Investments in Cambodia Up
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Agriculture & Agri-business, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Energy, Exports, Foreign Investment, Imports, Industry, International Relations, Labor, News Source, Telecommunications, Tourism, Trade
Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia has increased significantly in the last three years, but a mechanism to encourage and oversee investments in prioritized sectors is needed, according to diplomatic sources.
Tan Nguyen Tien, head of the economic section at the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, said Vietnam’s investments in Cambodia quadrupled from $566 million in 41 projects in 2010 to $2.5 billion last year. …
Tien said Vietnam Airlines’ direct services between the two countries and Viettel’s telecom service in Cambodia have helped boost Vietnamese investment in that country. …
There are also four projects in the energy sector with a total investment of nearly $800 million, five in finance-banking with $250 million, one telecom project capitalized at $150 million, and a civil aviation project worth $100 million.
Vietnamese FDI in Cambodia is expected to top $4 billion by 2015, and trade between the countries to increase from $3 billion last year to $5 billion by 2015. …
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NjA1NjRhYTIxOTd
Committee Formed to Sell Off Mfone’s Assets
May 8th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Industry, International Relations, Telecommunications
The administrator dealing with the debts of defunct mobile operator Mfone yesterday established a committee to sell off the company’s remaining assets.
Since it filed for bankruptcy in January, more than 1,000 creditors, including former staff, have claimed Mfone owes them a combined $160 million.
Mfone’s remaining assets have been estimated at about $107 million, and despite a court injunction freezing the firm’s assets, the company’s roughly 400,000 subscribers were switched to rival firm MobiTel. …
The committee includes a representative of Chinese telecom giant Huawei—which claims it is owed $65 million—and representatives of NEC from Japan and CAT Telecom PLC from Thailand.
The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia and the general department of taxation at the Finance Ministry, who are also creditors, also sit on the committee. Mfone is owned by Thailand’s Thaicom.
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/committee-formed-to-sell-off-mfones-assets-22715/
Ministry Cancels Telco Limits
May 7th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Economics, Foreign Investment, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
An often flouted and publicly unpopular restriction forbidding Cambodia’s telecoms from offering lucrative mobile phone promotions was scrapped on Sunday, just two weeks after it was introduced.
In a letter from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC), signed by Minister So Khun, it announced a halt to the implementation of the decision made between the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) and all phone operators on April 22, when eight out of nine operators agreed to stop the promotions that violate a 2009 interministerial prakas. …
Moa Chakrya, director of the TRC, said fmost of the operators agreed on what the prakas said, but Sunday’s announcement by the MPTC did not provide any restrictions on the use of promotions on those mobile operators. …
Minimum tariffs for within- and cross-network calls have also caused disputes among the operators and the TRC. Moa Chakrya yesterday did not say whether or not the tariffs should be cheaper or more expensive than currently required in the prakas. …
Rann Reuy and Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050765438/Business/ministry-cancels-telco-limits.html
Mobile Bonuses Axed After Firm Complaint
May 2nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Industry, Telecommunications, Trade
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun said Wednesday that the government’s decision last week to order all mobile phone firms to stop offering generous top-up bonuses came after one of the market’s competitors complained to the ministry. …
Ian Watson, CEO of Mobitel, denied complaining to the ministry. …
Tomas Hundt, CEO of Smart also denied complaining. “We have not complained to anyone about the competitors’ activities. We are in favor of a free market,” he said. …
“Laws need to be implemented. If they don’t want to follow the law of the government, how can they work with the government? So, they can leave. You can’t just compete to live alone and let others die. Even if it’s a free market, you need to follow the rule of law,” he [Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun] said.
Kaing Menghun and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mobile-bonuses-axed-after-firm-complaint-21436/
MobiTel, Smart Fight It Out Over Prices
May 1st, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, Telecommunications, Trade
With competition rife in Cambodia’s telecommunication market, two of the country’s largest mobile phone operators have engaged in a battle over prices and are at odds over the tactics being used to gain market share.
On Friday, the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) ordered all mobile phone companies to abide by a 2009 law that sets minimum prices for the cost of a call.
