Cambodian firm plans $100 million sugar plant JV

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Cambodia is in talks to build the country's biggest sugar plant, worth $100 million, as part of a joint venture with a French company that would help revive an industry that collapsed during the country's lengthy civil war.

The Mong Reththy Group plans to build the country's second sugar plant since the 1970s and hopes to produce 80,000 tonnes of annually within three years for export to European markets, the company's president told Reuters on Tuesday.

The project aims to take advantage of the European Union's "Everything But Arms" trade initiative, which allows tariff-free imports of any product except weapons from poor countries.

Mong Reththy, a Cambodian tycoon and senator, said his company was still in talks on the proposed joint venture with the French company, which he would not name until a deal was struck.

Cambodian companies lacked sufficient funds to go it alone and remained dependent on foreign investment, he said, adding now was a good time to start because of the high price of sugar cane.

"It's impossible to come up with $100 million. Cambodians can't do it alone, there needs to a partnership with foreigners," Mong Reththy told Reuters when discussing the plant, to be built in the northern province of Stung Treng.

The group's deputy director, Mok Chansothea, said clearance of the 10,000 hectare (24,710 acre) site, around 500 km (310 miles) north of the capital, Phnom Penh, would begin on Feb. 22 and planting would start in June.

Last month Cambodia, a net importer of sugar, launched a sugar plant in the southern province of Koh Kong, the first sugar facility to operate in 40 years.

The plant, worth $90.6 million, is a joint venture between Cambodia's Koh Kong Sugar Industry Company Limited, Thailand's Khon Kaen Sugar and Taiwan's Vewong Corp, according to local media.

The two projects would produce a combined 160,000 tonnes of sugar for export, Mong Reththy said.

That is significantly less than Thailand, the world's second-biggest exporter with over 5 million tonnes a year, but the new plants are a sign of the efforts being made by the impoverished country to boost exports and reduce its reliance on neighbouring countries.

(Editing by Martin Petty)

Mong Reththy's pigs flew to Cambodia, even dignitaries from Hun Sen's govt went to greet them

United Kingdom-Yorkshire pigs arrive in Cambodia

18/01/2009
FarmingUK.com

PIGS MIGHT FLY, indeed they did from Yorkshire last week.

The Yorkshire company ACMC Ltd, who specialize in breeding genetically advanced pigs, flew the first consignment of pigs to Cambodia last week, as the first shipment in a multi million pound deal.

There was a Royal reception for the pigs at Phnom Penh Airport in Cambodia, complete with garlands of flowers and dignitaries from the highest level of government.

This was the start of a 20 year franchise agreement, and is the first time Cambodia have imported such a large number of breeding pigs into the country.

The pigs including ACMC’s specially created Meidan breed, plus Volante and Vantage sows and boars, which will form the nucleus of a herd in a new 5 hectare pig unit that plans to fatten over 20,000 pigs per week.

The CEO of the MRT Group, Stephen Curtis said, " This is a massive boost for the company and the British pig industry, which has come out of 10 very bad years".

The company is currently exporting pigs to Thailand, China, the Philippines and Cambodia.

First consignment of British breeding pigs exported to Cambodia by Yorkshire firm

Friday 16th January 2009
Darlington & Stockton Times (UK)

THE first consignment of British breeding pigs ever exported to Cambodia has been delivered by a Yorkshire-based international breeding company.

The £1m deal will see ACMC of Driffield deliver a total of 600 genetically- advanced breeding pigs as part of a 20-year franchise agreement.

ACMC’s special Meidam and Volante damlines and Vantage sirelines, plus boars representing all three breeds, have been sent to a new £3.3m unit specially set up on a five-hectare site.

It will be home to a nucleus herd and has been established by a new company – M’s Pig ACMC (Cambodia) Ltd – set up by the Mong Reththy Group, a large organisation with interests in civil engineering, construction and shipping as well as agriculture.

ACMC has a shareholding in the new company.

