The beauty business in the Kingdom is growing rapidly as incomes are rising and the middle-class is growing, industry insiders told the Post yesterday.
In the first three months of this year, the Kingdom imported cosmetic products worth $9.9 million, an increase of 130 per cent compared with the same period last year, import data from the Ministry of Commerce showed. …
According to industry insiders, young Cambodians open to Korean culture and lifestyle are a main driver for the development of the industry. …
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday inaugurated a rubber processing plant here, saying the factory would contribute to developing the country’s fast-growing rubber sector.
The 7 million U.S. dollar plant, invested by Cambodia’s Sopheak Nika Investment Agro-Industry Company, was built on the area of 9 hectares in Sesan district of Stung Treng province, about 455 kilometers from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, according the company’s report. …
The report said the company received economic concessional land of 10,000 hectares from the government in March 2005 in order to grow rubber trees, and to date, the firm has invested 19 million U. S. dollars for rubber plantation. …
As of last year, the government had granted about 1.2 million hectares of economic concession land to companies for rubber plantation, the premier said, adding that so far, the country has planted rubber trees on the area of 280,350 hectares, and about 55, 000 hectares of them are old enough to be yielded.
Cambodia’s cassava exports reached 245,438 tonnes in the first quarter this year, a 47 per cent decline quarter-on-quarter, from 465,640 tonnes in the final quarter of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce released early this month.
While most exports went to Thailand, Vietnam and China, where processing takes place, Thailand also is a major market for Cambodian cassava. Officials in border provinces and traders said Thailand’s restriction on cassava imports early this year and informal exports that have not been recorded are the reasons for the decline.
In Sovanmony, director of the agronomy, soil and improvement of agricultural department in Battambang province, a major cassava plantation area in Cambodia, told the Post yesterday that it is estimated that 30 to 35 per cent of the total exports go to Thailand without being officially recorded. …
During the first three months, the total value of Cambodia’s cassava exports reached $11.7 million, about 30 per cent of the total export value last year. However, the figure from the Ministry of Commerce shows that the export volume is only high during the first few months of the year.
The Kingdom imported 412,190 tonnes of petroleum in the first quarter of 2013, compared with 471,000 tonnes in the same period the previous year, a decline of 12 per cent, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
A private sector representative said the drop does not mean a slowdown in production but came as a result of more stock being kept over from 2012 because of price fluctuations.
The data showed that between January and March of this year the country spent $397 million on petroleum, down 15 per cent from $469 million during the same period last year. …
While significant obstacles remain, the success of the rice sector is a potentially crucial driver in Cambodia’s prosperous and equitable development. …
Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements recently, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. …
Agriculture, led by rice farming, contributes to roughly a third of the country’s GDP and has immense potential for strengthening Cambodia’s economic growth, accelerating poverty reduction, and improving the living standard of its citizens. As part of this agenda, in 2010, the RGC adopted a new Policy Paper on Paddy Production and Rice Export, better known as the Rice Policy, to promote diversification of Cambodia’s economic sectors by catalyzing growth in paddy rice production and milled rice export to match the growth seen in the garment and service sectors. …
If Cambodia’s rice export sector were to reach its full potential, it could produce 3 million tons of milled rice, with the total export value amounting to $2.1 billion (approximately 20% of the GDP) and an estimated additional $600 million (approximately 5% of the GDP) to the national economy. It would also boost employment and income for agricultural farmers who make up more than 70 percent of the population living in rural areas. …
Poor transport and infrastructure such as roads, railways, warehouses, and handling equipment also increase costs for farmers. …
The lack of handling equipment in one of the main ports, the Sihanoukville Port, is also a major constraint for the export of large quantities of milled rice. …
As a relatively new player in the milled rice market, Cambodia faces a steep learning curve. However, with a surplus of 3.5 million tons of paddy rice (equivalent to 2 million tons of milled rice), Cambodia has the potential to soon be among the top five milled rice exporters in the world.
A major Hong Kong investor in Cambodia has claimed that a government duty on seafood exports is stunting the country’s fish processing industry.
