Economy and commerce

Sathapana Ltd, the third-largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Cambodia, has submitted a formal application to the central bank to merge with a local Japanese-owned bank and operate the consolidated entity as a commercial bank, a company executive said yesterday. ...

The United Kingdom sees Cambodia as a strategic location at the heart of a transportation network through Thailand, Vietnam and Laos to reach China and other countries in the region and the world, a senior UK trade official said yesterday. ...

The growth of new enterprises across many different sectors in Cambodia is driving the rapid growth of insurance premiums and policy holders, the head of the Kingdom’s insurance industry body said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s external public debt is well within acceptable limits, but remains vulnerable to financial shocks such as export slowdowns or exchange rate fluctuations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest assessment of the Kingdom’s economy. ...

The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) and the Association for SMEs of Cambodia will jointly hold the fifth Cambodia Rice Forum to discuss the future of the country’s rice industry with major stakeholders. ...

Several trade unions representing some of the garment sector’s 700,000 workers petitioned lawmakers on Monday to make important changes to a controversial draft union law before passing it and warned of mass protests if they were ignored. ...

Hundreds gathered yesterday in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park for the fifth Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly, where they called for issues ranging from deforestation to democracy to be addressed ahead of ASEAN integration. ...

A US government finance institution plans to inject more capital into Cambodia’s businesses, forecasting rapid growth in small business and microfinance institutions around the country. The development finance institution Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is looking to invest in Cambodia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) ...

Cambodia’s total exports to Japan increased sharply over the first nine months of the year compared to last year due to flows of investment from Japan to Cambodia over the last few years, analysts said. ...

Rapid credit growth – increasingly financed by bank flows from abroad – poses significant risk to Cambodia’s economy and requires prudential policies to cool lending and reduce exposure, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned in a report released yesterday. It said while Cambodia’s short-term economic ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said the government will move forward in adopting the Trade Union Law despite the absence of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. ...

Bangladesh ranked 125th out of 132 countries on the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) for 2016, five places up from last year. However, there is a great internal variance within the region: Australia’s Attitude score stands at 75.2, whereas Cambodia’s 10.6, which is the lowest in ...

A new law protecting investment from Russia and Belarus will help Cambodia diversify its export markets as well as encourage more investments from Russia and Eastern Europe, Senate spokesman Mam Bun Neang said yesterday. ...

As the harvest of wet-season rice ends this month, a report from the Ministry of Agriculture says the yield will fall slightly below the target but this will not affect exports.  ...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP), the state enterprise that operates Cambodia’s second-largest port, priced its shares at 5,120 riel ($1.26) following a bookbuild to institutional investors as it looks to raise $5.2 million in an initial public offering, according to disclosure documents released yesterday. ...

As Asean heads toward greater economic integration, Cambodia remains one of the least competitive countries in the world.A country is competitive when it can attract investment and sell and supply goods and services for export at an accelerating rate. According to the World Economic Forum ...

More than 50,000 companies registered with the Ministry of Commerce will be required to re-register when the ministry rolls out its online registration system next month, a government official said yesterday. ...

Som Kimsour, the chairwoman of Cambodia’s National Audit Authority, was appointed to chair the ASEAN Supreme Audit Institutions (ASEANSAI), a collaborative body of public sector auditors, during a summit on Thursday in Phnom Penh, according to state media outlet AKP. ...

The Cambodian hire-purchase subsidiary of Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand) or Aeonts has become the first Japanese financial firm to receive a specialised bank licence to do credit-card business in the neighbouring country, according to a statment to the Stock Exchange of Thailand Aeon Microfinance (Cambodia), ...

Japan-based JCB International (JCBI), a global payment brand and a leading credit card issuer and acquirer, has reached an agreement with Cambodia Public (Campu) Bank to expand the reach of its JCB cards in Cambodia. ...

The book-build and upcoming listing of the capital’s port operator has taken some of the wind out of the sails of the IPO plans Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ), but the industrial park operator has charted a new course and sweetened its dividend policy ...

Lending by microfinance institutions (MFIs) rose about 50 percent at an annualized rate during the first nine months of the year, according to the Cambodia Microfinance Association, which said the surge was sparked by economic stability and an increase in demand from clients wanting to ...

Hungarian businesses are keeping their eyes on Cambodia for investment, said László Kövér, speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary, during an official visit to the Kingdom. ...

Following raids on phone shops selling grey-market devices last week, the government is giving retailers a two-week window to declare their stock of mobile phone handsets and pay the relevant taxes or face hefty fines.Many of the capital’s vendors have already received a notice from ...