Smart, which the Malaysia-based firm Axiata Group Bhd owns, says the government decision is unfair to consumers and goes against the notion of a free market. But MobiTel, which is owned by the Cambodian conglomerate Royal Group, says Smart has offered deals so cheap it has engaged in unfair business practices. …
On Monday, both Smart and MobiTel released statements stating they had agreed to withdraw their special offers to customers. Since mid-February, Smart has advertised a 500 percent top-up bonus-300 percent for calls and SMS, and 200 percent for Internet. At the end of 2012 MobiTel began offering a similar deal where customers received a 100 percent bonus.
Though not mentioning MobiTel by name, Smart CEO Thomas Hundt yesterday said his company could not be accused of operating unfairly and said it was up to the other companies to compete. He also said that instead of banning firms from offering bonuses, the government should let the market operate freely. …
Joshua Wilwohl and Kaing Menghun
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mobitel-smart-fight-it-out-over-prices-21085/
Government To Push Digital Empowerment
April 30th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Economics, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
Senior government officials yesterday were promoting the development of the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in the Kingdom, particularly the concept of digital empowerment among young people.
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who presided over the opening of ITU Asia-Pacific Regional Development Forum, held in Phnom Penh, said Cambodia is a country that has more mobile phone subscriptions than the entire size of the population. …
The growth of mobile phones has been considerable in Cambodian over the last few years: in 2012 numbers of mobile and fixed-line phones was 19.7 million; while the year before the numbers were 16.2 million, according to report of Ministry of Post and Telecommunication for 2012. …
Rann Reuy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013043065306/Business/government-to-push-digital-empowerment.html
Mobile Firms Agree to Stop Price Dumping
April 29th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Industry, Telecommunications, Trade
Cambodia’s nine mobile phone operators on Friday agreed to refrain from engaging in unfair competition by offering generous top-up bonuses aimed at increasing their market share, officials said.
Mao Chakrya, director of the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC), said that all of the country’s operators agreed to abide by rules stipulating that 4.5 cents is the minimum price per minute for calls made between the same network and 5.95 cents per minute for cross-network calls. …
According to the TRC, mobile operators cannot advertise bonuses above 50 percent of what a customer pays for a mobile telephone top-up. However, Smart, which is owned by Latelz Co. Ltd., has advertised a 500 percent top-up bonus—300 percent for calls and SMS and 200 percent for Internet. In February, operator Smart Mobile merged with operator Hello to become Smart, propelling the company to the No. 2 spot in Cambodia’s telecommunication’s market in terms of subscribers.
Alan Sinfield, CEO of qb, one of the smaller mobile firms in Cambodia, said he was looking forward to all the firms in the market abiding by the governments rule of fair pricing. …
Chin Chan
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mobile-firms-agree-to-stop-price-dumping-20689/
Google Launches Khmer Translation Service
April 23rd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, International Relations, Telecommunications
Internet search giant Google on Friday launched a new service that for the first time allows users to instantly translate Khmer script into other languages.
Khmer is the most recent addition to the 66-strong collection of languages between which words, sentences or whole websites can be translated back and forth in the Google Translate service, which can present the results as script or phonetically. Regional languages Lao, Vietnamese and Thai are all already available on the service.
Divon Lan, a project manager in Google’s next wave emerging countries division, who worked on the new service, said the launch had been timed as a gift to Cambodians in the week of Khmer New Year. …
According to the World Bank’s last estimate, the number of Internet users in Cambodia was less than 450,000 in 2011. But the number is likely to have grown since then with the expansion of mobile Internet services.
