Economy and commerce

Cambodia is set to become the first country in Southeast Asia to recognise and protect European patents after the Minister of Industry and Handicrafts signed an agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) yesterday. ...

Sand exports will remain suspended amid questions about a 56 million-ton discrepancy in deliveries to Singapore. Dith Tina, a secretary of state and spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said yesterday that no date had been set for the exports to resume. ...

Speakers at a government forum held yesterday on macroeconomic management and the 2017 budget law said Cambodia’s strong economic growth has been largely unscathed by China’s slowdown, though clouds were forming on the horizon. ...

The controversial exporting of Cambodian sand to Singapore has finally—if temporarily—been stopped, according to officials from the two countries, amid long-running criticism over discrepancies in shipment records and environmental damage. ...

Cambodia is looking to implement cross-border paperless trade once the country’s e-commerce law is fully adopted and implemented, the Commerce Ministry said. ...

Six months since the central bank launched its FAST payment system, a new scheme to provide instant riel-denominated fund transfers between financial institutions and their clients, the bank recorded a total fund transfer of 10 billion riel ($2.5 million) as of end-2016. ...

Cambodia is seeking to expand its market for milled rice to Sweden and is looking for ways to cooperate further in trade and investment. ...

While international rubber prices rebounded late last year, Cambodia’s exports in 2016, however, remained relatively unchanged compared with 2015, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. ...

Cambodia will begin applying for a loan from the newly established China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) from next year in response to the current need for infrastructure development. ...

Two Chinese companies are looking to lease land along the Cambodia-Vietnam border in Takeo province to build factories producing animal feed and processing meat for export. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen attended a dinner with Swiss company executives in Zurich on Monday, where he invited investors to join the upcoming ASEAN World Economic Forum (WEF), which Cambodia will host for the first time in May. ...

Banking pioneer Pung Kheav Se was appointed yesterday as president of the Association of Khmer-Chinese in Cambodia, succeeding Duong Chhiv, who retired after holding the post for 16 years. ...

US-based Uber will conduct a study on the feasibility of operating its ride-sharing services here in Cambodia, its representatives told the Commerce Ministry on Friday. Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak told Uber Asia-Pacific representatives Chan Park and Brian Shroder that the increased proliferation of internet and mobile ...

A $360 million sugarcane factory will start operating next month after stopping last June due to a shortage of raw material. The Rui Feng sugarcane mill opened last April with capacity to produce nearly half a million tons a year for export, mainly to Europe and ...

Breaking months of silence over accusations that it imported tens of millions of tons of smuggled sand, Singapore’s government on Monday distanced itself from any wrongdoing, a response an environmental NGO leader deemed “full of lies” and “devoid of any meaning.” ...

Cambodia hopes to see Japanese investment in the light industry sector, which will help develop the kingdom’s labor force. Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak, in a meeting last week with Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia Hidehisa Horinouchi, asked Japan to consider investing in the light industry sector. ...

Italy will set up a chamber of commerce in Cambodia this year with the aim of promoting and strengthening trade and investment opportunities in the kingdom.   ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) released its review of 2016 and outlook for 2017 this week, highlighting the continued large growth of the banking sector while warning that the Kingdom was still vulnerable to external economic factors. ...

Despite global uncertainty related to political shifts in the West and a continued Chinese economic slowdown, Cambodia showed strong growth prospects for the next several years, according to the World Bank’s latest report. ...

The Vietnamese government has urged local authorities to combat trade fraud, smuggling and counterfeit goods in provinces bordering Cambodia to boost trade with its neighbor. ...

Trade liberalisation under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) cost Cambodia $150 million in lost tariff revenue last year, with the losses projected to climb further in the coming years as the Kingdom phases out tariffs on goods originating within the 10-member economic bloc, a ...

The government has removed the fee for inspection services on milled rice slated for export, aiming to reduce the cost of Cambodia’s rice and increase its competitiveness in international markets. ...

Two rice millers, which had passed initial inspections, were deemed ineligible to export rice to China after failing quality and food hygiene tests applied by Chinese experts. ...

An Agriculture Ministry official said on Sunday that slowing growth in Cambodian milled rice exports—increasing just 0.7 percent last year—was the result of outdated policies and was a concerning trend. ...