The self-contained breeding unit will eventually supply enough commercial AC1 sows to produce 1.1m slaughter pigs annually and provide employment for thousands of people in rural areas.

The project will also involve a feed-milling operation with a projected output of 330,000 tonnes a year and a slaughter/processing plant producing Premium Quality Pork for Cambodia’s population, which is expected to grow from 13m to 16m by 2015.

Stephen Curtis, ACMC chairman, negotiated the agreement following a visit in April last year.

Due to the complexity of the order, the stock had to be specially bred to provide the necessary blood-lines.

Cambodia currently imports 2,000 pigs a day from neighbouring countries – principally Thailand – to meet domestic demand.

It urgently wants to increase its own output through an education project designed to improve production methods and health standards, and use improved stock.

Interestingly, Cambodia will be importing genes, albeit much modified, originally sourced from the Far East.

The prolific Chinese Meishan was brought into Europe more than 20 years ago and ACMC used those genetics to create a new breed, the Meidam, to boost productivity.

The Meidam is selected with 16 functioning teats and produces 15pc more milk than conventional European lines, enabling it to rear many more pigs.

In Europe, the AC1 has been shown to produce up to 30 pigs per sow a year.

ACMC believes it is the only company that has managed to incorporate this ability while maintaining high-quality lean carcases in the finishing generation. This is what appealed to the Cambodians.

By special licence, the breeding stock was transhipped through Bangkok airport. Their arrival – seen by the Cambodian media as an historical event – was attended by Dr Oknha Mong Reththy, chief executive of the MRT Group, Stephen Curtis, chairman of ACMC, Steve Buckley director of investment from the UK Embassy in Bangkok, and Sry Thamarong, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister of Cambodia.

Cambodia sees biofuel promise in jatropha

Filed from Singapore
9/24/2008
Energy Current

STUNG TRENG, CAMBODIA: Cambodia-based process rubber and crude palm oil exporter Mong Reththy Co. plans to grow jatropha on more than 100,000 hectares (24,711 acres) of land in the country. Mong Reththy has started a pilot project on six hectares (15 acres) of land in the Stung Treng province.

The pilot project produced eight tonnes (8.8 tons) of jatropha oil per hectare, company chief Mong Reththy said during an interview with the Phnom Penh Post. Mong Reththy expects the oil to fetch as much as US$720 per tonne overseas.

Mong Reththy entered into a joint venture with UK-based D1 Oils Plc last year to grow jatropha on 100,000 hectares (24,711 acres) of land in Stung Treng. The agreement is subject to the success of the pilot programme.

Mong Reththy said the company has also roped in a South Korean firm to assist in planting the crops. The company will receive US$400 million in funding to develop the plantations and build a biodiesel plant in the province.

The government of Cambodia sees biofuel from jatropha as an alternative source of energy that can be tapped to reduce the country's oil dependency and alleviate poverty among rural communities.

Cambodia to Open Bourse in 2009; Urges Corporate Transparency

By Netty Ismail and Yoolim Lee

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia plans to open its first stock exchange and start a corporate bond market in the fourth quarter of 2009 in a bid to attract foreign funds to Southeast Asia's second-poorest nation, a government official said.

Six to 10 companies, with a combined market value of $200 million to $400 million, including Sokimex Group, the country's biggest petroleum company, and Acleda Bank Plc, its largest bank, will likely be listed on the exchange within a year of it being set up, Kao Thach, head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance's financial market division, said late yesterday.

Cambodia, which abolished money under the Khmer Rouge three decades ago, is seeking to lure foreign funds as economic growth slows after peaking at 13.5 percent in 2005. The government will need to improve the legal system and urge Cambodian companies to open their accounting records to investor scrutiny, said Agost Benard, who covers the country for Standard & Poor's.

``Given all the uncertainties and lack of transparency, at least initially, it will probably be the local people who are willing to take the punt,'' said Benard, associate director at the rating company in Singapore. ``International investors who expect higher standards of disclosure and transparency will take a wait-and-see attitude.''