Simon Lewis and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/google-launches-khmer-translation-service-19417/
Phnom Penh Municipal Court Overturns Mfone Injunctions
April 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Foreign Investment, Industry, Telecommunications
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has overturned two injunctions filed against bankrupt mobile operator Mfone, saying the decision will help the court-appointed administrator in charge of Mfone’s assets pay back creditors the money they are owed. …
The court issued Eltek’s injunction in October and Huawei’s injunction in January. Eltek is seeking $3.73 million it is allegedly owed in service charges and Huawei is claiming $65 million. At a meeting with creditors on April 11, administrator Ouk Ry announced that the judges were considering dropping the injunctions to pave way for him to sell off Mfone’s assets. But Eltek’s lawyer Kouy Thunna, yesterday called the court’s order “illegal.” …
Lawyer for Huawei Aron Zheng did not respond to requests for comment, though he has said in the past that the court must provide a legal basis to any decision to drop the injunctions against Mfone. …
Aun Pheap, P.20
www.cambodiadaily.com
Holdings draw veil over Mfone
April 18th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Debt Servicing, Economics, Industry, International Relations, Social Concerns, Telecommunications
When the owner of Kingsland garment factory fled the Kingdom last year, enough pressure was applied to its sourcing companies H&M and Walmart to persuade them through their intermediaries to compensate workers left jobless. Distance could no longer absolve them of responsibility.
Just like the Kingsland employees who took their protest to the US and Swedish embassies to lobby Walmart and H&M, former Mfone employees took their protest to the Thai and Singapore embassies last week to apply pressure on the parents of the failed Cambodian company. …
For Dave Welsh, country director for the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, companies that are inextricably linked to failed organisations should also be held to account. …
“Look at the corporation as whole, not just at Mfone. Look at the corporate links in Singapore and Thailand,” Welsh said. “The analogy of the situation is H&M and Nike aren’t incorporated in Cambodia, but they are morally, if not legally, on the hook for things that happen in their factory.” …
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041865106/Business/holdings-draw-veil-over-mfone.html
Long-overdue Consolidation of the Kingdom’s Mobile Telecoms Market May Have Operators Feeling Hopeful, but Challenges Remain
April 15th, 2013, Southeast Asia Globe, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Debt Servicing, Domestic Investment, Economics, Foreign Investment, Industry, Telecommunications
After years of immersion in a vicious price war, battle weary and capital-haemorrhaging [sic] mobile operators in Cambodia’s oversaturated telecommunications sector may finally have reason to breathe a sigh of relief; 2013 might be cited as the year the tide turned. …
Tarred by legal threats, unfair competition practices, trash-talking in the media and engagement in cripplingly expensive advertising campaigns, the industry’s ugly side has reared its head on several occasions since the market started overcrowding in 2006. Yet recent and long overdue consolidations in the market have some chief executives trading their swords for confetti, handshakes and electric-light breakdancers.
With over five million subscribers, Smart is now the second-largest operator in the country behind Metfone, owned by Viettel, a military-backed Vietnamese-owned telecommunications firm. Smart plans to expand its network and operational coverage throughout Cambodia and reinvigorate investors to develop infrastructure, says [Thomas] Hundt. [CEO of the repackaged brand ‘Smart’]. All the while the merger removes interconnection fees between Hello and Smart mobile users – a blessing in a market that operators claim is under-regulated and where complaints have been filed against companies that have not paid interconnection fees. …
With the industry reduced to six active operators, experts and mobile operators agree that the two developments have birthed new life into a market that, until now, has sustained multimillion-dollar losses each year. Revenues from phone usage in the Kingdom remain low, while an infant smartphone culture yields limited capital from data plans. …
The merger followed hot on the heels of Thaicom’s announcement that its lawsuit-laden subsidiary Mfone, which had been operating in Cambodia for two decades, was insolvent. …
“I think that this had to happen… The market can now begin to move at a level with more sustainable competition finally, and in the long term we won’t see any more of these crazy price wars,” said Marc Einstein, an independent telecom analyst. “I think in a market the size of Cambodia, in terms of population and GDP [gross domestic product], you can only have three, maybe four operators for the sector to be sustainable.”…
“I would say that because of the initial rush of entrants, the equipment was improved substantially, but… now quality is definitely toward the bottom compared to Thailand or Vietnam,” Einstein said. …
At first, services improved. But as huge promotions became the industry standard, the price of a domestic call dropped to just $0.01 per minute, far below Thailand’s $0.05 to $0.06 per minute and around $0.15 per minute paid in Hong Kong. …
“The problem is that, even at six players, there is still going to be a price war at a high level of competition,” said Dimitry Bushik, chief commercial officer at Excell, one of Cambodia’s mobile operators. …
Philip Heijmans
http://sea-globe.com/united-we-stand/
Cambodia’s Conglomerate in talks to buy communications satellite from China
April 11th, 2013, Live Trading News, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Industry, International Relations, Telecommunications
Cambodia’s Royal Group of Companies is in negotiations to purchase a satellite from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation for its telecoms operations in Cambodia, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said Wednesday. …
Tycoon Kith Meng currently owns the kingdom’s largest mobile phone operator, Mobitel. In April 2011, the government of Cambodia signed a concessional contract to grant his company to study and prepare for the launching of a communications satellite.
