AEON Microfinance (Cambodia) Co, part of Japan-based AEON Group, said sales by instalment for electrical appliances and motorbikes increased by 715 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 year on year, a trend industry experts say will grow further with increasing demand for electronics.
Started in December 2011, loan disbursement reached $2.5 million with 5,000 new customers in the first quarter of this year, compared to $343,000 in the same period of 2012, managing director Daisuke Maeda told the Post yesterday.
“Smartphones and PCs are the most popular, followed by motorbikes,” he said. …
The total loan portfolio of AEON Microfinance (Cambodia) at the end of the first quarter this year was about $4 million, with 6,500 customers, Daisuke Maeda said. …
The government wants to play a bigger role in helping local businesses remain competitive and, to this end, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) has launched a new award to recognise companies that have achieved high produc-tivity standards.
Ten companies will be awarded in September this year under the initiative, called the 5S Productivity Award. 5S is a Japan-based workplace organisation method – which will also be used as judging criteria – focusing on increasing efficiency and safety through methods such as “sorting”, or eliminating unnecessary processes, and “standardising”, or keeping procedures simplified. …
After reaching agreement late last month, the contract for a $90 million concession loan from Japan to Cambodia was officially signed in Phnom Penh yesterday to improve 83.5 kilometres of National Road 5. …
The construction is scheduled to start in June 2015 and will be completed by May 2018. The loan’s interest rate is 0.01 per cent per annum with a repayment period of 40 years including a 10-year grace period. …
The deaths of at least two Cambodian workers and injuries sustained by 10 colleagues at a shoe factory southwest of Phnom Penh once more shine a light on conditions in the global garment manufacturing industry.
Thursday’s accident at the Wing Star Shoe factory in the Cambodian capital took place when a section of ceiling collapsed onto a group of several dozen workers. The factory, which has 7,000 staff, is contracted to manufacture shoes for Japanese athletics brand ASICS. …
Dave Welsh, the country director at the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, a labour group, visited Wing Star on Thursday and said it looked as though the ceiling at the Taiwanese-owned factory had been “badly overloaded” with materials. …
Garment and shoe manufacturing is now a pillar of Cambodia’s economy: Exports last year, most of which went to the European Union and the United States, brought in 4.6 billion US dollars.
The industry is also the largest formal employer with more than 350,000 workers. …
[Secretary-general of Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia Ken Loo] was quick to separate what happened in Cambodia with the disaster in Bangladesh, and said the ceiling collapse was not indicative of a systemic problem: instead the deaths and injuries at Wing Star, which is a GMAC member, looked more like the consequence of shoddy construction. …
Jill Tucker, the BFC’s chief technical adviser, said although Thursday’s accident was uncommon it had highlighted the need for factories to adhere to building standards too. …
Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Japan had amounted to 180 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year, up 14 percent compared with the 158 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, a report of the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro) showed Tuesday. …
During the January-March period this year, Cambodia’s exports to Japan was worth about 128 million U.S. dollars, up 24 percent from 103 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, while Japan’s exports to Cambodia valued at 52 million U.S. dollars, down 5 percent from 55 million U.S. dollars, the report said. …
Japan is one of the largest aid providers to Cambodia, but trade and investment ties between the two nations remain low. …
On the investment side, Japanese investors had invested about 300 million U.S. dollars in Cambodia in the last 3 years, according to a record released by Japanese Embassy to Cambodia in January.
Japanese Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) signed an agreement yesterday with local Canadia Bank to shore up Japanese growth in Cambodia and to demonstrate its confidence in the Kingdom’s financial sector.
BTMU’s managing executive officer, Takami Onodera, and Pung Kheav Se, chairman of Canadia Bank, yesterday signed the agreement with the intention of bringing more Japanese investors to Cambodia. …
Japanese investment totalled about $330 million last year, a big jump from about $75 million in 2011.
Furthermore, data from the Japanese Business Association of Cambodia show that there were 101 Japanese companies here at the end of 2012, an increase from 69 the year before. …
Cambodia’s tourist arrivals registered a 19.9% growth in February according to the country’s statistics and tourist Information Department.