The government last year asked more than 400 companies, most of which are family businesses, to get their financial statements audited to improve transparency, Thach, 34, said in an interview in Phnom Penh.

Local Rules

``Cambodia has been effectively cut off from the rest of the developed world for the past three decades, so a lot of business has been done based on unwritten local rules,'' said Marvin Yeo, co-founder of Frontier Investment & Development Partners in Phnom Penh.

Frontier Investment, a private-equity fund, is raising $250 million to put in the second-poorest of 10 Southeast Asian nations, and will cash out of some of its planned investments through listings on the exchange, Yeo said.

The listing requirements in Cambodia will likely be modeled on the Kosdaq, South Korea's second stock market that was set up 12 years ago for small- and medium-sized firms as well as venture start-ups, Thach said.

Companies seeking a Kosdaq listing need to be in business for at least three years with minimum paid-in capital of 500 million won ($495,417) and debt-to-equity ratio of less than 150 percent of the industry mean. Venture capital firms have less stringent requirements under the South Korean government's program to prop up smaller technology companies.

Raising Capital

South Korea's exchange is helping Cambodia set up its bourse. The Cambodian government, which will likely own at least 51 percent of the planned venture, and the operator of the Seoul-based bourse, Korea Exchange Inc., will begin discussions next month to decide on their shareholdings, Thach said.

The Cambodia Securities and Exchange Commission will likely be set up as early as September, Thach said.

``They're nowhere near getting the rules together, the criteria for listing, transparency, proper accounting,'' said John Brinsden, vice chairman of Acleda Bank, the largest Cambodian bank with 209 branches in 24 provinces.

Acleda Bank will ``need a lot of capital over the next few years'' as it opens more offices in Cambodia and neighboring countries including Laos, Brinsden said in Phnom Penh.

Sokimex, which has monopoly rights to ticket sales at the Angkor Wat ancient temple ruins in Siem Reap, plans to expand its hotel and resorts business, Chief Executive Officer Sok Kong said on the company's Web site.

Transparency Concerns

Other Cambodian companies considering initial public offerings include Canadia Bank Plc, Union Commercial Bank Plc and Mong Rithy Group, which has palm oil plantations in Sihanoukville, Thach said.

Royal Group, which owns the country's biggest mobile-phone operator and has a partnership with Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Cambodia, will consider a listing ``in the future,'' Chairman Kith Meng said in an interview in Phnom Penh.

Companies can sell shares or bonds in Cambodia's currency, the riel, or the dollar, which will mitigate any foreign exchange risk for international investors, Thach said.

Still, ``the biggest concern would be the credibility of the companies or their reporting standards,'' said Frontier Investment's Yeo. Transparency International, a private monitoring agency based in Berlin, ranked Cambodia 162nd of 179 countries in its annual report on perceptions of corruption last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Netty Ismail in Singapore
nismail3@bloomberg.net.

British investors interested in pig rearing, bio-fuel in Cambodia

September 18, 2007

A group of British investors have expressed interest in cooperative investment in pig-rearing and jatropha growing in Cambodia, local media reported on Tuesday.

The investors showed their interest after visiting some agro- industrial farms in Sihanoukville Municipality and Koh Kong province on Sunday, reported Cambodian-language newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey.

British Ambassador David Reader said during the visit that he had brought two important British companies to observe the sites, operated by the Cambodian Mong Reththy Group. In the future many other UK firms will arrive in the kingdom to cooperate with the group for the development of the nation's agricultural and agro-industrial sectors.

Stephen J. Curtis, the executive chairman of ACMC, an East Yorkshire-based pig breeding and pig genetics company, said that his company was interested in cooperating with the Mong Reththy Group as Cambodia has strong potential to provide favorable conditions for industrial-scale pig-rearing.

Mong Reththy, director of the Mong Reththy Group, said that foreign investors seemed very keen on pig rearing and jatropha planting in Cambodia, and his company is ready to work with the foreign investors.

