Chinese bank loans seek to aid rice millers
China’s Export-Import Bank officials proposed to provide loans of up to US$70 million for rice milling in an effort to aid Cambodia’s efforts to export a million tonnes of rice by 2015, government officials said yesterday.
The bank’s officials visited Cambodia last week to met with Cambodian government officials and rice millers to study the feasibility of providing loans to the rice processing sector to aid exports of rice to China.
Son Kunthor, president of the Cambodian state-owned Rural Development Bank, told the Post that his Chinese counterpart proposed the establishment of $70 million in loans for rice milling, which would enable the production of between 270,000-450,000 tonnes of unmilled rice. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen has set the goal of exporting a million tonnes of rice a year by 2015, when Cambodia will join the ASEAN Economic Community. Cambodia is currently not on track to meet this years goal of exporting 250,000 tonnes of rice due to the drought that is affecting many regions of the country.
