Economy and commerce

Phnom Penh Commercial Bank will offer “wedding loans” to newlyweds, a product based on a similar borrowing practice is South Korea. The majority-owned South Korean bank will set aside more than US$1 million for start-up families that don’t want their parents shelling out savings for new ...

Jeremy Browne, UK foreign office minister, told officials in Cambodia during a two-day visit that despite the current problems the European Union is having with its currency union and economies, ASEAN should not be discouraged from pursuing closer economic and even political coordination within the 1.0-member bloc. Speaking at the Council of Ministers in Phnom ...

Charles Cheo, managing director of Forte Insurance, is sanguine on the growth prospects of Cambodia’s US$30 million general insurance market, even though there are five other general insurers competing against Forte, and three new life insurers entering the market. Forte established a presence in Cambodia in ...

Thailand may not export certain varieties of Cambodian-grown, but Thai-milled, rice internationally due to fears of intellectual property violations. Cambodian Malis rice is very similar to jasmine rice, and Thailand has expressed concerns that it may infringe on the Thai-owned jasmine rice variety. The Ministry of Agriculture has been ...

Access to the region’s largest collective financial resource, the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, could be easier than expected for Cambodia, according to an Asian Development Bank economist. Initiated in May, the fund is expected to lend up to US$4 billion and leverage up to $13 billion for ...

Less than four months after suspending work on Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, Toll Royal Railways (TRR), the network’s operator, has informed the government that it will recommence transporting construction materials needed to build the southern line on Aug. 1, company officials said yesterday. The decision to ...

Prasac, a leading micro-finance institution in Cambodia, had increased its registered capital from US$3.8 million to $20 million in preparation for its transformation into a commercial bank by 2014, the institution said yesterday. “The registration requirement of $37.5 million is a very small amount to ...

China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned. ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key ...

PRASAC Microfinance Institution, celebrating its eighteenth anniversary this year in the Cambodia microfinance market, has increased its registered capital from 15-4 billion riel to 80 billion riel. The increase of the share capital has been authorized by the National Bank of Cambodia and the company is now amending its Articles of Incorporation. PRASAC’s share capital is ...

Cambodia and Thailand’s financial exposure to Europe would make the two counties the most vulnerable regionally, an ANZ Bank report showed. The Kingdom’s exports and tourism sectors were on increasingly unstable ground as Europe’s debt crisis advanced. ...

The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) kicked off in Phnom Penh on Monday, focusing on politics, security, food and energy security, economics and culture in order to further advance the bloc’s cooperation toward a community by 2015. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said thatafter 45 years, ...

A pledge in mid-June by Cambodia and Vietnam to increase bilateral trade by more than US$2.5 billion by 2015 may lead to decreased trade with Thailand, market analysts have said. The pledge made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung ...

Canadian insurance and financial services company Manulife Financial officially launched its Cambodian country office on June 28, one of several new players seeking to enter one of Southeast Asia’s still-untapped markets. Britain’s No.1 insurer Prudential said last week it had approval from the Cambodian government to open a wholly foreign-owned life insurance operation. Manulife, the world’s ...

There was a sense of déjà vu at the Peace Palace yesterday as a week of largely closed-door ASEAN meetings kicked off in earnest with the same contentious issue that so dominated April’s ASEAN Summit: a code of conduct for the South China Sea. With China ...

Forestry Administration officials in Banteay Meanchey province have confiscated and continue to hold equipment valued at $1.5 million from a troubled biofuel plantation without any legal backing, an official in the provincial governor’s office said. Bulldozers, steamrollers and dump trucks were confiscated last month from a ...

Cambodians can now invest in gold through one of the Kingdom’s Malaysian-owned banks, CIMB. The investment product has been met with mixed reviews from experts, but could tap a popular and traditional means of investment. CIMB’s Gold Deposit Account would give customers a gold-backed investment option without ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday said Asean would not postpone its plans to approve a controversial human rights declaration for the region by November, and would publicize only “key provisions” of the draft beforehand. Disappointed by the lack of openness and concerned that the declaration will ...

Authorities in Daun Penh district rounded up more than 80 homeless people, drug users and prostitutes ahead of this week’s high-level meetings for Asean and regional delegates in Phnom Penh, a district official said yesterday. District governor Sok Sambath said that the 82 people rounded up ...

Despite renewed criticism from civil society and a call for its drafting to be postponed, finalisation of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) was well under way, officials said yesterday at the beginning of a week of ASEAN meetings. Speaking to reporters after a meeting between ...

The family hotpot-style restaurant Master Suki Soup has opened its ninth restaurant in Cambodia, on Sothearos Boulevard adjacent to Hun Sen Park, with the newly relocated German Fresh Beer brew pub and German menu upstairs. The soft opening took place on Thursday night as Master Suki ...

From June 22 to 28, the price of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) stock slowly approached its Initial Public Offering (IPO) price while trading volumes stayed within the range of 10,000 to 22,000 shares. The price dropped from KHR 6,6so (US$1.63) to KHR 6,3so (US$LS6) from June 22 to 28. ...

Mr. Luu Meng, president of hotel association in Cambodia said this week that Cambodia needs to develop tourism skills to compete with other countries in the ASEAN region as the kingdom has more opportunity to attract foreign visitors. “Our skills of hospitality are limited in the ...

Cambodia has offered the license for the United Kingdom’s Prudential Company to invest the life insurance in the kingdom. The announcement was made during the meeting between UK ambassador to Cambodia Mark Gooding and deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance, his excellency Keat Chhon in Phnom Penh. “Ministry granted the approval for ...

The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) will begin promoting the Institute of Standards of Cambodia (ISC) certifications by the end of 2012 in an effort to educate people about certified goods, according to ministry officials. The program is in order to boost consumer confidence ...