Economy and commerce
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 ...
Insurance firms at loss through first three quarters
Insurance companies have operated at a loss through the first nine months of the year, paying out a total of $32.5 million over $20.4 million in generated revenues, according to data released by the Cambodian Reinsurance Company on Friday. Ty Atith, a senior underwriter at the ...
44 staff members for national arbitration center selected
After years of trying to find suitable staff, the Ministry of Commerce on Friday released a list of 44 arbitrators who will be in charge of running the National Arbitration Center (NAC), a body designed to offer businesses a commercial dispute mechanism alternative to Cambodia’s ...
Kingdom licenses newest advisory firm
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia approved yesterday a license to IRIS Securities to be the 13th securities investment advisory firm in the Kingdom’s budding capital market ...
Crocodile prices down, breeders blame floods
Cambodian crocodile farmers have blamed the falling price of the reptile on flooding, which they say has turned away Thai and Vietnamese buyers – the market’s cornerstone. Prices for young crocodiles have dropped 25 per cent since August, Kandal breeder Kaing Sarin said. His reptiles fetched ...
Vietnam trade passes $2bn
Trade between Cambodia and Vietnam surpassed a US$2 billion trade target for 2011 in just the first nine months of the year, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in Phnom Penh. Trade between the two countries hit the higher-than-projected $2.07 billion in September, up from about ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011102852398/Business/vietnam-trade-passes-2bn.html
Japanese mall buys swathe of prime real estate
In one of Phnom Penh’s biggest land deals to date, Japanese shopping mall developer Aeon Mall Co Ltd has bought 6.7 hectares of prime real estate from South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction, a firm that was once slated to build the tallest building in ...
Draft budget law allocates $2.6bn for 2012
Total government spending in 2012 is set to reach $2.62 billion, an increase of 9 percent on the $2.4 billion the government had budgeted to spend in 2011, according to a copy of the 2012 draft budget law obtained yesterday. As part of the new budget, ...
High food prices shrink imports in third quarter
Food and beverage imports in the Kingdom fell more than 70 per cent in the third quarter, as high international prices and the growth of domestic production dragged on demand. About 192,580 tonnes of food and beverage products entered Cambodia between July and September, down 72 ...
ACLEDA, Tong Yang sign MoU
Tong Yang Securities (Cambodia) and ACLEDA Securities yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to partner the services they offer to the Kingdom’s budding financial markets. To expand their footprint in the market, the companies aimed to provide a combination of advisory and underwriting services for companies ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011102752376/Business/acleda-tong-yang-sign-mou.html
Camintel to join mobile scramble
A ninth telecoms operator would enter the Cambodian market next year, officials said yesterday, surprising insiders who claimed the sector was already overcrowded. Camintel, a joint Cambodian state- and Korean-owned company, would offer mobile services in 2012, CEO Kang Namkook said yesterday at a telecommunications conference ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011102752377/Business/camintel-to-join-mobile-scramble.html
Nonperforming microloans swell due to floods
Total outstanding loans in the microfinance sector reached $815.47 million in the third quarter, a 25.8 percent rise compared to beginning of the year, according to data released yesterday by the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) Despite growth in the sector, microfinance institutions said nonperforming loans were ...
Exports reach $3.5 billion in the first nine months
Total exports during the first nine months of the year rose 41 percent to $3.5 billion compared to the same period in 2010, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce. Of the total amount, $3.1 billion was in garments, $10 million in paddy rice, ...