Hong Kong-based Sunwah Group began operating a shrimp-processing factory in Sihanoukville in 1994, and its plans in the country now include building a $400 million skyscraper in central Phnom Penh.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, the group’s chairman, Jonathan Choi, said that a levy of 10 percent on exporting seafood had prevented the company from growing its operation here, and was a major factor in Cambodia’s seafood industry’s small size. …
Chevrolet, one of America’s iconic brand autos, officially launched its first dealership here on Monday, aiming at tapping into the country’s growing market for new vehicles.
Martin Apfel, president of the US’ General Motors to Southeast Asia Operations, said at the launching ceremony at the cars’ showroom in Phnom Penh, that the firm’s expansion to Cambodia was thanks to the country’s rapid economic growth in last decade and high demand in brand new cars.
The country’s new car demands are around 2,000 units a year, while the annual demand of used cars are up to 20,000 units.
“Cambodian auto industry is expected to grow by 15 percent this year,” he predicted.
Martin said that in Cambodia, the General Motors gave authority to Cambodia’s United Auto Trading to be an exclusive distributor of Chevrolet cars. …
The Ministry of Commerce has released figures showing Cambodia’s export of fishery goods including fresh and dried fish products have decreased drastically in the first quarter of the year, though several government officials viewed the figures with scepticism.
Cambodia exported 49.9 tonnes of fish products in the first quarter of the year a sizable drop from the 620.14 tonnes exported over the same period in 2012, the ministry’s data showed. …
Om Savath, executive director of Cambodia’s Fish Action Coalition Team, said that in general fishery production had declined this year, as the government had reduced the number of fishing lots throughout the country. …
Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements last month, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. Over the last few years, Cambodia has emerged as a major rice exporter in the region, due in large part to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s recent expansion of its agricultural sector. …
Agriculture, led by rice farming, contributes to roughly a third of the country’s GDP and has immense potential for strengthening Cambodia’s economic growth, accelerating poverty reduction, and improving the living standard of its citizens. As part of this agenda, in 2010, the RGC adopted a new Policy Paper on Paddy Production and Rice Export, better known as the Rice Policy, to promote diversification of Cambodia’s economic sectors by catalyzing growth in paddy rice production and milled rice export to match the growth seen in the garment and service sectors. In his keynote address at the policy’s launch, Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said: “The policy aims to ensure that we grab the rare opportunity to develop Cambodia in the post global financial and economic cataclysm.” …
Poor transport and infrastructure such as roads, railways, warehouses, and handling equipment also increase costs for farmers. To transport one ton of rice on a 100 km road, Cambodian farmers must spend $15, while their counterparts in Thailand and Vietnam pay $4 and $7.50, respectively. The lack of handling equipment in one of the main ports, the Sihanouk-Ville Port, is also a major constraint for the export of large quantities of milled rice. In addition, lack of access to and high cost of credit decreases domestic economic value-added and hinders milled rice export, presenting an obstacle for rice millers to stockpile paddy rice. …
Thousands of Cambodian people visited and bought Thai products on Thursday at a large scale exhibition although simmering border spat between the two countries remains unsolved.
“Even though border dispute is still going on, trade and investment ties between Thailand and Cambodia are still good,” Amparwon Pichalai, deputy director general of Thai commerce ministry’s international trade promotion department, told reporters before attending the opening of the Thai trade fair 2013 at the Diamond Island Exhibition Center in Phnom Penh. …
Mao Thora, secretary of state at Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, said it was a positive sign that the two countries have been working closely to improve the bilateral trade relations. …
Rubber exports from Cambodia were up over 17 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, but the revenue from rubber stayed steady as prices decline worldwide, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
The data showed that in the first quarter of this year, total export increased to 15,019 tonnes from 12,805 tonnes in the same period last year.
However, the price of rubber decreased sharply, by $461 per tonne for the three-month period, from $3,216.52 per tonne in the early part of the year, to $2,755.34 by the end of the quarter. Total revenue reached $41,382,434 so far
this year, compared with $41,187,582 the previous year. …
Cambodian export values increased more than 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and officials said the rise was a positive sign for the Kingdom’s economic growth. …
According to the Ministry of Commerce’s export data obtained by the Post yesterday, exports reached over $1.65 billion in the first three month period this year, up from the goods exported during the same period last year, up from the goods exported during the same period last year, valued at $1.36 billion. …
The World Bank recently predicted that Cambodia’s GDP growth would reach 7.0 per cent for this year, up 0.3 percentage points from its last projection in December. …
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.