Under the contract, the company will take three years to study and prepare for launching Cambodia Satellite-1 in order to serve phone, broadband Internet and broadcasting services and other sectors. …
Paul A Ebeling Jr.
http://www.livetradingnews.com/cambodias-conglomerate-in-talks-to-buy-communications-satellite-from-china-110184.htm#.UWYXaKKj2xA
Mfone employees seeking consistency
April 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
About 200 former Mfone employees gathered in front of the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh yesterday in protest over claims that Thaicom, the failed telco’s parent company, had paid Thai staff even though Cambodian staff were still owed compensation.
Noun Sam Ath, a former sales executive, shouted over a loudspeaker that the demonstrating workers represented more than 1,000 staff and asked that the Thai ambassador urge Thaicom to pay compensation to all workers. …
Rann Reuy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041064982/Business/mfone-employees-seeking-consistency.html
Huawei withdraws injunction
April 9th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
Huawei Technologies (Cambodia) Co agreed yesterday to withdraw its injunction against Mfone in order to pave the way for a court-appointed administrator to sell the bankrupt company’s assets and compensate its many creditors. …
Along with other creditors, Huawei representatives expressed concerns that the assets would be sold below market price. …
Paul M Tithyasak, senior finance adviser to the administrator, said Mfone’s total assets are worth about $107 million. Among those assets are 1,037 base station towers that cost about $100,000 each. …
Rann Reuy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040964953/Business/huawei-withdraws-injunction.html
Government tells telcos off
April 8th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Foreign Investment, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued warning letters to mobile operators Beeline and Smart over their recent advertisement, stating it violates the Inter-Ministerial Prakas, or edict, signed in 2009.
The separate letters, obtained by the Post last week, were approved by TRC’s president Mao Chakrya on March 1, stating that the companies did not comply with Inter-Ministerial Prakas number 232 dated December 7, 2009. …
In response to price disputes and to set minimum tariffs, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications signed the Inter-Ministerial Prakas No 232 on Minimum Tariffs of Mobile and Fixed Telephone Services and Interconnection Fees in December 2009.
In paragraph one of article 4, the edict states that “minimum tariff of calls within one network shall be 4.5 cents per minute.” Later on the Prakas also says: “advertisings on on-net tariff must not be lower than 50 per cent of the tariff contained in Paragraph 1 of Article 4.” …
May Kunmakara and Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040864932/Business/government-tells-telcos-off.html
Hun Sen Signed Off On Mfone Customers Deal With Mobitel
April 5th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Industry, International Relations, Social Concerns, Telecommunications
Prime Minister Hun Sen approved a decision in January to transfer hundreds of thousands of customers from bankrupt mobile phone operator Mfone to the country’s largest telecommunications firm, Mobitel, despite a court injunction preventing Mfone from offloading assets.
According to the statement released yesterday by the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia, the decision was made by the prime minister in order to ensure that Mfone’s customers were not abandoned as the company collapsed, and could be provided with another service in the country. …
CamGMS operates under the Mobitel brand in Cambodia and is owned by Kith Meng. Mfone is owned by Thaicom, whose holding company Shin Corporation, was founded by former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra.
Mr. Meng and Mr. Thaksin have long been on close terms with Mr. Hun Sen. …
“Samdech is not involved only with Mfone, but all operators… because the government is a decision-maker to provide frequencies to mobile phone operators.” [Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia director, Lay Marivo said.] …
Chan Sopha, president of the Economic Association, said a fairer way of deciding how to offload Mfone’s subscribers would have been to let other operators bid for them competitively. …
However, Kuoy Thunna, the lawyer for Elteck -the firm that helped Mfone develop satellite technology and is owed millions of dollars- said it was inappropriate for the prime minister to involve himself in the decision of the firm’s customers while it was still going through the courts. ..
