Economy and commerce

The National Bank of Cambodia announced on Monday that it would set an annual interest rate ceiling of 18 percent for all microfinance institutions (MFIs), sparking concerns that lenders would stop offering smaller loans that often keep the most financially vulnerable afloat. ...

Industrial insiders and experts on the Kingdom’s nascent stock market have suggested the government set up a fund as an investment vehicle designed to broaden the local public investor base, based on The Thai Fund (TTF). ...

Sathapana Bank has pre-emptively removed its signature golden lion logo from all 162 branches nationwide as the private bank aims to deflect government criticism and avoid confusion as being identified as a state-owned institution, a bank executive said yesterday. ...

Cambodia is handicapped by the dollarization of its economy in three ways, according to Kith Sovannarith, Deputy Director General of Banking Supervision at the National Bank of Cambodia. ...

Over the last few years the Director of the Statistics Department at the National Bank of Cambodia began observing an unanticipated development while conducting field observation studies of trade at border crossings – the riel is being accepted for purchases in neighbouring counties. ...

South Korea’s state-run deposit insurer opened its first overseas branch in Phnom Penh yesterday in a move to sell off the bank and property assets of Korean banks that went belly up in 2011. ...

Mobile World Investment Corp (MWG) – one of the largest mobile phone and electronic products distribution chains in Vietnam – will open its first store in Cambodia, operating under the name BigPhone.com, according to Vietnamese state media. ...

Mong Reththy Group, an agro-industrial conglomerate that invested heavily in the mango sector, is expanding markets for exports to Russia and Hungary. Group president Mong Reththy said the new markets will increase group exports from Cambodia to 5,000 metric tons a year. ...

Companies from Europe’s frigid north are taking steps toward moving into the fish and environmental industries in Cambodia’s warmer climes.   ...

Cambodia has marked its first Cassava Day with expectations of greater exports to China, one of the world’s big markets for the tuberous root.   ...

ambodia’s 700,000 garment workers are among those most affected by exchange-rate costs. Their monthly salaries are paid in US dollars, but most of their daily transactions are in riels. Moreover, because they send – on average – about 30 percent of their salaries back to ...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) will distribute a cash dividend of 1,059,039,488 riel ($261,148), or 256 riel per share, to its private shareholders for its 2016 operations, the port operator said in a filing to the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX). ...

HomePro, a leading home improvement retailer in Thailand, is mulling expansion to neighboring countries – including Cambodia next year – with an investment budget of between $170 million and nearly $200 million. ...

SVI Cambodia, the local subsidiary, signed a 50-year lease in July 2015 and says it hopes the​ construction work will be complete by October.   ...

Global credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Services has maintained Cambodia’s B2/stable sovereign rating, stating in its latest credit opinion on the Cambodian government that the rating was underpinned by the Kingdom’s credit strengths, specifically its healthy growth prospects and a stable external payments position. ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) has made slow progress in reining in unlicensed operations since issuing its first derivatives trading licence nearly a year ago. To date, only six licences have been issued, while at least as many unlicensed firms continue to ...

A Cambodian startup was selected to take part in Startupbootcamp’s three-month fintech accelerator program in Singapore, becoming the second firm from the Kingdom to join the international program in as many years. ...

In his office at the National Bank of Cambodia, Mr. Heng Bomakara recalls the early stages of the nation’s currency with fondness. He still remembers a time when coins were commonplace. First minted in aluminum and then later in steel, these coins are now a ...

Products from neighboring Thailand are still considered the best for many Cambodian consumers, and this is an incentive for Thai companies to set up branches in the country – taking advantage of the positive investment climate prevailing in the kingdom. ...

Micro-Credit Ratings International Ltd (M-CRIL), an Indian provider of rating and advisory services to the microfinance industry, has secured a $1.5 million equity investment agreement from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to push into emerging markets including Cambodia, the ADB said in an announcement last ...

Japan’s Hitachi Ltd has officially entered into a joint venture partnership with the local construction company CMED Group Co Ltd, aimed at expanding its sales, installation and maintenance services for elevators and escalators throughout the Kingdom, the company announced on Friday. ...

Bred Banque Populaire – part of the second-largest banking group in France – officially launched operations in Cambodia yesterday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its headquarters, marking the first venture of a European bank in the Kingdom since the late 1990s. ...

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will reinstate sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) inspections on imported goods close to 10 years after having made the commitment to the World Trade Organization (WTO). ...

Cambodians spent over $100 million on imported meat last year, further widening the gap of domestic supply as local producers failed to capture the lucrative protein market, a government official said yesterday. ...