The country welcomed 385,760 visits compared to 321,870 during the same month in 2012.
Released by the Ministry of Tourism, Monday, data showed neighbouring Vietnam was the top supplier with 58,750 visits, an increase of 4.4% over 56,297 visits in February last year. …
In February, 52.8% (203,453) of all international visitors arrived by air. Siem Reap airport received the major share, 34.9% (134,465), while Phnom Penh Airport received just 17.9% (68,988) mainly business travellers who needed to contact government departments or budget travellers who starting or finishing their overland trips. …
Data hints of the massive imbalance between tourist arrivals to Siem Reap and the rest of the country. The tourism authority has urged travel enterprises to provide more information and tour programmes on other destinations to encourage visitors to Angkor Wat to explore the country in more detail. …
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.
Cambodia is considering offering sovereign bonds to raise more revenue for the national budget and move away from its dependence on overseas aid, a senior central bank official said Sunday.
National Bank of Cambodia director-general Nguon Sokha said the Ministry of Economy and Finance was currently looking at other countries’ experiences with bond markets and was seeking outside help to issue the government’s first bonds.
By issuing sovereign bonds governments can raise money from international investors that are usually paid back with interest at the end of a fixed term. …
Ms. Sokha said there was no set date for when the bonds might be issued, but officials were working on the plan with help from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and members of the Asean+3 group, which includes China, Japan and South Korea. …
Cambodia is set to graduate this year or next to a lower middle-income country but still qualifies for overseas development assistance and concessional loans from international institutions.
“For long term financing, we cannot really survive on development assistance,” Ms. Sokha said. …
Although Cambodia does not currently issue sovereign bonds, it has been assessed recently by credit rating agencies. The most recent assessment by Moody’s gave the country a stable but high-risk “B2” rating, which means Cambodia is deemed to have “very low economic resiliency.”
Corruption, a weak judicial system and the potential for complicity with human and labour rights abuses are key risks for firms looking to invest in Cambodia, a new report [by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm] analysing investment risk in the Kingdom says. …
According to the report, Cambodia presents “extreme” risks in its business environment, labour rights and protection, and climate change vulnerability, with “high” risks for civil and political rights, its macroeconomic environment, poverty and human development, and the regulatory framework.
But Peter Brimble, deputy Cambodia country director at the Asian Development Bank, said business indexes of this kind need to be carefully interpreted. …
“The recent very rapid inflow of Japanese investors into Cambodia perhaps indicates that certain elements of such indexes may not reflect the reality on the ground, “Japanese investors are known to be sensitive to governance and transparency, and have shown their confidence by voting with their investment dollars,” he said. …
Japan agreed Tuesday to provide a loan package of 90 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for the improvement of a stretch of the national road No. 5 and two bypasses in northwestern provinces, according to a statement from Japanese Embassy to Cambodia. …
The statement said the loan would be used to widen a 47- kilometer stretch of the national road No. 5 between Battambang province and Sri Sophorn town of Banteay Meanchey province and to construct two bypasses in the two provinces.
The loan’s interest rate is 0.01 percent per annum with the repayment period of 40 years including 10 years of grace period, it said. …
Arrivals at the Kingdom’s two main international airports rose more than 20 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2013, according to data from Cambodia Airports. Officials said the rise reflects the normalisation of the world economy and the country’s political stability.
According to the data, 750,355 passengers arrived at the two airports over the first quarter, up from 608,281 arrivals in the same period last year. …
Cambodia exported garment and textile products in equivalent to 1.34 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2013, up 17 percent from 1.14 billion U.S. dollars at the same period last year, the Commerce Ministry’s report showed Friday. …
Garment industry is the country’s largest income earner, representing more than 80 percent of the country’s exports.
The sector consists of more than 300 factories, employing about 350,000 workers.
The whole year of 2012, the country exported garment products in equivalent to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 8 percent year-on- year.
The volume of cargo passing through the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) rose 15 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the corresponding period last year. Experts say milled-rice exports and fuel imports contributed to the boost in activity.
