Cambodia's Financial Environment

Cambodia Weekly Financial News
April 15 ~ 19, 2024

17 April 2024

Insurance premiums are down 0.38% in February 2024 

The insurance sector in Cambodia recorded $27.04 million in gross premium in February this year, down 0.38 percent compared to February 2023, a report from the Insurance Regulator of Cambodia (IRC) showed. The gross premium of the general insurance market in February this year increased by 0.38 percent to $10.51 million, from $10.52 million in February 2023, read a report released on April 10.Life insurance premiums total $16.52 million in February 2024, the report said. The total amount of claims paid out by insurers during the period decreased by 1.26 percent to $4.29million from $4.34 million in February last year. Cambodia’s insurance market comprises 18 general insurers, 14 life insurers, seven micro-insurance companies, and one reinsurance firm. The insurance industry recorded a gross premium of $342 million in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent compared to $331.8 million in 2022, according to the IRC’s report.
Source : Khmer times 

17 April 2024

Cambodia’s trade with ASEAN up 19% in Q1   

Cambodia’s trade with other ASEAN countries rose by 18.64 percent to $4.32 billion in the first quarter of this year, a report from the Ministry of Commerce showed. Cambodia exports agricultural products, clothes, footwear, travel goods, electronics, and bicycles to ASEAN countries, whereas it imports food items, beverages, electrical and electronic equipment, construction materials, agricultural machinery, and vehicles from others in the region. The ministry said that notable export of Cambodia’s products to Brunei include milled rice and tyre products, while milled rice and solar panels are mainly exported to Indonesia. Cambodia’s export of paddy rice to Vietnam is worth $571 million, cashew nut $274 million, cassava $264 million, rubber $111 million, fresh mango $28 million, and refined sugar $18.9 million, according to the report.

Source : Khmer times

18 April 2024

Women get paid 11 percent less in public sector in Cambodia 

Women get paid 11 percent less than men when working in the public sector, according to a recent World Bank report. This gender discrimination varies with each sector of the government. For instance, women get paid 30.7 percent less than men in public administration in the government sector. This gender gap is much less pronounced in education. Women employees in government schools and colleges get paid 7 percent less than their male colleagues. It is only in public healthcare that women get a premium 9.8 percent higher wages than men. And this wage gap is more surprising because – public sector employees are quite well paid in Cambodia. Compared to its regional peers in ASEAN, Cambodia pays higher wages than other countries. And Government employees on average get 19 percent higher salaries than their counterparts in the private sector

Source : Khmer Times

18 April 2024

Sereys says KHR available for exchange at Tokyo’s airport 

Khmer Riel (KHR) is now available to exchange at Travelex’s counter in Tokyo, said Chea Serey, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). This is the second time the first in Singapore in October 2023 that NBC and Travelex International Limited (Travelex) have joined hands on the trade list in foreign airports. On Tuesday, Kimty Kormoly, Director General of the Central Banking Directorate of NBC took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony to add ‘KHR’ to the currency trading chart of Travelex at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. According to NBC announcement, “The introduction of the first riel trading in Japan aimed at facilitating Japanese tourists who are coming to visit the Kingdom and encouraging more foreign tourists to visit Cambodia by making the exchange procedure more convenient than ever.”

Source : Khmer Times

18 April 2024

Record rise in Khmer New Year tourist 

Cambodia witnessed an unprecedented rise in tourist visits to various resorts and destinations in the four days of the Khmer New Year. The report said of the total tourists, 110,320 were foreign tourists. The ministry said in the report that the four-day KYN holiday allowed people to visit more resorts in provinces, resulting in a sharp rise in tourist footfalls. The ministry’s Secretary of State and spokesman Top Sopheak noted that the number of domestic and international tourists during the holidays went beyond the ministry’s prediction and even surpassed the pre covid 19 pandemic levels. The ministry concluded that the unprecedented number of visitors during the KNY was due to the organization of a variety of entertainment events  in each province and also because of the peace prevailing in the country that allowed more people to travel nationwide.” This domestic tourist movement during the long holiday has created huge economic  benefits to the country.” Sopeak told Khmer Times. 

Source: Khmer Times

19 April 2024 

Cambodia’s trade with Vietnam rises nearly 25% 

Neighboring Vietnam has consolidated its position as the second biggest trade partner of Cambodia after China with trade volume between the two rising by 24.5 percent to reach $2.32 billion in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year, according to data released by the General Department of Customer and Excise( GDCE) recently. Vietnam is also Cambodia’s second biggest export market after the US with $ 1.39 billion in Q1, an impressive growth of 53 percent year on year Cambodia mostly exports agriculture products such as cashew nuts, cassava, coconuts, and rubber to Vietnam. Cambodia also imports heavily from Vietnam,in fact, the second most with Q1 data showing  $934 million worth of goods bought from the neighboring country. Cambodia’s imports from China constitute the biggest chunk at $2.84 billion in Q1.  Thus, Cambodia has a $2.47 billion trade deficit with China but it enjoys a surplus of $458 million in trade with Vietnam.

Source: Khmer Times

19 April 2024

The kingdom’s exports to the EU were up 11.9 percent in Q1

Cambodia exported $903 million worth of goods to the  European Union up 11.9 percent from the  $807 million in the same period last year, a report of the General Department of Customs and Excise revealed. The Kingdom’s import from the EU amounted to $171.4 million, a year-on-year decrease of 19.4 percent from $212 million, read the report. Cambodia mainly exports textiles, footwear, bicycles, foodstuffs, milled rice, and other agricultural products to the EU under the trade preference Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme. As Cambodia is on track to graduate from least developed country(LDC) status in 2029 and when it achieves its target goals to become a higher middle-income country by 2030, the existing EBA scheme will be lost. The European Union has reiterated its commitment to support Cambodia 's graduation from the least developed country status, saying that it is ready to talk with the  Cambodian side on the new trade scheme, the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus( GSP+)

Source: Khmer times

19 April 2024

Cambodia-ASEAN trade volume reaches over 8 billion USD in 3 month of this year 

In the first three months of 2024, the trade volume between Cambodia and the ASEAN countries reaches 8,364.79 million US dollars. This is according to a report from the  Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia. According to the report, in the first three months of 2024, Cambodia exported 2,695.65 million US dollars to ASEAN countries and imported 5,669.14 million US dollars. This is an increase of 14.72 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023. A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said that most of Cambodia’s exports were clothing, footwear,bags,travel accessoires, and groceries, He said that this number is still well maintained. 

Source: The Cambodia China times

19  April 2024

 Kingdom, Australia reaffirm cooperation in core area 

Buoyed by the recent spike in the two-way trade, the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Australian Government recently reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen cooperation in key areas including investment, tourism, and agriculture while tackling the development of the Mekong-Australia Partnership (MAP). During the discussion, the Cambodian and Australian envoys applauded the spike in two-way trade in recent years, leading to an agreement to continue enhancing further cooperation especially to strengthen trade and investment activities. They also expressed optimism over the launch of the ‘Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2024’, the establishment of a Trade and Investment Office at the Australian Embassy in Cambodia, and the recent ‘Air Services Agreement’ would contribute to boosting trade, investment, tourism and people ties. The Australian Deputy Secretary underlined his desire for a modern and mature partnership responding to current challenges as well as working on a draft of the ‘Development Partnership Plan’ (DPP) for the Kingdom from 2024-2028 to align with Australia’s new international development policy and the Pentagonal Strategy – Phase One of RGC, the statement added.

Source: Khmer Times

Lady Aegies Comment : To be continue...............