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. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday lashed out at the opposition party’s concerns over the interest rates charged by commercial banks to farmers.
SRP lawmaker Yim Sovann said commercial banks in Cambodia charge customers very high interest rates, and said it is much higher than in other countries. …
However, the premier, speaking at the opening of a new rubber processing plant in Stung Treng province said Sovann’s words do not apply with the market practice and the real situation in Cambodia’s economy. …
“Based on the market economy, they don’t allow the state to handle commercial bank. We have a national bank which cannot provide that serivce to customers. If people have money to deposit at the bank, they will get five per cent, some give four per cent and other 5.6 per cent [interest rate],” said Hun Sen. …
“To lower the interest rate to one per cent, it would kill the bank … They are against the political protectionism,” he said. …
According to the statistics from the National Bank of Cambodia, the Kingdom’s 32 commercial banks have lent $5.49 billion to about 1.6 million borrowers by November 2012, up 30 per cent year-on-year. …
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 new 100,000 riel banknote depicting the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk is not just a pretty historical token. It will also help inject much needed cash into the economy, according to the National Bank of Cambodia.
Although take-up will occur as older banknotes of other denominations deteriorate, the introduction of the new denomination will provide additional liquidity that is demanded by Cambodia’s rapid growth, NBC director-general Nguon Sokha said. …
Kang Chandararot, president of the Cambodian Institute for Development Study, is concerned that now is not the right time for increasing the liquidity volume in Cambodia. A strengthening dollar, “seasonal riel demand”, a lack of long-term growth and inflationary pressures from the Kingdom’s neighbours are all reasons increasing liquidity was “dangerous”, he said. …
Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal has given the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) the green light to proceed with a plan to build coal-powered plants in Myanmar and Cambodia – providing Thailand with 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Egat has also been instructed to negotiate the purchase of nuclear power from China in order to bring down the cost of electricity. …
In addition, the Energy Ministry has also been discussing the possibility of investing in a coal-powered plant in Cambodia to produce 4,000MW of electricity. Thailand hopes that buying power from Cambodia will keep the domestic cost of electricity from exceeding Bt6 per unit. Egat also plans to go ahead with its coal-powered project in Krabi once it has reached an “understanding” with residents and businesses protesting against the deal. …
In addition to investing in coal-operated power plants from neighbouring countries, Egat is also looking at investing in hydro-electric power projects within the region. …
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. …
Cambodia’s promising animal feed sector will soon see support from a big pharmaceutical manufacturer which is now studying local demand for animal healthcare – a nearly untapped market.
“We intend to introduce animal health business in Cambodia for our farm products and feed mills,” Khalid Baig, Bayer’s country group head Southeast Asia, told the Post. …
According to animal welfare and production expert Ros Limhy, several thousand veterinarians are working in the Kingdom, mostly at the village or commune level. However, the key players in improving animal health in Cambodia would be the Village Animal Health Workers, who have been trained by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the public sector.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is one of those NGOs. According to IFAD’s Country Operations Officer Meng Sakphouseth, 80 per cent of the villages in the Kingdom have at least one animal health worker. …
The government on Friday awarded CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat a $92.21 million contract to install power lines in Cambodia’s eastern provinces, the Council of Ministers said in a statement.
During the weekly Cabinet meeting, senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on the deal to extend the national grid by connecting Phnom Penh with Kompong Cham, Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces. …
This morning, ODC’s Project Manager Terry Parnell presented on the panel “Open Data, Social Development and the Implementation Insights” at the Mekong ICT Camp, in Thailand.
Royal Thai Navy ships intercepted a Cambodian fishing boat illegally smuggling 10 million baht in Siamese rosewood out of the kingdom. …
The HTMS Chao Phraya staffed with military, customs and forestry office personnel captured the 18-meter-long fishing vessel carrying 296 logs in its fish holds April 28 in Rayong Bay. …
Navy officials said the smuggled logs were to be offloaded in Vietnamese waters. …
Recurring power cuts and power shortages draw sharp complaints from Cambodia’s public, the political opposition and business owners. Keo Ratanak, director-general of Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), talked to the Post’s Sarah Thust.
What is EDC doing to reduce electricity cuts here?
The issue of power shortage is not a surprise to the Royal Government of Cambodia and EDC. We had forecasted many years ago that Cambodia would be precisely in the situation that it is in today.
That is the reason why EDC and the government had been working very, very hard to attract investment for [power] generation projects in hydropower, in coal-fire plants, in biomass power plants, and importing power from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. …
What is the reason for the electricity shortages, then?
Investment needs time and construction of projects needs time. Each construction usually takes four to five years, [not including] the time to negotiate, to close the financing.
Part of the problem also is that under the agreement we reached with Vietnam they are supposed to give us 200 megawatts at least, up to now, but they only gave us 170 megawatts, because Vietnam itself faces shortages.
The problem with the power from Thailand is a little bit different from Vietnam. It’s about technical constraints. The line that comes to our border is of small capacity, so to transmit more than 100 megawatts to Cambodia is difficult. …
The National Assembly of Cambodia on Friday ratified the agreement on maritime transport between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, saying the agreement is essential to develop trade and economic ties between ASEAN and China. …
“The agreement aims to facilitate and foster cooperation in passenger and cargo transport by sea among the signatories,” Nin Saphon, Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Public Work, Industry, Mines, Energy, Commerce, and Land Management, said during the session. …
Delta Electronics (Thailand), one of the world’s leading producers of power supplies and electronic components, plans to expand to Cambodia and Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday.
