Investment in Cambodian tourism reaches $354 mln in half year [-Another cooked up economic number?]

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The investment in Cambodia's tourism reached to about 354 million U.S. dollars in the first six months of this year and is a leading field that got the most investment, the local media said on Tuesday.

"Council for Development of Cambodia (CDC) approved about 1.22 billion U.S. dollars investment projects totally from private companies and 354 million U.S. dollars of the total is on tourism investment project," the khmer language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea quoted the document from CDC as saying.

Agricultural field stands second row after tourism with 323 million U.S. dollars and next field is industry with 303 million U.S. dollars.

In total, Cambodia received 53 investment projects for the first half year and tourism field attracted seven projects, while agri-industry has 12 projects, garment industry with 14 projects and three in energy projects.

If we consider on the projects for the first six month of this year, it increases four projects but the investment capital went down about 3.2 billion U.S. dollars compared with the same period of last year, it said, adding that for first six month of last year, Cambodia yielded with 49 investment projects with about 4.43billion U.S. dollar.

Cambodian Domestic Investment up 30 Pct in First Half of Year [-When will Hun Xen's regime stop cooking up fake numbers?]

2009-07-22
Xinhua

Approved investment by Cambodian companies in the Kingdom was up 30 percent to 223 million U.S. dollars in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Wednesday, citing latest figures.

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), the government's investment arm, said the figure for the first six months of 2008 was 172 million U.S. dollars.

Yun Heng, deputy director at the evaluation and incentive department at the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB), which is an arm of the CDC, said one reason behind the increase was greater local confidence in the stability of the Cambodian political environment.

Another reason cited is the increased sophistication of domestic investors, meaning that they are more confident about pursuing potential opportunities that present themselves.

"The growth in investment that we are seeing is (up and down) like a wave, and we are yet to enjoy stable growth," he said.

Yun Heng said most investment went into the tourism sector as investors put cash into projects, including hotels and guesthouses.

The president of the Cambodian Hotel Association, Luu Meng, said those opportunities had come about because construction materials had become cheaper and because more people are entering the hospitality industry, resulting in a stronger pool of workers.

"The result is that investment in the hotel sector by Cambodians is today worth more than hotel investment from overseas, " Luu Meng said, referring to the report's finding that total external and internal investment in the tourism sector for the first half of the year stood at 354 million U.S. dollars.