Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Cambodia National Assembly debates draft law of stock exchange

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian National Assembly here on Tuesday debated the draft law of stock exchange which has 10 chapters and 58 articles, in preparation for inauguration of stock exchange market in 2009.

"This law is a tool for collecting capital from the public to contribute to develop the economy, and Cambodia has to implement this law as member of the World Trade Organization," said Cheam Yeap, chairman for the Committee of Banking and Finance.

The law will be passed on Wednesday and "the Cambodian people who have habits of keeping their money in pillows and under mats can release their money to invest in this stock exchange market," he said.

Cambodia will set up corporate bonds, bond transaction and bond issuers for general people to buy and sell and the private sectors also can do it, he said.

Meanwhile, Keat Chhon, minister of Economy and Finance, said that for the first step from 2009 to 2015, the Cambodian government is the legal individual who will guarantee the public confidence in the security market.

This law allows the government to establish the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC), which is responsible for managing and checking the bond market, allowing for securities depository, licensing security firms and representative, resolving conflicts of investors' benefit, practicing bond market, developing stock exchange and processing securities market, he said.

SECC has nine members and the president of SECC is the minister of Economy and Finance.

"Now we have over 400 companies who have abilities to engage in stock exchange in Cambodia," he said, adding that "we have two more years to create confidence for national and international investors to invest in stock exchange market in Cambodia."

The government will first release 10-15 million U.S. dollars for infrastructure construction of stock exchange market and the South Korean government contributed about 1.8 million U.S. dollars for human resources training of the market, he added.

According to the draft bill, anyone who issues and sells bonds publicly without recognition of SECC will be put into jail for one to five years and fined 500 to 2,500 U.S. dollars.

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