Economy and commerce

The Cambodian government is finalising legislation that would regulate the establishment of a corporate bond market, and plans to find a suitable private sector company to pilot the first issuance, officials said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture is calling on rice millers to apply for a second round of quality checks for exports to China after only 28 local rice mills, out of 60 which applied for inspection in the first round, passed last year. ...

Cambodia’s insurance industry saw record growth in 2016 and was valued at $113 million, according to a report from the Insurance Association of Cambodia (IAC). ...

The central bank’s efforts to foster development of an interbank lending market appears to be taking off as the demand for negotiable certificates of deposits (NCDs) increased sharply last year, with the financial tool seeing wider usage among the Kingdom’s financial institutions. ...

Cambodia is set to host a meeting in Siem Reap to help coordinate the trade interests of 48 least-developed countries (LDCs), said the Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak on Thursday.“The members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) were confident in us and chose Cambodia, at ...

Advanced Bank of Asia Limited (ABA Bank of Cambodia) officially unveiled a new logo yesterday, as it builds on its majority ownership by the National Bank of Canada.The National Bank of Canada integrated the ABA Bank as part of its group after becoming the major ...

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. ...