Economy and commerce
Trade
Farmers of crocodile say no to skin exports
Cambodian crocodile farmers prefer selling young live crocodiles directly rather than raising crocodiles and selling their skins for export as they believe there is no market, despite officials encouraging crocodile farming for skin exports. Heng Chheng, a crocodile farmer from Battambang, has raised crocodiles since 1984. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761796/Business/farmers-of-crocodile-say-no-to-skin-exports.html
Rosewood gambit fails
A disguised shipment of nearly eight cubic metres of illegal rosewood worth an estimated $50,000 was snagged yesterday in a Forestry Administration dragnet in Siem Reap province after agents in Banteay Meanchey alerted authorities the shipment was headed their way, Forestry officials said. Siem Reap Provincial ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761814/National/rosewood-gambit-fails.html
Construction costs low, but could rise
Construction costs in the Kingdom have increased only 1.36 per cent year-on-year, compared to Cambodia’s inflation rate, which is projected at 3.5 per cent for 2012, according to a new report from global estate agents CBRE. The company says the minimal increase is due to the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761790/Real-Estate/construction-costs-low-but-could-rise.html
Volkswagen to be sold in Kingdom
Cambodia’s authorised distributor for Mercedes-Benz will also be selling Volkswagen vehicles in May, as it hopes to cash in on higher growth in the mass-market car sector. Though the sole distributorship deal was signed in 2009, Hung Hiep Group received approval last week from VW to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761799/Business/volkswagen-to-be-sold-in-kingdom.html
Cambodian, Chinese entrepreneurs meet to seek business chances
The 2013 China’s Zhejiang and Cambodia matchmaking symposium was held here on Tuesday to seek opportunities to expand business ties between China and Cambodia. Gong Zheng said the Chinese firms are doing businesses in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure development, construction and real estate, mineral ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-03/05/c_132210667.htm
New palm oil plant for $16m
Mong Reththy Group (MRG) will begin construction on a US$16 million crude palm oil refinery next month in Preah Sihanouk province, where several thousand hectares of palm trees are grown, insiders said yesterday. Mong Reththy, president of the eponymous firm, told the Post that his company ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661772/Business/new-palm-oil-plant-for-16m.html
Birds and eggs banned from entering Thailand from Cambodia; vehicles sprayed at border points
Top officials from the Livestock Development Department inspected the work of the animal quarantine center in Sa Kaew province, located on the shared border with Cambodia. Officials at the quarantine center, situated at Ban Khlong Luek permanent border point, now implements such measures as spraying ...
http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNEVN5603050010002
Thailand, Vietnam Seek Controls on Rosewood Trade
Thailand and Vietnam have called for strict controls to be placed on the international trade of rosewood in an attempt to prevent the luxury wood species from being logged to extinction. Cambodia currently exports thousands of cubic meters of the wood to China each year, and ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thailand-vietnam-seek-controls-on-rosewood-trade-12299/
Rice exports at a flying pace
Cambodia milled rice exports reached 49,815 tonnes in the first two months of this year, an increase of 106 per cent from the same period last year. Jasmine rice was the biggest part of the exports, followed by long grain white rice, data from the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561743/Business/rice-exports-at-a-flying-pace.html
Thais to set up maize plant
THAI agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods is setting up a new silo and drying plant for maize in Pailin province. The exact investment cost is not known. According to a newspaper report in The Nation, the plant, together with a planned feed-meal plant in Laos, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561742/Business/thais-to-set-up-maize-plant.html
CPF subsidiaries investing Bt250m in Laos, Cambodia
CP Laos and CP Cambodia are investing a combined Bt250 million to set up a new silo for maize in Cambodia and a new feed-meal plant in Laos to strengthen CPF’s integrated agricultural-industrial business as the Asean Economic Community (AEC) approaches. Most recently, the company ...
Cambodia's Public Debt
According to the [inter]national Monetary Fund (IMF), at the end of 2011, the stock of Cambodia’s external public debt, including arrears, stood at around US 3.8 billion or 30 percent of GDP (24 percent in NPV terms). China remains the largest bilateral creditor, contributing to ...
Recent Development and Economic Outlook
The UN’s assessment suggests that Cambodia is one of the top five countries that have made significant progress toward meeting its MDGs by 2015. The poverty rate has dropped dramatically from 47.50 percent in 1993 to 34.70 percent in 2004 and 23 percent in 2011, ...
Second-hand, first in imports
Cambodia imported almost 10 times as many used clothes as new ones in the first 11 months of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Some 79,217 tonnes of used garments worth $61.5 million were brought in during that period, compared ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030461731/Business/second-hand-first-in-imports.html
Cambodia sees sharp rise in trade volume with its neighbors last year
Cambodia has seen a remarkable rise in trade volume with its neighboring Vietnam and Thailand in 2012, official statistics showed on Friday. The bilateral trade with Vietnam was worth 3.3 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 18 percent year-on-year, according to a data from the Vietnam ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-03/01/c_132200604.htm
Brit brands target local market
MORE UK-based brands were looking to set up shop in Cambodia, Britain’s ambassador to Cambodia, Mark Gooding, said yesterday. Gooding said at Costa Coffee’s official opening in Phnom Penh he was pleased by the arrival of the international chain, the largest coffee brand in the UK, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030161680/Business/brit-brands-target-local-market.html
Cambodia to earn $50 mln a year from cassava exports to China
Cambodia will earn about $50 million a year from exports of dried cassava to China through Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly said Thursday. Cambodia’s agricultural exports previously went through Vietnam and Thailand, amounting to between 7,000 and 8,000 tons a year. ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YjdjMmVlNGJmZDQ
Cambodian exports to Malaysia almost double in 2012
Cambodia’s exports to Malaysia almost doubled from $55.5 million a year earlier to $101 million in 2012, the Malaysian Embassy said. Exports were led by crude rubber at $69.1 million followed by milled rice at $24.3 million, up sharply from $9.5 million in 2011 and ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MWU5MWViZGE1NTc
Direct flights set for all ASEAN this year
CAMBODIA will have direct flights to all ASEAN member states this year in order to promote stronger growth of the tourism sector in the Kingdom, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Cambodia will become fully connected to the ASEAN region ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861655/Business/direct-flights-set-for-all-asean-this-year.html
Bobruisk Plant of Tractor Parts and Units starts shipping machines to Cambodia
The Bobruisk-based mechanical engineering company Bobruisk Plant of Tractor Parts and Units has shipped a batch of proprietary compact tractors Belarus 321 to Cambodia for the first time, representatives of the company’s sales department told BelTA. In line with the contract, which was signed in early ...
Cassava exports to China up, but production lags
Chinese-owned Avic International plans to export 8,000 tonnes of dried cassava from Cambodia to the Chinese market this year. According to Chan Saron, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, there are currently 31 companies listed as exporting cassava to China from Cambodia, but only 17 ...
Trade with Vietnam grows
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighbouring Vietnam increased by more than 10 per cent last year on the previous year, according to data from the Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia. The data showed that total trade volume was $3.3 billion between January and the end of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761641/Business/trade-with-vietnam-grows.html
Moto imports jump 55 per cent
IMPORTS of motor scooters reached 264,085 units, with a total value of $139 million in the first 11 months of last year – a 55 per cent jump from 170,380 units worth $86.5 million in the corresponding period of 2011, according to data from the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761643/Business/moto-imports-jump-55-per-cent.html
Logger Reported Dead as Rosewood Trade Directive Announced
Amid reports that a second Cambodian has been killed this year by Thai armed forces while illegally logging in Thai border territory, officials had little detail yesterday on a government directive that is aimed at ending the international demand for rosewood from Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun ...