By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
29 December 2009
Cambodia has so far been unable to court long-term investors from the West and is instead looking toward Asia and neighboring countries, a leading economist said Monday.
“It seems we have not attracted big, developed countries, such as Japan, the US and the EU,” said Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association. “They may not have clear confidence in putting capital in for long-term investment.”
China, South Korea and Vietnam have shown more trust, he said. “In Vietnam, there is a imilar situation—climate, land, labor management—so they are confident that if they can do it in Vietnam, they can do it in our country,” he said.
Cambodia and Vietnam signed $6 billion in agreements and contracts at an investment conference in Ho Chi Minh City this weekend, in deals covering power generation, food processing, fertilizer production, rubber plantations and bauxite mining.
Vietnam has invested in more than 60 projects in Cambodia, spending nearly $1 million, and is the nation’s top agricultural investor. Trade between the two has also increased in recent years, reaching $1.7 billion in 2008, a 40 percent increase from the year before.
Investment in rubber plantations has increased rapidly, mostly along the border, where the government grants forestry concessions good for 99 years. The concessions have led to a number of clashes between companies and villagers who say they need to land for their livelihoods.
“It seems we have not attracted big, developed countries, such as Japan, the US and the EU,” said Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association. “They may not have clear confidence in putting capital in for long-term investment.”
China, South Korea and Vietnam have shown more trust, he said. “In Vietnam, there is a imilar situation—climate, land, labor management—so they are confident that if they can do it in Vietnam, they can do it in our country,” he said.
Cambodia and Vietnam signed $6 billion in agreements and contracts at an investment conference in Ho Chi Minh City this weekend, in deals covering power generation, food processing, fertilizer production, rubber plantations and bauxite mining.
Vietnam has invested in more than 60 projects in Cambodia, spending nearly $1 million, and is the nation’s top agricultural investor. Trade between the two has also increased in recent years, reaching $1.7 billion in 2008, a 40 percent increase from the year before.
Investment in rubber plantations has increased rapidly, mostly along the border, where the government grants forestry concessions good for 99 years. The concessions have led to a number of clashes between companies and villagers who say they need to land for their livelihoods.
19 comments:
Duh, the last two years, the US, EU, and Japan have been the worst economic down turn. No companies in these countries had the stomach to expand and invest in anything or anywhere. Please don't tell me you did not know that.
Hun Sen government's system cannot attract good companies from these countries to invest in Cambodia only bad and short term companies can come to invest in Cambodia. The investment system does not attract good investors to do business in Cambodia. it is corruption. IT is no law. The law is Hun Sen's words. If you pay him money to him and his party, you can do business in Cambodia. If you don't pay, you can not do business in Cambodia. Hun Sen does not respect law and business contract. It is up to him whatever he says is law. How can you expect good investors to do business here?
To do business in Cambodia, you must pay protection fee to CPP. You must alliance with CPP or you can't do it.
But those people die with over weight duh. And they have hundred plan to back them self up, good to see the beggar beg money from the downturn country which is the worse one?
Unable to attract investors from US, EU, Japan?
Dude, look at the economy of those guys. So high unemployment rate, let them pick themselves up from this mess first before they could come to invest in Cambodia. lol How are they gonna invest in Cambodia when they can't even pay their employee's salary on time?
I just learned 3 eggs costs 100
billion dollars in Zimbabwe currency.
Pretty soon it will cost 100 dollars
in US currency. Or one truck load
of worthless IOU. Convert some of your paper money into silver if you
are rich.
US is sinking economically. No amount
of bail outs will keep her from the
shark infested waters.
Countries with high values will not invest in Cambodia. They don't have the time to deal with bureaucracy, corruption, taint judicial system and most importantly the inconsistency in our governing. But guess what! These kind of investors are the high value ones for our economy in term of providing jobs, paying taxes, employee trainings and more... Because they know they are here for a long haul, so they tend to invest bigger unlike some Asian countries would just want to cream the crop and move on...
Western people don't like to kiss someone's ass to do a business. Show them the investment laws whether they like it or not. If you go shopping, most items are tagged with prices if you like to buy or not. Be simplicity and none complication. In Cambodia, everything has to be bargained or you will be ripped off. The investment laws in Cambodia is up to the riches and powerful to decide or you will end up broke sooner or later. The west still has money to invest in Cambodia but they like safety first and a legitimate law.
Having laws is not enough, you need to implement them too.
"het teh yeurng l'ngorng": our great mistake in the 90's was to accept the IMF/World Bank/ADB advice when we started to reform our economy. If we had done the opposite of what they told us at the time, we would have grown tons of gold in reserves, worth at least 5 times as much as it was then. Look at our National Bank of Cambodia now, the proud accumulator of increasingly worthless USD and USD securities at close to 0% interest. In the 90's the IMF went around telling poor countries such as ours to get rid of our gold reserves, but they themselves won't even sell their own huge hoards. bunch of hypocrites & mercenaries.. not one of them insto's foresaw the GFC.. and they used to lampoon Dr Mahathir of Malaysia for cautionning the emerging economies from opening up to hedge funds.. and who's got the last laugh now.. good on you Mahathir for kicking their derrieres at the right time!
hey, that's not the case, don't forget that the global economy is in crisis, so, naturally these countries may be slow to invest in cambodia. however, those who do take risk and see the opportunity will reap so eventually in cambodia. life in cambodia goes on with or without you, really. continue to wait until you die of old ages because cambodia is open and waits for no one, really. yes, there are more to cambodia than you and i! there are so many options now in cambodia e.go, there are china, south korea, the middle east, etc... so, there! god bless cambodia.
Under the present regulations , the investor only can own 49 % of the land where he may build his factory . Where can you find an Cambodian person to bring in the company the 51% ?? The foreign investor loose even the control over his investment and also all his technology . He must be very naive because he must believe to find a Khmer partner who bring the 51% capital and be willing to work . No way !
A.P.G. Germany
is that the fact? can someone who has an indepth knowledge of the current Cambodian investment laws enlighten us a bit? Please no bs'ing and don't spread falsehood. If you don't know the laws, don't say anything.
CPP members are too corrupt to attract investers.
Great countries companies will not invest their money in the countries governed by monkeys.
viet want to attract good investment from big country,they have to breed corruptions in Cambodia then viet expanse their territory through fake investment.
remember the philosophy of business, buy cheap sell for more, hello! wake up already! that said, of course, any business has the potential for risky, don't you get it?
those who are scare will be scare for the rest of living life. usually those who take risk are the ones to strike it rich sooner or later. you snooze, you lose! hello, it's your choice, really! we see how you are! is that your true color? cambodia will appreciate more when help arrived in the crisis moment, however, when there's no need, then don't come because by then, cambodia can't say honestly that we appreciate your assistance. a true friend will come to your assistance when you need them, not when you don't need them, hello! same concept here in cambodia. wake up already!
sometimes, rich people pretend to be poor like homeless to see if they can find a true friend. so always treat people nicely because one day you too might need help as well.
here's my favourite quote from Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged,1957) and it flies straight into our govt's face, and i'm not a SRP supporter: "When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
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