Economy and commerce

Cambodia’s first-quarter exports to South Korea soared nearly 80 per cent year-on-year, driven mostly by garments and agriculture products, but imports still accounted for most of the trade between the two countries. Total exports to South Korea jumped to US$30 million for the first three months of ...

For the first time in weeks, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority yesterday closed up 4.35 per cent, a sign the stock was stablising after a rough opening, insiders said. After an eight-day price decline, PPWSA – the sole listed company on the Cambodia Securities Exchange – ...

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, one of two state-owned companies slated to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange this year, yesterday called the price decline in the country’s first publicly traded company worrisome. The eight-day slide in price that neared Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s initial public offering ...

Total loans and deposits at the Kingdom’s microfinance institutions jumped in the first quarter of 2012 despite what is typically a slow season for the industry, insiders said yesterday. Loans outstanding reached US$708 million for the period ending on March 31, climbing 9.8 per cent from ...

The Cambodia representative for the world’s largest shipping company said exports from Cambodia to Europe grew by more than 60 per cent during 2011, but have since weakened. “Rice exports grew a lot during 2011 and a lot of it went to Poland and France,” ...

The Australian government has pledged $3.02 million toward three provincial information departments, which it said would help “increase citizens’ ability to voice their opinions.” ...

Cambodia’s government, facing growing protests by villagers and warnings about disappearing wilderness, suspended the granting of land to domestic and foreign companies on Monday in a move to curb forced evictions and illegal logging. Rights groups in the impoverished but resource-rich Southeast Asian country said the ...

The ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, the largest pooling of financial resources among Southeast Asia’s 10-member bloc, held its first board meeting in Manila last week, but the extent to which Cambodia will borrow from the non-concessional fund has yet to be determined, experts said. ASEAN countries and ...

The Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) planned to invest US$235 million in two Cambodian mega projects, one of which was the modernisation of a TV station that one analyst said might not be necessary given the country’s level of development. During a meeting with Prime Minister ...

Loran Import-Export Co Ltd, Cambodia’s largest milled-rice exporter, is scheduled to start construction on a new rice mill this month worth more than US$2 million, according to the company’s General Director Lim Bunheng. The mill will help reduce the flow of Cambodia’s paddy rice into neighbouring ...

One woman who has been actively involved in the development of Cambodia’s business climate is Janet Lueckenhausen of Functional Engineering. She’s been working closely with Cambodia’s biggest foreign-owned companies since 2008. Now she’s shifted in her role from executive director of International Business Chamber of Cambodia ...

Entertainment Gaming Asia, an American Stock Exchange-listed company with a regional presence in both Cambodia and the Philippines, will launch its Dreamworld Casino in Pailin province on Wednesday, according to a company statement. ...

I visited the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) last September in the heart of Phnom Penh. It had officially “opened” a few months prior but no companies were listed yet. The trading room was filled with new desks and computer monitors, waiting for someone to power ...

Cambodia’s Internet penetration more than doubled to 3.1 per cent of the population in 2011, up from 1.3 per cent a year earlier, according to the Internet World Stats website. The country had 449,160 Internet users at the end of last year and 491,480 Facebook users ...

The expansion of Cambodia’s information and communications technology sector was highlighted at the ICT Expo on Diamond Island yesterday, as the sector’s bellwether companies continue to eye the Kingdom. Sony Corp, which took part in the eighth annual expo for the first time this year, set ...

Sellers have dominated the Cambodia Securities Exchange for the last seven days of trading, and the downward trend for the single stock, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, was expected to continue into next week, experts said. PPWSA closed down 4.6 per cent yesterday at 7,250 riel ...

Kampot officials are looking to the Bokor Mountain Resort, a US$1 billion project that opens today, to drive tourism growth in the burgeoning seaside destination. The provincial Tourism Department said the number of domestic visitors to Kampot had risen 120 per cent to 338,000 in the ...

Mobile payment company Wing was in talks on partnering with a US technology firm that plans to assemble Android tablets in Cambodia, in what could be another step away from the country’s staple manufactured good – garments. Although a final partnership agreement had yet to made ...

Export to Vietnam climbed more than 57 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2012 as farmers looked for alternative destinations for products that went to Thailand last year. The primarily agricultural exports to Cambodia’s eastern neighbour were worth US$201.5 million, up from ...

The government will spend a total of $85 million, funded by a Japanese government loan, for the third and final phase of the expansion of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which will more than double the port’s import-export capacity by 2012, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. “It ...

Kampot Port Co will break ground on a Kampot port in September, company officials said yesterday. The port will be an important part of a long-delayed Kampot Special Economic Zone (KSEZ), which is hoped to revitalise trade and commerce in the province. Vinh Huor, president of the ...

Japan, the most experienced country in the industrial sector, has cooperated with Cambodia, aiming at enhancing Cambodia’s industrial policy better to attract more investments, especially the Japanese investors who have kept an eye out on Cambodia over the last several years. The workshop under the theme: Towards the Cambodia’s Industrial Policy, was conducted On April ...

Investors in Cambodia’s northeast on Monday announced an investment in a cassava-processing plant in Battambang province. Prak Phoung Kesoa, assistant CEO at Battambang Agro-Industry, said yesterday that the plant would be 100 per cent Cambodian owned ...

Industries such as tourism and garment production are booming. Mining is taking off and the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) is finally up and running after a 10-month delay with Phnom Penh Water Supply (PPWS) its first listing. “PPWS is considered one of the best managed state ...