Im Sokthy

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, September 10, 2008 - Cambodia has moved up 15 places in Doing Business 2009, a report published today by IFC and the World Bank, that compares the ease of doing business around the world. Cambodia’s significantly higher standing is the result of reforms that make it easier for businesses to get credit and to close a business. While much progress remains to be done in several areas, the report names Cambodia as the world’s top reformer in easing access to credit.

Doing Business 2009, which compares 181 economies, uses 10 indicators of business regulation: (1) starting a business, (2) dealing with construction permits, (3) employing workers, (4) registering property, (5) getting credit, (6) protecting investors, (7) paying taxes, (8) trading across borders, (9) enforcing contracts, and (10) closing a business.

Further detail please click here cambodia-advances-15-places-in-doing-business-2009-rankings.pdf

Thaksin Shinawatra’s reported investment in Koh Kong has led to a land-grabbing frenzy, writes Piyaporn Wongruang and Nareerat Wiriyapong
Embattled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has packed up and moved to London, but Koh Kong residents like Kamnan Tit are hoping he returns and brings economic prosperity to the Cambodian province.

For the past few months, rumours of the ex-prime minister’s possible involvement in a mega-tourism project in Koh Kong have fuelled a land grab and sent prices soaring, creating a buzz of activity in the once sleepy area.

”We heard the news that Mr Thaksin would come to invest in Koh Kong, so we even rushed to buy land on nearby Koh Kapi,” said Kamnan Tit, who recently introduced the principle of sufficiency economy to his village of Peam Krasaob. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Establishment of valuation association a key step in opening the Kingdom’s stock market, but some business leaders say it will not be capable of doing the job

CAMBODIA’S first agency to assess the value of corporate assets opened last week, in what company sources are describing as a key step in establishing a Cambodian stock exchange.

But business figures are sceptical the new body will be able to establish sufficient nationwide transparency in time to meet the stock market’s 2009 deadline for opening.

Sung Bonna, chairman of the new National Valuation Association of Cambodia (NVAC), which is supported by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said the body will play an important role in Cambodia’s future growth.

“We will try to push this nascent association to attract foreign investors and to assist in the process of setting up a stock exchange next year,” he said, adding that the stock market will not go ahead in the absence of credible asset evaluations.
“If we have professional assessors and good management, the stock market process will be smoother,” he said.

In Channy, CEO of Acleda Bank, said the new agency could provide independent assessments for firms wishing to register on the Kingdom’s stock market.

“We need an assessor that has enough independence to determine the accurate value of a company’s assets. This concept generally exists in other countries,” he said.

‘2012 more realistic’
But Nguon Meng Tech, director general of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, said he does not think the association will be successful.

“I do not believe that they are capable enough for this work for the time being,” he said.
He added that the 2009 deadline for a Cambodian bourse was little more than a pipe dream.

“Cambodia does  not have enough human resources and experts,” he said, adding that 2012 was a more realistic target.
In Channy said Acleda currently assesses its own assets and is unlikely to use NVAC until it establishes more branches across the country. “We do not reject the use of the service, but we trust our own assessment,” he said.

Likewise, Kong Triv, CEO of KT Pacific Group, said that he has not considered using the NVAC to evaluate his company’s assets. “We will wait and see how independent [it] is and how it builds confidence, and then we will consider it,” he said.

Sung Bonna admitted the NVAC was untested, but he said he was optimistic it will valuate properties accurately. “The association will seek training from foreign experts to make sure that the evaluation is internationally acceptable,” he said.

Cambodian Economic Association President Chan Sophal said Cambodia must have a property evaluation association that is fully independent, “otherwise companies could lose confidence”.

Extracted from Phnom Penh Post

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia’s inflation hit a record high of 22 percent in July, a government minister said Tuesday.

Planning Minister Chhay Than said high global prices of oil and food were to blame for the soaring rate.

“For July, the inflation rate was 22 percent. We can say that this is a record high,” Chhay Than told AFP.

“The inflation is caused by outside factors… the prices of oil, fuel and foods… the slowdown in the US economy,” he said.

“But if we compare with some neighbouring countries, it is not so high,” Chhay Than added.

The last published consumer price index (CPI) for January showed that inflation had reached 18.7 percent.

The government then stopped releasing monthly CPI reports in a move widely seen as an effort to hide spiralling consumer costs ahead of July elections, in which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party stormed to victory.

Officials denied that claim, saying there had been a disagreement over how to calculate the figure.

The government has now said it will resume publication of inflation figures later this week.

Cambodia in May doubled reserve requirements for private banks from 8.0 percent to 16.0 percent in a bid to curb money supply and stem rising inflation. The requirements took effect from July.

Extracted from http://afp.google.com

Sep 02, 2008 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) — TYHOF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — Yamaha Motor and Toyota Tsusho have agreed to establish a new company, Yamaha Motor Cambodia, to manufacture and market motorcycles with the aim of strengthening the foundation of the motorcycle business in the Cambodian market.
The new company will begin operations on October 1, 2008, and its starting capital of $11.5 million will be invested 70% by Yamaha Motor, 20% by Toyota Tsusho and 10% by Cambodia’s Kong Nuon Import & Export.

