The first three-day Koh Kong Investment and Trade Fair 2013 kicked off on Saturday, promoting trade and investment in the southern provinces of Cambodia with neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. …
“The [fair] is aimed at promoting trade and development in Koh Kong province and other border provinces in the southern region of the country, which is to further enlarge trade and the economy between Cambodian provinces, and with the provinces of Thailand and Vietnam that are boardering Cambodia in this southern region,” said Cham Prasidh, Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce. …
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit Macau in September to participate in the Second Global Tourism Economy Forum. Prime Minister Hun Sen called for more investment in the country by Chinese and Macau entrepreneurs, and direct flights between Cambodia and Macau.
According to Xinhua, the Prime Minister met with Edmund Ho Monday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, to discuss further expansion of bilateral ties in economics, trade and tourism. Ho is the former Macau Chief Executive and also a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,
Speaking at the meeting at the Peace Palace, Edmund Ho, who is also chairman of the Global Tourism Economy Forum, said his visit to Cambodia was to further promote China-Cambodia relations and cooperation, particularly between Cambodia and Macau …
[Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance] Keat Chhon noted that from 1992 to present, China has provided USD2.7 billion in soft loans and grants to Cambodia for rehabilitating and building infrastructure. Keat Chhon and Edmund Ho also discussed ways to promote tourism.
The National Assembly’s Commission on Economy on Wednesday rejected the opposition- proposed draft law on minimum wages for garment and state workers. …
The opposition group proposed the National Assembly to make a law to limit a monthly minimum wage of 150 U.S. dollars for garment workers and 250 U.S. dollars for civil servants and armed forces. “The Parliament’s commission decided to reject this proposed draft law, explaining that the proposed draft law is inappropriate for Cambodia’s real situation, and Cambodia holds a free-market regime, so the limitation of minimum wage is against this policy,” Sman Teath, vice-chairman of the Commission, told reporters after the meeting. …
Turkey is willing to establish an embassy residence in Cambodia in order to promote bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries, the newly- designated ambassador of Turkey to Cambodia, Osman Bulent Tulun said Tuesday. …
The two countries’ bilateral trade is relatively small. According to the record of Cambodia’s Commerce Ministry, the total trade volume was only 6 million U.S. dollars last year.
On tourism side, some 3,400 Turkish visitors came to Cambodia last year, up 4 percent year-on-year, said a tourism report. …
It’s not a claim every country can make, but Cambodia builds its own cars. A country known for its low-skilled workforce, the Kingdom exceeded expectations with its January release of the Angkor Car, a mini-electric vehicle able to get up to 300 kilometres per charge. …
The tendency to buy high-end automobiles is also on the rise, growing 27% in 2011 compared to the year before, according to the World Bank.
Reputable brands are lining up to enter the market: the first authorised BMW showroom broke ground in Phnom Penh in December, while banners plastered around the capital are teasers for the arrival of Mazda vehicles later this year.
In good news for distributors, 2012 was a record-breaking year for a number of car brands. Toyota Cambodia reportedly sold 800 units, up from 500 in 2011, while Ford recorded 15% growth in sales. …
Investment in Cambodia from overseas surged by at least 44 percent last year, according to an estimate from the central bank, despite figures suggesting a reduction in the overall flow of foreign currency into Southeast Asian economies.
Nguon Sokha, director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia, said that foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country was thought to have reached at least $1.3 billion in 2012, based on early indicators. …
“[The 2012 figure] is an underestimate,” Ms. Sokha added. “We will have to revise it up, but I’m not sure by how much.” …
Almost 3,400 new businesses were registered in Cambodia in 2012, an increase of 9 percent on the previous year, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.
In 2012, the ministry’s business registration department recorded some 3,385 new companies, compared with 3,104 new companies in 2011, the figures released by the ministry last week show.
The business registration department’s director, Him Hean, said about 60 percent
of companies were local firms, and 40 percent were companies set up in Cambodia by foreign investors. …
Cambodia on Tuesday inaugurated a new container terminal of the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, turning the port as a large hub for logistics supply and goods collection and distribution.
The inauguration ceremony was presided over by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue and was attended by 15,000 participants, including senior government officials, diplomats, residents and students.
The construction of the 10-hectare [sic] terminal was begun in March, 2011 by Shanghai Construction (Group) General Company with a soft loan of 28.2 million U.S. dollars financed by the Government of China, Hun Sen said at the event. …
Looking to compete with Chinese influence in the region, the U.S. government is making plans to help American companies win large-scale infrastructure projects in Cambodia, U.S. officials said yesterday in Phnom Penh.
The plans, which come as part of a strategic and economic embracing of Asia by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, look to challenge China’s near monopoly on big undertakings, such as roads and hydropower dams in the country.
“To pivot to Asia…is not only a security focus, it’s an economic focus because in order for us to be successful in the long term, we have to be economically involved in this region,” said Lorain Hariton, U.S. State Department special representative for commercial and business affairs, who spoke to reporters during a round-table meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. …
“We are looking to get some good winds here and work on some deals that will allow us to play a large role in this region.” …
Representatives of a dozen large Japanese companies arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday looking for business opportunities in the kingdom.
Hidetoshi Nishimura, executive director of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, led the delegation, whose members represent firms in industries such as technology, jewellery manufacturing, infrastructure development and agriculture. …
China has become Cambodia’s biggest investor, putting some $8.8 billion into the country over nearly two decades, according to online data from the government’s lead investment agency.