"If the plan can be operated, it would be a proud moment for the nation and its people," the director added.

Source: Xinhua

CPP Tycoon-Senator Mong Reththy's shady business deals

Mong Reththy receiving a medal from Hun Sen

Mong Reththy

Excerpt from Cambodia's Family Trees
Global Witness
June 2007

“It should be mentioned also that Mr Oknha [Mong Reththy] has been doing a great deal for the country” – Prime Minister Hun Sen at the opening of Oknha Mong Port, 2004

“I will bulldoze the homes of [residents] who refused money” – Mong Reththy commenting on his demolition of the Royal University of Fine Arts campus, 2005.

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Mong Reththy's selective memory

Global Witness wrote to both Mong Reththy and Hun Sen to ask them for their comment on the reports of drug trafficking. As this report went to print, Hun Sen had not replied, however Mong Reththy’s lawyer responded by e-mail as follows: “We have received the inquiry from your office related to Mr Mong Reththy and he is pleased to receive it. Mr Mong has asked us to inform you that he is unable to give Global Witness a written statement BUT he is willing to interview with a Global Witness representative in Phnom Penh or in London. If you have any further inquiry, please do not hesitate to contact us.”

Global Witness accepted the invitation to take part in an interview with Mong Reththy, and proposed a tape-recorded discussion over the telephone. At the time of the report’s publication, Mong Reththy’s lawyer had not responded to this proposal.
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Mong Reththy is one of Cambodia’s most prominent tycoons and a close ally of Hun Sen. In 2006 he became a senator for the CPP.

Plantations, commodities trading, cattle farming and real estate development are just some of Mong Reththy’s interests. His eclectic business portfolio has also encompassed illegal logging in Bokor National Park and an economic land concession in Stung Treng which at 100,852 ha is more than ten times the size permitted by the Land Law. This ELC is sited on the cancelled Macro Panin logging concession in violation of the sub-decree on Forest Concession Management. Chan Sarun signed off on the deal in November 2001, three months after the passage of Land Law limiting ELCs to 10,000 ha. When Global Witness wrote to Chan Sarun to question the legality of his decision, the minister responded with the argument that the government was obliged to give Mong Reththy the concession because he had asked for it before the Land Law was ratified. In December 2006 Global Witness received reports from a human rights worker that Mong Reththy’s company had begun clearing parts of the Green Sea ELC close to the Lao border.

Mong Reththy has also been at the forefront of the recent rash of land-swap deals in which ownership of public buildings has been transferred to tycoons with links to the CPP. His land-swap acquisitions have included Cambodia’s Supreme Court, Appeals Court, Phnom Penh Municipal Court and Justice Ministry buildings. He has also flattened the historic Royal University of Fine Arts campus in Phnom Penh and forcibly evicted local residents in order to make way for a development he has named ‘China Town’.

The government’s decision to give the green light for Oknha Mong Port demonstrates considerable confidence in a man previously subject to allegations of drug trafficking. Claims that there was more to Mong Reththy’s import-export business than met the eye first surfaced in April 1997, when officials in Sihanoukville seized seven tons of marijuana from containers labeled as rubber. Newspapers reported that documents taken during the seizure bore stamps and seals of a company belonging to Mong Reththy. In media interviews Mong Reththy denied any involvement.

Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior Ho Sok, a member of the CPP’s Funcinpec coalition partner, led the investigation into Mong Reththy’s alleged connection with the marijuana. His announcement that a court was preparing an arrest warrant for the tycoon prompted Hun Sen to comment that anyone attempting to arrest Mong Reththy had better “wear a steel helmet”. In July 1997, during the coup in which Hun Sen ousted his Funcinpec co-prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Ho Sok was detained by CPP forces and murdered. The investigation into Mong Reththy’s dealings proceeded no further.