From January to March, SAP, Cambodia’s largest port, processed a total of 759,897 tonnes, compared with 659,489 tonnes in the first three months of last year. …
Cambodia had granted operating licenses to 606 new companies in the first quarter of this year, a 33 percent decrease compared with the 904 firms at the same period last year, the Commerce Ministry’s report showed Tuesday. …
Yim Rom, an official at the ministry’s statistics and planning department, said the drop in new business registration was due to the ministry’s restrictions on registration procedures by thoroughly examining proposed companies’ business plans in order to ensure fair competition and to avoid duplicated trademarks. …
In the whole year of 2012, Cambodia granted operating licenses to 3,385 new firms, a 9 percent rise year-on-year, the commerce report said.
Cambodian garment exports are expected to grow in 2013 with the increasing foreign investments along with focus on new market including Japan and China, according to the Garment Manufactures Association of Cambodia (GMAC). In 2012, apparel exports of Cambodia grew nine percent to US$ 4.61 billion as compared to exports worth US$ 4.24 billion in 2011. …
Singapore, the US, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Australia, England and India were some other countries that invested in Cambodian apparel sector in 2012. However, ongoing economic crisis in the traditional export markets such as the US and the EU coupled with numerous strikes are slowing export growth of Cambodia. …
The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) has seen slow progress in its first year of operations because there has been only one listed firm and public knowledge about the stock market remains low, officials said Thursday.
The CSX was officially launched trading on April 18 last year with only one listed enterprise, the state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA).
“Because there is only one product in the stock market now, so the trading action is limited,” Ming Bankosal, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, which is the CSX’s regulator, told Xinhua over telephone. “I believe that the situation will be improving from this year as three or four enterprises are planned to list on the CSX this year.”
He said at the launching of the CSX, there were only 3,600 investors, but it was now up to 5,000 investors. …
The PPWSA sold 13 million shares in its first IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) in last April with a share going for 6,300 riel (1.57 U.S. dollars).
In May, the highest-priced stock was about 2.55 U.S. dollars a share, and then, it had gradually lowered to 1.55 U.S. dollars. …
The World Bank upgraded Monday its GDP growth forecast for Cambodia to 7.0 percent for this year, up 0.3 of a percentage point from its last projection in December.
“In Cambodia, a likely stabilization in high-income country conditions should support further improvements in garment production and exports,” the bank said in explaining the upgrade. …
Cambodia’s growth last year, estimated at 7.3 percent, was “faster than expected,” the update said, adding that it was “bolstered by the strong performance of agriculture, construction and tourism and a recovery in garments.”
In a separate statement, World Bank East Asia and Pacific Vice President Axel van Trotsenburg said the region accounted for about 40 percent of global growth last year. …
New car sales noticeably increased in the first quarter of this year, a contrast to the year earlier period when sales dropped compared with the first quarter of 2011, officials said. Major car dealers in Cambodia said yesterday the jump is due to improvements in the supply chain. …
The first quarter of this year, Toyota Cambodia had already sold more than 300 units, a 50 per cent increase compared to the first quarter of last year. According to Nuon the company plans to sell at least 1,300 items by the end of this year, compared to 800 last year. …
Cambodia’s exports to the European Union (E.U.) grew to $2.32 billion in 2012, a 23 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the E.U.’s latest trade figures.
The figures, released this week by the European Commission’s trade office, testify to the region’s growing role as a key trading partner for Cambodia, thanks to the E.U.’s Everything But Arms (EBA) trade scheme, which lets Cambodia and a few dozen other developing countries export most goods to member states without tariffs or quotas.
According to figures, exports to the E.U. grew twice as much as exports to any other of Cambodia’s trading partners in 2012. And economists say that it would not be surprising if exports to the E.U. soon made up half of all Cambodia’s exports, with garments leading the way. …
Of the $5.49 billion worth of goods Cambodia exported last year, according to figures from the Commerce Ministry’s Cam-Control department, 42 percent went to the E.U., up from 35 percent in 2011. The remainder of Cambodia’s exports mostly went to the U.S., with smaller amounts going to Japan, China, South Korea and other countries in South East Asia. …