In order to boost the Kingdom’s trade performance and improve the quality of lives of farmers along the Thai-Cambodia border, Thailand has agreed to remove import restrictions on Cambodian cassava and maize.
Speaking to reporters after the forth meeting of the Joint Trade Committee between Cambodia and Thailand yesterday, Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said the committee aims to develop greater economic relations and bilateral trade between the two countries, targeting a 30 per cent increase of trade activity per annum. …
According to export data from the ministry of commerce, Cambodia exported 20,443 tonnes of maize to Thailand in 2012, down 42 per cent from 35,381 a year earlier. Despite this downturn the Kingdom’s total Cassava exports jumped by 160 per cent in 2012 to 722,273 tonnes from 2011. …
Thailand will forge closer ties with Cambodia and other neighbouring countries to increase competency in rice trading and boost the bargaining power of Asean countries by setting up a rice-trading zone soon.
Also, Thailand will expand crop cooperation to cassava to raise farm incomes in the region. …
Thailand will help Cambodia promote its cassava under the same concept of rice trading. It will help encourage more trading of cereals, such as cassava and maize, by promoting contract farming to ensure stable incomes for farmers.
The JTC will discuss a strategy to promote bilateral trade with an emphasis on cross-border shipments, which account for 65 per cent of two-way trade value. …
Last year, two-way trade was valued at US$4.03 billion (Bt116 billion), or 0.84 per cent of Thailand’s total trade. Exports to Cambodia were worth $3.78 billion against only $249.5 million for imports from that country. …
The Kep-Kompot Salt Producers Community says salt production fell nearly 50 per cent below forecasts because of early rainfall, which is assumed to end salt harvesting for the year. Prime Minister Hun Sen, however, has stepped in to ensure that price remains stable. …
Hun Sen yesterday noted the dilemma concerning salt production and hydroelectrical dams – when the dry season lasts a long time, salt production will be good, but dams will lack water to produce power. …
In 2008, Cambodia imported tens of thousands of tonnes of salt from China to supply the local market, but in the succeeding years, production has exceeded the market’s demand, according to the Post. …
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. …
Two anti-logging activists who went into hiding yesterday have alleged that they received death threats from police because they set fire to logs cut from a protected area in Kratie province.
The activists have been leading an increasingly confrontational campaign against Vietnamese firm Binh Phuoc Kratie Rubber 2 Company and others logging in the Seima Protection Forest. …
Binh Phuoc Kratie Rubber 2 Company has a 10,000-hectare economic land concession in the Seima Protection Forest, formerly known as the Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area, the majority of which they were ordered to stop logging by Prime Minister Hun Sen last year.
The order, according to district officials, was revised shortly after it was given, when Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhaly intervened. Clashes between community forest patrols and loggers have intensified since, while vast swaths of forest have disappeared. …
A 3-day Cambodia-Real Estate Exhibition 2013 kicked off [in Phnom Penh] on Monday as the country’s construction sector is rapidly growing in the last couple of years.
The event, held at the Diamond Island Exhibition Center, brought together 68 exhibitors who are real estate developers, real estate investor banks, construction material manufacturers and suppliers, home product suppliers, real estate agencies, and architecture and engineering designers. …
The reports from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction showed that the investments in the country’s real estate development had declined from 3.1 billion U. S. dollars in 2008 to 1.98 billion U.S. dollars in 2009 and further drop to 840 million U.S. dollars in 2010.
However, the sector bounced back in 2011 to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars and further grew to 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2012.
A delegation from a Thai agricultural co-operative yesterday discussed means of improving agricultural products and market access with representatives of the Ministry of Commerce in Phnom Penh.
Kamit Likhitvidhayavuth of the Thai co-operative said his team aimed to strengthen market access for Cambodian goods. …
No agreement was signed yesterday, but both sides said they share a common goal of boosting economic activities along the countries’ borders. …