Mong Reththy has continued to deny any connection with drug trafficking. In an interview with a local newspaper in 2004, he said “I was accused of planting and smuggling marijuana. I have tried to ignore it. I have never even smoked a cigarette in my life, so how could I do business like that? I only do what is legal”.

Global Witness wrote to both Mong Reththy and Hun Sen to ask them for their comment on the reports of drug trafficking. As this report went to print, Hun Sen had not replied, however Mong Reththy’s lawyer responded by e-mail as follows: “We have received the inquiry from your office related to Mr Mong Reththy and he is pleased to receive it. Mr Mong has asked us to inform you that he is unable to give Global Witness a written statement BUT he is willing to interview with a Global Witness representative in Phnom Penh or in London. If you have any further inquiry, please do not hesitate to contact us.”

Global Witness accepted the invitation to take part in an interview with Mong Reththy, and proposed a tape-recorded discussion over the telephone. At the time of the report’s publication, Mong Reththy’s lawyer had not responded to this proposal.

After more than a decade of invasion, and a decade of temporary retreat, VN invasion in Cambodia starts anew ... under Hun Sen's regime invitation

08/05/2007
Cambodia inviting for Vietnamese investors

VNE (Hanoi)

VietNamNet Bridge – While competition in many areas is fierce in the domestic market, some companies in HCM City have begun to approach a neighbouring market – Cambodia.

The Dong Thien Joint Stock Company has nearly stopped its business in Vietnam to focus on a sand exploiting project in Cambodia. Its branch in Cambodia has been set up already and will become operational this June.

Assistant to Dong Thien’s General Director, Nguyen Phuc Son, said that the VND20 billion (US$1.25 million) sand exploiting project in Cambodia was the biggest one of Dong Thien to date. The company can exploit up to 7,000 cu.m of sand each week to export to Vietnam.

“Sand in Cambodia meets Vietnam’s standards for construction sand. The local market is now short of this material so the market for sand is extremely large,” said Mr Phuc.

Only one hour by bus from HCM City, Cambodia has become an attractive destination for many companies in the city thanks to its low labour cost, spacious land, and open market.

Twenty-seven Vietnamese companies have opened branches, representative offices and invested in projects in Cambodia. This number is double compared to two years ago. Main fields for Vietnamese investment are health, agriculture, transport, telecom, and hydro power production.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has recently licenced the Saigon Trade Corporation (Satra) to form a joint venture with Sokimex Group to build big plants to process cashews and seafood, to breed cows and to build a supermarket in Cambodia.

Four travel companies, the Saigon Mekong Joint Stock Company, Saigontourist, Cho Lon Tourist, and Fiditour, have cooperated with Cambodian partners to bring tourists from HCM City to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap by land, air and water.

The US$10.5 million Cho Ray-Phnom Penh hospital project is underway, in which the Saigon Health Investment Joint Stock Company is contributing two-thirds of the capital and the remaining is coming from Cambodian partners. The representative office of this joint venture has been set up and is waiting for an investment licence from the Cambodian government.

However, investment in Cambodia still faces many difficulties. A project between the Viet Nga Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company and the Mong Reththy Group to establish a joint venture to build a road from the hub of Phnom Penh to Cambodia’s international airport in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) was canceled at the last minute because of some problems such as site clearance.

Nguyen Van Hung, representative of a rubber company in the southern province of Dong Nai which has a rubber growing project in Cambodia, also had to abandon his project due to problems associated with site clearance.

Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of the southern province of Tay Ninh, Tran Luu Quang, complained that even Vietnamese agencies caused problems for companies investing in Cambodia. He gave an example that many companies in Tay Ninh that want to grow cashews and cassavas in Cambodia but when they import cashews and cassavas to Vietnam as materials they face difficulties in customs formalities.

“Because of high import tax rates and no preferences, many companies are discouraged and leave their projects unfinished,” Mr Quang said. He said he hoped that relevant bodies like the Ministries of Trade and Finance and customs agencies would address these problems.

Source: VNE