Economy and commerce

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

October marks the start of the main rice harvest in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of the grain. Traders are waiting to see the full impact of flooding on the crop, but it’s already clear that output across Southeast Asia will fall substantially. The U.N.’s ...

The worst floods in a decade may boost the number of nonperforming loans in the Kingdom’s microfinance industry in the fourth quarter, insiders said yesterday. However, those insiders said the damage done to Cambodia’s agriculture sector would not have a significant impact given the MFIs’ diversified ...

The Kingdom’s latest brewery is set to launch on November 1, introducing a new player into the growing Cambodian beer market, insiders said yesterday. The Khmer Brewery plant, a US$60 million joint venture between locally based Chip Mong Group and major international brewery manufacturer Ziemann Group, ...

The Minister for Agriculture yesterday appealed to buyers to address the shortage of pigs in Phnom Penh by applying for licenses that would allow them to import more livestock from neighbouring countries. An industry representative and a market expert, however, warned of the potential fallout that ...

Cambodian debt to China now stands at $4 billion, 35 percent of last year’s gross domestic product and more than half of the country’s total outstanding debt to foreign donors, according to a senior government official. The amount of money Cambodia owes China has been growing ...

Premium revenues across Cambodia’s insurance industry are expected to increase 20 per cent year-on-year in 2011, Mey Vann, director of the Department of Industry and Finance at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, predicted yesterday. The Kingdom’s six insurance firms are set to accrue a total ...

Heightened global food and fuel prices continued to inflate Cambodia’s market in September, and experts said flood damages would elevate costs further toward the end of the year. Year-on-year inflation hit 6.7 per cent in last month, up 1 per cent from August, according to data ...

PHNOM PENH — Hundreds of workers were hospitalised after falling ill on Monday at a Cambodian garment factory — the latest in a string of such incidents in the industry, police and union officials said. Nearly one thousand employees at the Anful Garments Factory (Cambodia) Ltd ...

Rice futures jumped the most permitted by the Chicago Board of Trade, advancing to a one- month high, as flood damage to crops in Southeast Asia boosted prospects for U.S. exports. Storms since September damaged 12.5 percent of paddies in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, and ...

French engineering firm Systra is underway with a feasibility study to build a tramway from Phnom Penh International Airport to the Royal Railway Station, Governor Kep Chuktema said on Friday. The agreement to study a tramway was first made between Systra and City Hall in July ...

The Kingdom’s fish exports declined 48 per cent in the first nine months of 2011, as a result of growing local demand, according to Ministry of Commerce figures. The statistics showed that Cambodia’s export of fish totalled 1,099 tonnes from January to September, compared to 2,123 ...

Sonatra Microfinance Institution, a joint investment between local and foreign investors, officially started operations in Cambodia yesterday. A US$50 million loan package was signed during the ceremony on Thursday, providing Singapore-based EastWing Group and Japanese firm Grand Cooperation with a 30 per cent stake of the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday led a delegation of businessmen and top government officials to join the eighth China-ASEAN expo and investment summit to be held in Nanning, China, from October 21 to October 26. The Cambodian prime minister planned to meet his Chinese counterpart Premier ...