Economy and commerce

Four ministries are pushing local producers, particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), to improve their quality, standards and packaging and to provide proper labels on their products to make them more attractive to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels and to boost recognition of local products ...

Kampot pepper, which received geographical indication (GI) certification from the European Union last year, expects 80 tonnes to go on the export market this year, thanks to demand and increased production. ...

The central bank announced on Friday that it has fined an unnamed microfinance institution (MFI) $100,000 for engaging in non-transparent lending practices. ...

Local small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) met with government officials yesterday and accused them of not doing enough to support domestic products against a flood of imports while multiple officials claimed that they could provide little assistance unless businesses were properly registered. ...

Cambodia has yet to export mangoes to South Korea despite signing a memorandum of understanding in 2015 with the East Asian country’s Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, according to a senior official in the Ministry of Agriculture. ...

As Cambodia continues its upward trajectory towards becoming a lower-middle-income country, it will face even greater challenges in reducing high levels of poverty as the Kingdom loses its preferential trade privileges and donor funding dries up, according to a new World Bank report. ...

Singapore-based oil and gas company KrisEnergy is scheduled to sign an agreement with the Cambodian government next Wednesday for the extraction of petroleum from Block A to develop the Aspara oil field. ...

U.S. companies doing business in Cambodia are optimistic about the country’s overall investment environment, but remain dissatisfied with the supply of cheap and skilled labor, corruption, tax structure, and attitudes toward the U.S., according to a new survey. ...

In order to promote interbank transactions and lending, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has officially launched a new online platform which allows financial operators to apply for and trade the central bank’s financial instruments like negotiable certificates of deposits (NCDs), liquidity-providing collateralised operations (LPCOs) ...

Two weeks after Bangladesh and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Phnom Penh to purchase rice from Cambodia, on Monday of this week Bangladesh signed a deal to buy 250,000 tonnes of milled rice from Cambodia. ...

Royal Government of Cambodia is drawing up strategic plan to promote both the quality and sustainable markets for Cambodia’s pepper. ...

Global credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Services said yesterday that while it has retained Cambodia’s B2/stable sovereign rating alongside Vietnam’s B1/positive rating, the Kingdom’s low diversification of exports has put it at higher risk from external shocks than its eastern neighbour. ...

Cambodian timber exports to Vietnam over the first six months of the year have almost surpassed the total amount for all of last year, according to Vietnamese customs data, despite an existing ban on the trade – which one analyst said had “entirely failed” in ...

Trade between Cambodia and Thailand increased by about 10 percent in the first half of the year to $2.9 billion, up from $2.6 billion in the same period last year, according to figures released by the Thai embassy yesterday. ...

The United States, one of the Cambodia’s key trading partners, is going to assess sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards in Cambodia, opening up the opportunity for Cambodian agricultural products to be exported to the US. ...

The Kingdom’s apex rice industry body has been meeting this week to discuss ways of nailing down a potentially massive deal with Bangladesh, which earlier this month inked a memorandum of understanding to purchase 1 million tonnes of Cambodian rice over the next five years. ...

H.E. Ok Boung, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Commerce, held a discussion with H.E. Ms. Pottie Donica, Canadian Ambassador to Cambodia, on bilateral trade relations, mainly in garment sector, at the ministry office on Monday afternoon, said the ministry’s news release. ...

Exports to the US saw a modest rebound during the first half of the year, benefiting in part from new trade privileges that allow Cambodian-made travel goods to enter the world’s biggest consumer market duty-free, a Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) representative said yesterday. ...

Over 1,500 kilograms of poor quality chicken bones and other tainted goods imported from Thailand have been seized and destroyed by Camcontrol officials in Banteay Meanchey and Battambang province this week. ...

The state-owned Rural Development Bank on Monday announced it will rebrand as the Agriculture Development Bank within the next couple of years, offering a wider range of funds and banking services. ...

Cambodia’s banking sector enjoyed another strong performance last year as the Kingdom’s economy continued to expand, with banking credit moderating, deposits increasing and financial institutions remaining healthy as they further integrate into the global economy, the central bank said in its annual report yesterday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen is to ask Japan to invest $800 million in building a skytrain link between the city and Phnom Penh International Airport. ...

Growth of exports to Japan slowed during the first half of 2017, marking the lowest half-year growth rate in nearly a decade, newly released data from Japan’s development agency show. ...

Malaysia is investing some US$250 million to establish a Cambodia Islamic Trade Centre (CITC) seen as positive contribution to the country’s economic development. ...