Economy and commerce

Extolling forecasts that Cambodia’s economy will maintain its 7 percent growth rate this year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday reiterated a past prediction that the country would reach upper-middle income status by 2030 and become a high-income country in 2050 – though one expert said ...

Agriculture officials and struggling smallholder tobacco farmers are cautiously hopeful that tariff exemptions granted under a new trade agreement with Vietnam will lift sagging demand for their crops. ...

Cambodia is overcoming “ineffective practices” and should not be held to the standards of developed countries, a Commerce Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday amid renewed calls for the government to investigate over $400 million in unrecorded sand exports to Singapore. ...

As part of ongoing government efforts to modernize and streamline the country’s tax system, 43 tax agent licenses were awarded yesterday. The 43 companies are now legally recognized as offering tax declaration services to the public and private sectors. Eighteen had previously been doing this work ...

American-owned dairy farm Moo Moo Farms is looking to markedly increase production of its raw – unpasteurized – milk and increase its current herd of 25 cows. The farm, located in Kandal province, began operations earlier this year. According to a statement from the Ministry of ...

The chief executive of ANZ Royal Bank has denied media reports that the Australian and New Zealand Bank Group (ANZ) is considering pulling the plug on its Cambodian operations amid a planned retreat from the region’s markets. ...

Over 3 tonnes of contaminated prahok – made of fish illegally imported from Vietnam – were confiscated on Friday by Takeo authorities from some of the same sites that in September had already been warned to stop using smuggled fish.​ ...

Maybank Cambodia recently purchased an online stock and share trading platform to allow its premier wealth customers access regional and global markets. Cythia Liaw, Maybank Cambodia CEO, said Friday that the trading platform – KE Trade – was developed by Singapore-based Maybank Kim Eng, the fully ...

T-Shop Cambodia, a Phnom-Penh based electronics and gadget shop founded in 2012, has announced that due to nationwide interest it is offering franchise options, with two already sold. This makes it the first Cambodian-owned business to sell franchises, according to CEO Bung Hor. ...

The country’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been urged to register with the Ministry of Industry by early next year, in order that government policy intended to aid competitiveness can be more effective. ...

Ticon Industrial Connection Plc, a Thai-based factory and warehouse developer, is expanding its operations into fast-growing Southeast Asian economies, including Cambodia, to help offset sluggish growth at home. ...

Cambodia continued to improve its business environment over the past year, according to the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2017” report that measures the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it in 190 countries. The World Bank made this assessment despite the Kingdom’s ...

Business leaders from the Lower Mekong region are urging their respective governments to use local currencies for trading in border regions instead of the US dollar, arguing that this would facilitate business transactions and reduce exchange costs, a Thai newspaper reported yesterday. ...

Vietnam agreed yesterday to waive all duties on a total of 300,000 tons of rice and 3,000 tons of dried tobacco exported annually from Cambodia to the country, according to a bilateral agreement signed at two back-to-back summits to promote economic cooperation in the Greater ...

In an effort to help small and medium-sized rice millers and exporters that are presently unable to provide suitable collateral to qualify for the government’s emergency $27 million rice loan, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has joined with the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) to ...

Tess International, a Malaysia-based provider of software solutions for the financial sector, signed a distributor agreement yesterday with Cambodian management consulting and business technology firm IdeaLink Consulting to provide software to Cambodian banks and microfinance institutions that helps them combat financial crimes. ...

With the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the tax-collection arm of the United States government, stepping up its global sweep to catch American individuals and corporations hiding their overseas earnings, the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia yesterday held a presentation for investors and financial institutions ...

The Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) has the potential to become a major global production center due to its favorable geographical location and its proximity to economic powerhouses in both Southeast and South Asia,  Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. ...

The government’s much-heralded $27 million emergency rice fund, announced last month amid complaints from rice farmers and millers that cheap competition and low-storage capacity was driving down prices, has so far had only limited takers among rice millers. ...

Cambodia is close to signing an ambitious agreement with the Indonesian government that would pave the way for the Kingdom’s rice producers to export 1 million tonnes of rice under a new quota scheme, a state official said yesterday. ...

Casino operator Donaco International Ltd posted a seven-fold increase in revenue in its first full-year financial filing since acquiring the Star Vegas Resort and Club in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet commune, according to the company’s audited annual report, released yesterday. ...

A rising global demand for dates is behind the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Phnom Penh yesterday between companies from Cambodia, Thailand and Israel, seeking to start growing the fruit in Cambodia within the next 10 years. ...

Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya released its first financial statement since completing its acquisition of Cambodian microlender Hattha Kaksekar Ltd (HKL) last month, showing a quarterly net profit increase of 10.6 percent from a year earlier. ...

Rubber exports have continued to rise in the first nine months of the year, despite the fall and current stagnation of prices as global demand continues to stall, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). ...