. The embassy ...
Man guarding land crushed by bulldozer
A 54-year-old man in Kratie province’s Snuol district was crushed to death under trees felled on Tuesday morning by bulldozers belonging to Vietnamese rubber company Dy Nam, an official said. District governor Iv Saphum said that Khem Kan, a representative of 77 families involved in a ...
Milled rice exports climb, prices soar
Cambodia’s milled rice exports increased by more than seven per cent year-on-year during the first 10 months of 2011, while international demand for the grain drove up rice prices by nearly 200 per cent, commerce officials said. The Kingdom exported more than 136,000 tonnes of milled ...
Royal Group linked to new $2.2bn firm
A fertiliser company that has been approved to do billions of dollars’ worth of business in Cambodia, and is presumed to be based in the United Kingdom, is in fact affiliated with domestic conglomerate Royal Group, an insider has confirmed. Nitrogen Chemicals and Fertiliser (Cambodia) Ltd ...
Criminal gang targeting ATMs in Cambodia
A group of highly organized criminals have been installing devices into ATMs around Cambodia capable of copying card details and stealing thousands of dollars of cash from customer bank accounts. Canadia Bank and ANZ are among the banks that have been targeted by the gang, who ...
Manulife to launch operations in Kingdom
Canadian firm Manulife Financial plans to set up one of Cambodia’s first life-insurance operations, the company said yesterday. The Ministry of Economy and Finance had approved “in principle” the investment, which a spokesperson from the company said would be at least US$7 million ...
Refresh Mobile buys WING
Refresh Mobile yesterday announced the purchase of mobile banking outfit WING from Australia’s ANZ, although the amount of the deal was not released. WING will join Refresh’s stable of electronic payment and cell phone top-up services, in addition to soon offering overseas mobile remittance capabilities, Refresh ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111752801/Business/refresh-mobile-buys-wing.html
Land titles sought in Kompong Thom
The Kampong Thom provincial governor issued a letter on Tuesday to villagers living in Santuk district, ordering them to provide documentation confirming their ownership of land they reportedly “purchased” from brokers after it had already been assigned to relocated families, officials said yesterday. Deputy district governor ...
Sihanoukville Port uncompetitive ahead of listing
Just months before Sihanoukville Autonomous Port is supposed to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, officials said yesterday that the state-owned enterprise is still more expensive and slower at processing goods than other ports in the region. An investor said that the problems confronting the port ...
Bank and AusAid criticized for treatment of railway evictees
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia yesterday accused the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid) of white-washing conditions at relocation sites for families being evicted by a $142 million railway rehabilitation project being funded largely with their money ...
Suspended funds stymie e-commerce law
The drafting of a law on e-commerce that would regulate electronic transfers in Cambodia has been postponed because the World Bank has suspended funds over the government’s handling of land evictions in Phnom Penh. In September, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said that the government should aim ...
Regional bank meets with evicted railway families
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) met yesterday with the representatives of families evicted or facing eviction to make way for an ADB-funded railway project, and defended itself against complaints that the project was pushing some of them deeper into poverty. The ADB has billed the $142 ...