Those investment numbers, from the Council for the Development of Cambodia, from 1994 to 2011, do not take into account a number of newer investments, including a 400-kilometer rail line, a steel plant and sea port, worth another $11 billion. …
The second-largest investor was South Korea, followed in order by Malaysia, the UK and the US. Japan, the largest international donor to Cambodia, ranks No. 15 in investment, according to the CDC figures. …
Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow by 6.7 percent in 2013 thanks to anticipating increases in agriculture, foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism, the World Bank said in its latest outlook Wednesday. “The growth is based on achieving the dividends from focus on higher rice production, inflows of FDI into the growing garment industry and a growing tourism industry,” the bank’s Global Economic Prospects said, forecasting that the country’s growth will be up to 7 percent in 2014.
It foresaw that Cambodia’s exports would grow at a slower pace this year due to weak external demand, especially in Europe and the United States. …
Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Temple, one of the World Heritage Sites, received 2.06 million foreign visitors last year, up 28 percent compared to 1.61 million in a year earlier, a tourism report said Tuesday. …
The temple greeted 339,530 South Koreans last year, up 23 percent year-on-year; 220,050 Vietnamese, down 13 percent; 184,965 Chinese, up 51 percent; 134,630 Japanese, up 9 percent; and 129, 660 Thais, up 153 percent. …
Inside a gleaming white-and-blue garment factory in Cambodia stand rows of second-hand Singers — weathered sewing machines transported from a plant in China that closed last year.
The Hong Kong-headquartered Top Form, which has 700 workers at the plant, is one of many businesses that have moved to Cambodia, mostly from China, in the past year or so to take advantage of its lower wages, which are roughly a third of those in China. …
Angie Lau, chief executive of bramaker Clover in Hong Kong, says that her company has found operating in Cambodia easier than in India, where it also operates a plant, and that productivity at the Cambodian plant is rising fast toward levels seen in its Chinese factories. …
Former Adamus Resources executives Milan Bojanjac and Ron Heeks are plotting a return to the Australian bourse, through a deal with the Charlie Bass-backed Geopacific Resources.
In a deal it said would give it access to a substantial land- holding in Cambodia, Geopacific announced plans for a one-for-one all-scrip acquisition of unlisted company World Wide Mining Projects. Worldwide is chaired by former Straits Resources chief executive Milan Jerkovic. Both Mr Bojanjac and Mr Heeks serve on its board, and will step across to Geopacific when the acquisition closes. …
Even as the skyline of Phnom Penh grows with the symbols of modern architecture, Cambodia’s economy still faces a host of challenges. …
On the surface, Cambodia’s economy is certainly improving. In September, the IMF raised its 2012 GDP growth forecast from 6.3 to 6.5 percent and, in Asia, only China and Laos are tipped to grow faster in 2013. The World Bank’s December forecast predicts Cambodia will experience an average annual GDP growth rate of 7 percent over the next five years.
But the positive statistics obscure the potentially debilitating structural issues: namely, the economy is susceptible to external shock.
The World Bank forecasts a 0.5-percentage point fall in GDP growth for 2012 versus the previous year mainly due to an anticipated drop in garment and agricultural shipments, which together account for 90 percent of Cambodia’s total export earnings. …
Housing development company the Ly Hour Group said it has begun work on its second major project, called Vimean Phnom Penh The Commercial Zone, after its first project Vimean Phnom Penh was successfully completed.
The company said the amount of traffic along Phnom Penh’s Chea Sophara road is a vital factor in upgrading housing development in the area, and it decided to begin building its second project on December 12, 2012. …
With demand for shopping space in Cambodia on the rise and investor interest growing, the Japanese developer Aeon Mall (Cambodia) Co Ltd last week broke ground on the construction of a US$205-million mall in Phnom Penh. …
“We are happy to contribute to the development of the local economy because it will create more than 2,000 jobs” … Motoya Okada, president and CEO of Aeon Group, was reported as saying at the groundbreaking ceremony by the Japanese media.
He added that the Japanese company was considering opening other locations in Cambodia. …
Cambodia’s property market is only now recovering from a bust three years ago that saw the construction of several projects come to a grinding halt. Today, developers are finding a demand for high-end retail projects that, according recent data by the property services company CB Richard Ellis, will triple in total space in the next five years. …
Japanese foreign direct investment in Cambodia reached $75 million last year, up from about $35 million in 2010, while the Japanese government has promised an additional 1.51 billion yen, or $242 million, to fund several infrastructure projects. With the construction of the Aeon mall, Japanese investments in Cambodia are expected to reach $300 million by the end of this year.
About 3,000 Chinese in Huang clan from around the globe gathered here Wednesday to bridge closer ties among Huang families and to visit Cambodia’s attractive tourism destinations.
Speaking at the opening of the 11th World Huang Clan Convention 2nd Session, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, honorary president of the Huang Clan Association in Cambodia, said that some 3,000 Chinese Huang families from China, China’s Hong Kong, China’s Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and Vietnam gathered at the event. …
The 21st ASEAN Summit opened in Phnom Penh yesterday under the theme One Community, One Destiny, with meetings during the three-day event expected to tackle such issues as measures to build the ASEAN Community, regional peace and security, and strengthening co-operation between the bloc’s member states.
The event recognised ASEAN’s major achievements over the past 45 years, especially recent efforts in building a common community, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in addressing the opening of the summit. …
