Economic policy and administration

Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) to help support Japanese investment in Cambodia. The MoU was signed by SMBC President and CEO Takeshi Kunibe and PPSEZ Chairwoman Lim Chhiv Ho earlier this ...

Two ambitious trade negotiations are moving forward in the Asia Pacific, but Cambodia should first pursue a regional partnership before joining in with all of the Asia Pacific, trade experts say. Cambodia should build momentum on the existing Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an Asean-driven agreement, before ...

A development company with a government concession for a high-end property project on the island of Koh Pos, also known as Snake Island, has announced that it will significantly alter its original plans for the project. The new plan, which must first be submitted for ...

Cambodia’s finance sector should increase insurance accessibility to its smallest lenders to help protect against indebtedness at times of disaster, an industry expert said at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Speaking at the Hotel Cambodiana to an audience of industry representatives on rural entrepreneurship, Jaime ...

Cambodia’s banking sector has seen 17 percent rise in lending in the first nine months of the year, the central bank’s figures showed Thursday. The kingdom’s 34 commercial banks had provided a total loan of 6.89 billion U.S. dollars to customers by the end of September ...

Proper accounting and auditing help promote business opportunity and development, finance experts say. Socheat Chum, a senior associate auditor for KPMG, a professional accounting service, told “New Voices” on Monday that companies with “solid” financial statements will “attract more business partners and be able to borrow ...

U.S. denim giant Levi Strauss continued to deny this week that its products are linked to the strife-torn SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh, despite new photographs showing Levi’s trademark jeans stacked on benches at the plant in Meanchey district. The Singaporean-owned factory, which also produces ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday said it expects Cambodia’s economy to grow by 7 percent this year, fueled mostly by the garment, tourism and construction sectors, though risks such as extreme weather and labor market instabilities could cause growth to fluctuate. The IMF also ...

The bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and China rose by 31 percent in the first nine months of the year thanks to closer ties between the two governments, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo said Thursday. From January to September this year, the two-way trade volume ...

Environmental campaign group Global Witness on Thursday called on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Deutsche Bank to divest immediately from a Vietnamese firm whose rubber plantations in Cambodia are accused of rampant illegal logging and forced evictions of indigenous communities. The call came exactly six ...

Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and its neighboring Vietnam has hit 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of the year, up 10 percent compared with the 2.45 billion U.S. dollars over the same period last year, a Cambodian trade official said Thursday. Kem ...

Orix, a Japanese financial conglomerate, will acquire about $11 million shares in Acleda Bank PLC, Cambodia’s largest bank, by the year’s end, officials announced Wednesday, although industry executives said the investment appears only exploratory and likely won’t make more than a ripple in the banking ...

Partly triggered by recent flood damage and an increase in road accidents, claims filed with the six general insurance companies in Cambodia spiked more than 160 per cent in the nine months through to September compared with the same time last year, the latest data ...

Cambodia’s customs officials on Wednesday called on all importers to pay”tax fees as stated by law, not pay bribe”to customs officers. The appeal came after some Chinese importers have complained that Cambodian customs officers have increased tariffs for their imported products, or not allowed their ...

Cambodia is benefiting from a steadily growing service sector, but it needs to clear a number of obstacles to harness the sector’s potential, said a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released on Tuesday. The report, entitled Developing the Service Sector as an Engine of Growth ...

Cambodia’s insurance industry recorded a total premium of 31 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of the year, up 20 percent compared with the same period last year, figures showed Tuesday. It said during January-September period this year, the total amount of claims paid ...

Two of the leading microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia said yesterday that they have identified a relatively small fraction of borrowers who were affected by flooding and would provide relief on their repayment schedules if necessary. The comments come after both Prime Minister Hun Sen and ...

This year, the Cambodian people celebrate their 60th National Day as well as the birthday of the Cambodia Kingdom’s royal army under the bright leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk, who relentlessly struggled against the French colonialists to gain independence (09-11-1953 – 09-11-2013). In 2010, Father ...

Garment industry, Cambodia’s largest income maker, reported a 24 percent rise in exports in the first ten months of 2013, according to figures of the country’s Ministry of Commerce Thursday. The figures showed that the country exported garment products in equivalent to 4.76 billion U.S. dollars ...

The opposition party has called on microfinance institutions to renegotiate payment terms with flood-affected loan holders. This year’s floods have affected 20 provinces and more than 1.7 million people, with 31,314 households evacuated, according to the Humanitarian Response Forum. The Cambodia National Rescue Party has asked that ...

Cambodian and U.S. senior officials met here on Monday to further promote bilateral ties and cooperation. The meeting was made between Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Scot Marciel, visiting principal deputy assistant to the United States Secretary of ...

The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce said Friday that it had granted operating licenses to 2, 223 new companies in the first nine months of 2013, down 14.6 percent compared with 2,606 new firms over the same period last year. From January to September this year, the ...

Cambodia’s newly appointed minister of commerce said Thursday that he plans to reform the country’s economy ahead of Cambodia’s entrance into the Asean Economic Community (AEC) 2015, though he and other officials did not say how they plan to accomplish that goal. Speaking to reporters on ...

The Cambodian government should construct an effective annual review system for the minimum wage to ease worker unrest, according to clothing retail giant H&M. The Swedish company’s comments came after CEO Karl-Johan Persson visited the country in mid-October, meeting Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and other ...