Investment Hightlights

Cambodia Weekly Financial News
July 10~14, 2023

10 July 2023

CamGSM stock ‘in high demand’

Locally-owned telecoms provider CamGSM Plc’s shares have been quite actively traded since their late-June debut on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), closing last week at 3,000 riel ($0.73), soaring by 32 per cent against their issue price. The price for CamGSM shares (ticker symbol: CGSM) then jumped by 10 per cent on July 10 to close at 3,300 riels, for a full market cap of 6.466 trillion riel, with 111,724 shares traded worth 368.689 million riel, versus the daily average of 221,792 shares worth 578.607 million riel. CamGSM on June 27 listed its Class A (voting) common stock on the CSX’s Main Board as part of plans to grow the company, bring cutting-edge technologies to the Kingdom, and support the government’s digital-economy ambitions. This comes after CamGSM, which trades as Cellcard, announced the completion of the month-long initial public offering (IPO) from May 2 to June 7 reporting that it sold 9,271,206 shares at a price of 2,270 riel, raising around 21 billion riel or $5.2 million.

Source : The Phnom Penh Post 

10 July 2023

FSA approves draft scheme proclamation

The Council of Non-Bank Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has approved in principle a draft proclamation to allow investors to trade collective investment scheme funds on a unit basis among traders in the financial market, said a press statement issued on Friday. The draft proclamation was approved on Wednesday at the video-conference meeting presided over by Aun Pornmoniroth, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of MEF and attended by senior officials of FSA who are the council’s members including Sou Socheat, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC). The statement pointed out that the draft proclamation on the issuance of the collective investment scheme fund units, which consists of eight chapters that are further divided into 52 articles, was issued to set requirements or conditions and procedures for the issuance and operations of funds after the issuance under SERC regulation.

Source : Khmer Time   

11 July 2023

Cambodia and Singapore roll out SME-support fintech plan

Cambodia and Singapore have launched a Financial Transparency Corridor (FTC) initiative intended to provide the necessary digital infrastructure for cross-border financial services and trade between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in either country. The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the initiative, according to a July 11 joint statement issued by the two central banks. “Under the FTC, a Singapore financial institution, in assessing financing support for a Singapore SME buyer’s cross-border business with a Cambodian SME seller, can utilise the FTC to acquire trusted information from a Cambodian financial institution on the Cambodian SME seller. “Similarly, a Cambodian financial institution supporting a Cambodian seller can obtain trusted information on the Singapore buyer through the FTC.

Source : The Phnom Penh Post   

11 July 2023

Insightful guide on investing in Cambodia launched

In an effort aimed at attracting more Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into Kingdom, an insightful guide highlighting laws and incentives for investors was launched yesterday at Rosewood Hotel. The ‘Handbook on Investing in Cambodia’ was jointly launched by Nicholas Moore, Australian Special Envoy for Southeast Asia, Sok Chenda Sophea, Minister Attached to Prime Minister and Secretary-General of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). The event was also attended by many high-ranking government officials and diplomats. The handbook jointly developed by the CDC and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides in-depth details on Cambodia’s New Investment Law, its sub-decrees and clauses apart from various sectors that offer huge potential for investments. 

Source : Khmer Time 

12 July 2023

H1 China exports rise one-sixth to $0.7B on Feb-Jun momentum

Cambodia exported $713.276 million worth of goods to mainland China in the first half (H1) of 2023, up 16.64 per cent from $611.542 million in 2022H1 and up 13.38 per cent from $629.09 million in 2022H2, in growth fueled by five consecutive months of year-on-year increases from February to June, according to Customs (GDCE). Mainland China remained Cambodia’s biggest goods trading partner for the six-month period, representing 25.97 per cent, 6.22 per cent and a colossal 44.48 per cent of the Kingdom’s totals for international trade ($23.694B), exports ($11.464B) and imports ($12.229B), respectively, provisional GDCE data compiled in “International Merchandise Trade Statistics” bulletins show. The Kingdom’s imports from the Chinese mainland accounted for 88.41 per cent of that, reaching $5.440 billion, up 1.22 per cent year-on-year from $5.374 billion and up 7.27 per cent half-on-half from $5.071 billion.

Source : The Phnom Penh Post 

12 July 2023

NBC inks deal with UnionPay to expand cross-border payment to China

National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese card payment firm UnionPay International (UPI) to enable users of mobile banking services to make payments with KHQR codes of the NBC-developed Bakong system in China, said NBC official. The MoU was signed by NBC Director General of Central Banking Kimty Kormoly and Vice President of UPI Larry Wang, in the presence of Chea Serey, Deputy Governor of NBC at the central bank’s headquarters located in Sen Sok district, Phnom Penh and other relevant senior central banking officials. The MoU allows experts of NBC to develop technical parts of the cross-border payment, while UPI will work with WeChat Pay and AliPay to officially enable banking and financial service consumers to procedure this transaction by the end of this year.

Source : Khmer Time    

13 July 2023

CDC approves four projects worth over $26M

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has approved four new projects with a total investment of over $26 million in Sihanoukville, Kampong Speu and Phnom Penh, said a press release by the Ministry of Information, recently. The Cambodian Investment Board of CDC decided to issue project registration certificates to four new companies Runzhimao Health Co., Ltd., Litesun Homedecor Co., Ltd., Bright Plastic (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. and Hen Yang (Cambodia) Apparel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The investments from the four companies will add up to $26.7 million and together they will generate nearly 3,500 jobs for local people, the CDC added.

Source : Khmer Time  

14 July 2023 

Cambodia collects 58% of planned 2023 tax revenue in first six months

In the first half of this year, the General Department of Taxation (GDT) of Cambodia has collected over $2.072 billion in tax, which is about 58 per cent of the projected tax revenue for 2023 as per the financial management law. The figure was revealed by Kong Vibol, director-general of the GDT, during the July 13 meeting to review the six-month tax collection performance. In his address, he reported that the GDT had collected tax revenue of $2.072 billion in the first six months of the year, or approximately 58.02% of the target outlined in the 2023 financial management law. Additionally, in June, the GDT collected $245.68 million, accounting for roughly 6.88 per cent of the target. "Considering the tax revenue situation for the first half of this year, we expect to implement tax revenue management for 2023 that could result in a total collection of about $3.571 billion," GDT added. GDT press release stated that for 2023, Cambodia's economy (GDP) is projected to achieve a growth rate of around 5.6 per cent. The tax revenue collection is expected to reach around 105 per cent of the target by the end of the year.

Source : The Phnom Penh Post  

14 July 2023 

China strengthens investment in Cambodia

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has announced that it approved 113 new investment and expansion projects with combined registered capital of about $1.1 billion in the first half of this year, of which nearly 65% came from Chinese investors. According to CDC’s report, local investors accounted for nearly 20% of the registered capital in the six-month period. Next on the list of nationalities were Vietnam (6.64%), Seychelles (3.31%), Thailand (1.77%), the Republic of Korea (1.70%), Samoa (0.60%), the US (0.49%), Singapore (0.18%) and Sweden (0.07%). These undertakings are expected to generate about 122,000 new jobs, the report said, adding that the industrial sector accounted for the most projects, at 102 (90.27%), followed by agriculture and agro-industry, tourism, and infrastructure.

Source : Khmer Time