Aun Pheap and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-signed-off-on-mfone-customers-deal-with-mobitel-17533/
Too many players vie in Kingdom’s ISP industry
April 4th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Foreign Investment, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
Like the telecommunications industry in Cambodia, the market for internet service providers (ISP), too, is overcrowded, leading industry experts to say that the situation is preventing new investment. …
Data from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications showed that at the end of 2012, Cambodia had 27 ISPs. Internet users in Cambodia numbered more than 2.7 million in 2012, an increase of 60 per cent compared to 2011, when there were 1.7 million users. …
Ban Borak, deputy managing director for Online, believes the Cambodian ISP market is much more crowded than the telco market. “If I were an investor, I would not enter into the current Cambodia ISP market,” he said. …
However, Ek Vandy, Secretary of State of Ministry of Post and Telecommunication told the Post that the ministry had raised no concerns over the overcrowding of ISPs. …
Anne Renzenbrink and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040464879/Business/too-many-players-vie-in-kingdom-s-isp-industry.html
Sellers seek compensation
April 3rd, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
Wholesalers and retailers of bankrupt Cambodian telecommunications company Mfone are seeking compensation for their stock of the mobile provider’s obsolete scratch recharge cards.
Wholesalers say the issue is also affecting retailers’ confidence in purchasing recharge cards of other providers, and is slowing sales.
Pann Chesda, general manger of Sophat Phone Shop, formerly the main wholesaler of Mfone recharge cards, said he was still holding about $20,000 worth of cards and that close to 100 retailers had told him they were holding cards collectively worth at least $70,000. …
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040364852/Business/sellers-seek-compensation.html
Mfone value is revised
April 2nd, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Foreign Investment, Industry, News Source, Telecommunications
Althought the initial book value – purchase cost minus depreciation – of the assets of bankrupt Cambodian telecommunications firm Mfone was estimated at $105 million, employee representatives claim the estimated market value is closer to $30 million to $40 million.
Bou Kunthea, an Mfone employee representative, told the Post yesterday that the figure of $105 million was just the book value of the initial assets list, but the actual market value would be much less. She said she was advised by court-appointed liquidator Ouk Ry that it was in the range of $30 million to $40 million. …
Meanwhile, employee representatives were at odds with the Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC), which led a protest of about 200 former employees at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation, demanding the situation be resolved soon.
Employees’ representatives stayed out of the protest, concerned CLC would charge workers for the successful resolution of the dispute. “They come to lobby the employees so they can protest to get a faster solution and provide all payments that employees should get by just paying 10 per cent to the union when the protest is successful,” Kunthea said. …
Hor Kimsay and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040264827/Business/mfone-value-is-revised.html
Mfone’s Licence Revoked; Staff Terminated
March 29th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Debt Servicing, Economics, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Telecommunications
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has revoked the operating licence of bankrupt phone operator Mfone, which went out of business two months ago, while more than 1,000 employees had their jobs officially terminated yesterday.
The revocation of the licence and the mass dismissal of the staff helped clear the way for the government-appointed administrator, Ouk Ry, to dissolve the company’s assets and repay some of the company’s debts, which are believed to top $160 million. …
A copy of the TRC notice, obtained yesterday, also states that Mfone owes the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications $743,332. …
Nim Solyda, a former engineering supervisor at Mfone and the employee’s representative, said the employees had filed a claim earlier this month for about $4.4 million in compensation for 1,092 workers.
“The Labor Law states that even though the company is bankrupt, they must still pay compensation,” he said. …
Two of Mfone’s largest creditors are Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies and Norwegian Company Elteck, who claim a total of $68.73 million in debts from Mfone.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court had issued injunctions on behalf of both companies, and on Monday, the two firms discussed dropping their injunctions in order to allow Mr. Ry, the administrator, to dispose of Mfone’s assets quickly in order to pay off the company’s debts. …
Aun Pheap and Joshua Wilwohl, P.21
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mfones-license-revoked-staff-terminated-16474/