Since March 2007, Asia Motors, a joint venture company between Toyota Tsusho and Kong Nuon Import & Export, has been assembling and marketing motorcycles with parts and components supplied as semi knocked-down kits by Thai Yamaha Motor.

Yamaha Motor Cambodia will begin operations by taking over operations at the Asia Motors factory and the Asia Motors sales network, and a 94,890sqm lot will be acquired in Phnom Penh’s special economic zone for the construction of a new factory.

The initial target for the new company is to expand motorcycle sales to 30,000 units valued at JPY4.2 billion by 2010, after the start of production at the new factory.

Extracted from http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1857446/

ew regulations are being introduced in Cambodia to protect property investors from fraud as the country’s real estate industry booms.Developers will be required to deposit a sum with the National Bank of Cambodia before being allowed to begin construction on a project under new regulations aimed at curbing fraud.

Payments from buyers will be held in this account with the aim of making the whole payment system more transparent and avoid developers using money illegally. It will also allow the government to intervene if developers fail to honour their contracts.

Real estate agents and developers will have to obtain a licence from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to sell projects and face legal action and even closure if they fail to do so.

The new rules mean developers and agents must comply by the end of September, a spokesman for the Economy and Finance ministry said.

There will be costs to the developers and agents involved but officials believe this will deter cowboys. ‘Real estate developers will be required to deposit 2% of the projects’ total value at the National Bank of Cambodia,’ said Mao Pao deputy chief of the ministry’s real estate division.

‘We will require a developer to open a housing development account at any commercial bank to enable buyers to make payments through the bank,’ he added.

The price for the new licences for selling or renting will depend on the scale of the project. Until now developers only needed a letter of permission from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and an investment licence from the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

There are estimated to be around 100 developers currently operating in Cambodia, many of them quite small. Some said the new regulations will be too costly and put them out of business.

Capital Phnom Penh has undergone an unprecedented construction boom over the last several years, including a number of residential and commercial mega-projects that are set to transform the capital from a sleepy backwater.

Extracted from http://www.propertywire.com

Border disputes between Cambodia and Thailand in this recent months has made people in both countries and the world try to track record the situation overtime. The dispute has been made first by Thailand side, where internal and political conflicts between ruling party and the opposition are emerging and worse. Today, conflicts which have made political chaos in Thailand become worse. Thailand is divided into fractions, but Cambodia is united. Cambodia is united over the border disputes as we can see that more and more people from ordinary people to high ranking officials are very active to donate foods and materials to soldiers at the Cambodia’s borders. They living inside and outside Cambodia share their money also to build roads at the borders. This is a good sign.

I think, this shall be encouraged and this unity should be long lasting. Cambodia united would bring development.

Phnom Penh - Cambodia is now officially home to the most dangerous roads in the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), officials said Thursday. Cambodian drivers are infamous for their blithe disregard for traffic laws, let alone the laws of physics, and as roads improve rapidly this combination resulted in an average of 4.5 people dying on the country’s roads every day, new statistics said - up from 3.7 in 2006. Figures by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport for the first half of 2008 show 3,870 documented traffic accidents, resulting in 6,839 people injured and 956 killed - nearly 15 per cent higher than the same time last year, with 833 fatalities reported. “We have to rush to educate people on the traffic laws,” the ministry’s secretary-general of transport, Ung Chun Hour, said by telephone. “And we have to enforce laws like helmets for motorbike riders and their passengers.”The ministry did not provide updated comparisons to other ASEAN countries, but said Cambodia’s fatality rate puts it ahead of much larger nations such as the Philippines, also known for road chaos. The government spent millions on driver education, taking out television and newspaper advertisements and setting up driver education centres, after the Asian Development Bank estimated accidents cost the country 3 per cent of its GDP in 2003 alone. However, poorly paid traffic police often lack the will to enforce the law and a “fine” of 1.25 dollars (or 2.50 dollars if the driver insists on a receipt) usually makes the traffic violation go away. Drunk driving is also rampant, but Cambodia has no more sophisticated ways of testing if a driver is over the limit than smelling his or her breath - usually after the accident.

Extracted from http://www.earthtimes.org

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel (69 pence) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

“Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family,” Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

“Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us.”

He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

Rats are also eaten widely in Thailand, while a state government in eastern India this month encouraged its people to eat.

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait)

Extracted from http://africa.reuters.com/odd/news/usnBKK279228.html 

Phnom Penh - A delegation from the Brunei Finance Ministry met with Cambodian Finance Minister Keat Chhon to discuss importing Cambodian rice and seed, local media reported Wednesday. The delegation, headed by Brunei Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Dato Paduka Haj Ali Apong, had not reached any firm agreements on the amount of rice and seed Brunei would require or how soon, but that discussions went well, according to Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper. The delegation is also scheduled to meet the Cambodian commerce and agriculture ministers as well as the Rural Development Bank and the Rice Millers Association of Cambodia, the paper said. It did not state a scheduled duration for the visit. Cambodia has said it aims to be a major rice exporter in the region, matching the current leader Thailand by 2015, and in recent months has negotiated with African nations, including Guinea, as well as Gulf states Kuwait and Qatar. Brunei is a fellow of Cambodia in the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations and has already provided advice on tapping potential offshore oil reserves. Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah visited Cambodia in April last year and the two countries have strong bilateral ties.

Extracted from http://www.earthtimes.org