Economy and commerce

Foreign direct investment in the Kingdom soared 250 per cent year-on-year through August even despite the West’s economic woes, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said yesterday. A total of 87 projects worth US$5.6 billion were approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia during the ...

Taking advantage of strong economic growth this year, two of the country’s largest banks have posted strong third-quarter earnings. Acleda Bank yesterday reported a net profit of $32.68 million in the first three quarters of the year, almost double the amount over the same period last ...

Trading on the Cambodia Securities Exchange will be delayed once again until the beginning of 2012, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said yesterday. He blamed an incomplete regulatory regime and the public’s lack of confidence in the stock market as reasons for the delay, ...

A TelekomunikasiI Indonesia official said yesterday the company had cancelled plans to acquire a majority stake in Cambodian mobile operator CamGSM, just a month after officials at CamGSM parent Royal Group claimed a deal was imminent. Telkom finance director Sudiro Asno made the statement in Jakarta, ...

SACOMBANK yesterday announced the launch of its new subsidiary, the 100 per cent foreign-owned Sacombank Cambodia Plc, which is set to target the Kingdom’s rural population. The Vietnamese commercial bank plans to open branches throughout the country’s provinces to provide banking services to a larger cross-section ...

The dollar figure on government-approved investments in construction for the first eight months of the year increased by 92 per cent compared to the same period in 2010, according to official statistics. The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction approved 1,470 construction projects worth ...

At a Sept 11 meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and Ganesh C. Thakur, President of the U.S.-based Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), plans were discussed about the SPE providing training and expertise for the Kingdom’s oil and gas sector, according to a statement ...

The China’s Taiwan leading bank, Mega International (ICBC), on September 30th, opened its first branch in Phnom Penh, aiming to attract more Taiwanese investors to Cambodia and boosting further business. “The Mega ICBC will bring capital investment injection into the economy of Cambodia, employment opportunities, upgrading ...

Freight shipments through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port saw year-on-year growth of 30 per cent in the first nine months of the year, according to official PPAP figures. The total number of twenty-foot equivalent units that passed through the port hit 60,810 between January and August, up from ...

Officials and trade experts discussed a new draft law at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday that would allow the government to protect exporters against competitors abroad that engage in price dumping, or selling products at an extremely low price. Speaking on the sidelines of the ...

Small-scale health insurance policies can be an effective way to avoid drowning in debt, according to a survey released yesterday. Fifty-eight percent of 5,275 households surveyed in Kandal, Takeo and Kampot provinces had taken out loans, with health care and medical costs being the chief reason, ...

Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., a listed company owned by the group of former Trade minister Roberto Ongpin, acquired Tidemark Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong company that owns 25.9 percent of Forum Energy Plc, an oil and gas firm controlled by Philex Mining Corp. Atok-Big Wedge said ...

H.E. Aun Pornmonirath, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Cambodia and Mr. Sang Wang Byun, Executive Director of Export-Import Bank of the Republic of Korea, on September 21 signed $21 Million Loan Agreement for Cambodia’s Rural Roads Improvement Project. “The ...

A Chinese animal feed mill officially opened at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) on Aug 28. It is the first animal feed mill from China and the fifth animal feed factory to operate in Cambodia Cambodia has strongly depended on the imports for animal ...

According to a Sept 4 press release from the Council for Development of Cambodia (CDC), there are currently a total of 19 SEZs and most of them are situated along Cambodia’s borders with Vietnam and Thailand. Eight are fully operational with both local and foreign ...

China’s Sinohydro Group Ltd earned US$2.12 billion in an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the company announced yesterday. The move came just two months before Sinohydro launches the Kamchay Hydroelectric Dam in Cambodia’s Kampot province. The company expects the IPO to help fund ...

The Kampot Pepper Association said yesterday that the price of pepper would increase in January to $8 per kg, up from $7 currently. Nguon Lay, president of the association, said that the price hike was due to strong demand from abroad and high production costs ...

Cambodian officials say the country’s economic growth rate is set to exceed seven percent this year. According to financial analysts even if the global economy slows, Cambodia is well prepared to deal with it, partly because of strong foreign investment. But the billions of dollars ...

A rise in pig imports from Thailand and Vietnam has driven down pork prices by as much as 33 percent in the past month, leaving farmers here worried that an oversupply in the market will cut into profits. Prathna Preap, a swine market expert at USAID, ...

In the past month, ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded its outlook for two of Cambodia’s largest commercial banks. On September 2, Acleda Bank’s performance outlook went from “stable” to “negative” due to risks associated with rapid credit growth and a drain on local currency by depositors. ...

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port revenues increased more than 16 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of 2011, according to port officials. Cambodia’s largest port generated US$21 million in revenues between January and August, up from $18 million in the same period last year, SAP Director General ...

Thailand is reportedly preparing to re-enter negotiations with Cambodia on the Overlapping Claims Area after officials from the two countries talked this week at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum in Brunei. Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said yesterday that he met informally with Ministry of Industry ...

At least 22 families living in the capital’s Chamkarmon district say they are being forced to sell their land at below market value to Thailand’s Bun Roong Company in order to make way for a housing development. Village representative Chhim Veasna said on Wednesday that the ...

An opposition Sam Rainsy Party activist who was badly beaten on September 16 by riot police during a protest against the demolition of homes at Boeng Kak lake filed a complaint yesterday with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against developer Shukaku Inc and the officers ...