Economy and commerce

The senior manager of Tomato Specialized Bank yesterday said the bank would continue to operate in Cambodia despite a decision by South Korea’s financial regulator to suspend one of its partners. Korea’s Financial Services Commission on Sunday announced that seven banks, including the Tomato Savings Bank, ...

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) will enter Cambodia’s banking sector in November to become the country’s 30th commercial bank to date, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The report said that ICBC president Yang Kaisheng had met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday ...

Gliding through the water almost soundlessly, the MS AmaLotus docked for only its second time in Phnom Penh last week At 92 meters in length and capable of holding 124 passengers, the AmaLotus is the latest cruise ship to start transporting tourists between Siem Reap and ...

The Kingdom’s small and medium enterprises have called on commercial banks and micro-finance institutions to lower interest rates on loans, as insiders have said they hamper SMEs’ potential for growth. Many Cambodian SMEs are concerned that the high interest rates offered by banks reduce productivity, according ...

Moody’s Investment Services yesterday announced a change in outlook for Cambodian Public Bank to “negative” from “stable”, citing increasing risks in the Kingdom’s banking system and exposure to slow-downs in Western markets. While CamPu Bank country head Phan Ying Tong said yesterday the company’s financial position ...

Japanese financial group SBI Holdings Inc announced yesterday that it would launch a $50 million investment fund with The Royal Group to invest in local companies in a wide range of industries. In a statement, SBI Holdings also said that its securities company in Cambodia, SBI ...

Mining concession buy-outs will make Brighton Mining Limited one of the Kingdom’s largest miners by concession size in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province, according to a company statement released yesterday. Brighton, an ASX-listed company, has completed negotiations with Summer Gold Investment Pty Limited for mining concessions in Mondulkiri ...

Cambodia and Vietnam yesterday pledged to strengthen cooperation on a range of issues involving trade and investment, in order to boost increasing trade between the neighbouring countries. Bilateral trade between the nations is currently in its most significant period, with trans-border business continuing to grow, Cambodia ...

Shanghai Construction Group has announced it will complete US$700 million in projects in Cambodia over the next five years, highlighting China’s dominant and still-growing presence in the Kingdom. The company presently oversees nine bridge and road construction projects in the Kingdom, according to government relations officer ...

Fueled by a rise in food prices, inflation reached 7.1 percent in July compared to the same month last year, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics According to the data, the price of meat increased by 16.4 percent in July compared to ...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port plans to join three other state-owned enterprises in listing on the recently launched Cambodian Securities Exchange, an official said yesterday Hei Bavy, the port’s director general, said that Finance Minister Keat Chhon has spoken to officials at the port, expressing his interest ...

TNT Express linked its Chinese day-definite domestic road services into its Asia Road Network. This has created the only scheduled day-definite road network covering China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, said the operator. CEO Marie-Christine Lombard said: “With the integration of TNT’s two ...

HCM CITY — The HCM City government will offer interest-free loans to local companies doing business in the city, Laos and Cambodia. With a stimulus package of VND8 trillion (US$381 million), the city has approved interest-fee loans of up to VND100 billion ($4.7 million) over ...

Brighton Mining Group (ASX: BTN) has completed negotiations for the acquisition of a major interest in gold mining assets held directly or indirectly by Brighton Mining Limited (BML), boosting its concession holdings in Cambodia. These include the interest of BML in the Cambodian concessions held by ...

Singapore’s decades-long effort to reclaim land from the ocean has expanded the nation’s coastline and fueled its building boom. But it has also depleted its supply of sand.  In recent years, the massive sand shortage has been worsened by export bans by neighboring countries, driving ...

The Kingdom’s total trade with Singapore soared 148 percent in the first half of the year, while exports to Hong Kong increased 80 percent in the same period, according to Ministry of Commerce figures. The data showed that Cambodia’s exports to Hong Kong totalled in excess ...

Inbound foreign tourists at the Poipet International Checkpoint with Thailand increased more than 26 percent year-on-year, according to checkpoint statistics. More than 273,969 foreign tourists and traders entered Cambodia during the first eight months of the year, up from 216,546 during the same time period ...

About 500 villagers from six districts in Kratie’s Snoul district protested on National Road 7 yesterday, in a bid to find a solution to their land dispute with two Vietnamese rubber companies. Cars, trucks and buses were gridlocked from 8:00am to 12:00pm along National Road 7 ...

Three families have lodged complaints against China National Heavy Machinery Co after a storm at the company’s hydropower dam project in Koh Kong province on September 10 swept away a group of workers, leaving two dead and five missing, rights group Adhoc said yesterday. Neang Boratino, ...

Opposition party members and a human rights group yesterday condemned the demolition of eight homes and businesses at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake on Friday, calling the act a violation of the law. Two excavators belonging to Shukaku Inc tore down homes as riot police pushed ...

On Sunday, CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap will attend a forum on the evolving oil and gas sector with about 400 university students. If all goes according to plan, Chevron Corporation will begin to extract oil from Cambodian waters in little over a year. Though the amount ...

The Thai government’s plan to implement a minimum price for Thailand’s rice growers next month is expected to push up paddy prices for Cambodian farmers during the upcoming harvest, agriculture experts said yesterday Agriculture experts said rice paddy prices in Cambodia would likely increase due to ...

Plans are in the works to rebuild 505.4 km of rural roads in seven provinces with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and South Korea. The first phase of the repairing of the roads will begin in December 2011. The project to rebuild roads ...

Tourism ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam held a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City to discuss ways to boost tourism in all the four countries, creating a four country tourist destination. At the meeting on September 13, attended by over 200 delegates and investors, ...