“There is no indication of a specific timeframe for the expansion, but the company sees these countries . . . as distributing channels of supply chain to other Asian and European countries,” the report said.
Asian Development Bank deputy country director Peter Brimble said, while he cannot speak for Delta about their reasons for moving to Cambodia, generally “regional automotive and electronics firms are looking to expand and spread their operational risk, including firms based in Thailand.” …
Cambodia saw a slow rise in trade volume with Vietnam and a slight decrease with Thailand in the first quarter of this year, according to the figures provided on Wednesday. …
The figures said Cambodia’s total exports to Vietnam was worth 221 million U.S. dollars during the period, up 10 percent, while the country’s imports from Vietnam valued at 791 million U.S. dollars, up 10 percent. …
On the bilateral trade ties with Thailand, the total trade volume between Cambodia and Thailand had amounted to 1.1 billion U. S. dollars during the first quarter of this year, down 2.3 percent from 1.13 billion U.S. dollars at the same period last year, according to the reports released by Thai embassy to Cambodia.
Cambodia’s export to Thailand was 101 million U.S. dollars, up 19 percent, while Thailand’s export to Cambodia was 1 billion U.S. dollars, down 4 percent, it said.
Mark Moorstein knew little about Cambodia before he got involved in a lawsuit on behalf of land owners there. But as it’s turning out, the suit could end up affecting most every country in Asia.
Moorstein is a land-use lawyer in Northern Virginia who, like many lawyers, was looking for some pro-bono, charitable work to do on the side. …
Across Asia, almost every country is guilty of baldly seizing its citizens’ land without significant compensation and then selling it to corporations or developers, leaving the owners homeless and often destitute. …
Finally in 2001, Cambodia enacted a Land Law intended to curb these seizures. But like so many measures passed to mollify the Western donors who keep the government afloat, the government immediately began ignoring its own law. Now, as one major Cambodian human rights organization put it: “In Phnom Penh and the 12 provinces” around it “land-grabbing has affected an estimated 400,000 Cambodians since 2003, helping to create a sizable underclass of landless villagers with no means for self-sustenance.” …
It turned out that the land he [Mark Moorstein] focused on — two plots of about 25,000 acres each — is used to grow sugar cane, primarily. A wealthy and powerful Cambodian senator took possession of it after evicting residents from about 200 individual plots. Many of the evictees held identification cards the United Nations had given them when it set up a protectorate in Cambodia 20 years ago. Under the Land Law, that meant they held legal title to the property. …
Once the suit was filed, Tate & Lyle seemed to panic. Very quickly, it sold its entire sugar unit to American Sugar Refining, better known here in the United States for its name-brand product: Domino Sugar. That company is now the defendant, and when contacted for comment, the company declined.
But last Thursday, the company did file its response to the suit. It said Tate & Lyle had no knowledge of any prior ownership of the land in question. The villagers had no claim to the sugar cane grown on the land, even if they did previously own it, because they had not paid for the seeds or production costs. And finally, the defendants claimed, “The English court cannot adjudicate or call into question” matters of Cambodian law dealing with land concessions.
Nonetheless, the British court had already accepted the suit. The case is moving forward, and that all by itself is already encouraging many people. …
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.
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighbouring Vietnam rose more than 10 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, data from the Vietnam Embassy in Phnom Penh showed.
Officials said cross-border trade facilitation by both countries significantly contributed to the growth. But they said the growth rate slowed down a little, as more competition developed from other importing countries.
The data showed total two-way-trade was worth $1.013 billion in the first quarter of the year, a 10.26 per cent increase from $918.694 million in the same period last year. …
The breakdown figure showed that in the first quarter of 2013, Cambodia’s total exports to Vietnam were valued at $221,153,942, a 9.9 per cent increase from $201,198,500 in the same period of 2012. The value of Vietnam’s exports to Cambodia reached $791,857,900, up 10.36 per cent from $717,495,323 in the same period last year. …
Cambodia mainly exported aquatic products and seafood, corn, dried tobacco, rubber latex, paddy rice and cashew nuts to Vietnam. The main products from Vietnam were all kinds of steel and made-from-steel products, confectionery, cereal products, garments, rubber products, vegetables and fruits, paper, metal products, machinery products, transportation vehicles and spare parts. …
I am really optimistic about the rise in bilateral trade volume which will certainly pave the way for the target of $5 billion set by the two governments by 2015.” [per Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy director general Meng Saktheara]
The data showed that total bilateral trade between both countries was worth $3.316 billion last year compared to $2.836 billion in the same period of 2011 – an increase of 17 per cent. …
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. …
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. …
Milled rice exports have seen dramatic growth this year as the sector begins to take advantage of duty-free exports to European countries, an official and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
Thon Virak, director of state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, said Tuesday that in the year up to the end of April, 118,500 tons of milled rice had been exported from Cambodia.
“It increased by about 43 percent compared with the same period [last year],” Mr. Virak said.
Cambodia traditionally exports a large proportion of its rice crop as unprocessed paddy to Thailand and Vietnam, where it is milled and often re-exported. The government has targeted an increase to 1 million tons a year-compared with only about 200,000 tons last year-by 2015, and investment in rice mills has been stepped up to meet the goal. …
