DESPITE an 82 percent decrease in approved investments in the first seven months of this year, as reported by the Post last week, investments by fellow ASEAN member Singapore have risen more than three-fold to US$176.37 million, according to a recently released breakdown of the figures by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC).In terms of Cambodian investment, Singapore has now closed the gap with Thailand, the largest ASEAN investor in the Kingdom. Neighbouring Thailand invested $178 million in the first seven months - more than Singapore by less than $2 million - having registered approved investments that totalled $15.33 million more than the city-state over the same period last year.In the third week of this month, 21 companies from Singapore met with Cambodian officials in Phnom Penh to seek out investment opportunities."I believe that investment in Cambodia will enjoy better development in the future because now many investors are eyeing investment opportunities in the Kingdom," Yun Heng, deputy director of the Evaluation and Incentive Department of the Cambodia Investment Board, said Sunday.The Singaporean companies were mainly planning to target tourism and agriculture, he added.Lawrence Leow, deputy honourary secretary of the Singapore Business federation and chairman and CEO of Crescendas Group, told the Post during a visit to Cambodia on August 20 that his company would invest between $20 million to $30 million in the tourism sector.Also this month, Singapore's HLH Agriculture Cambodia Ltd announced that it had invested $15 million to grow red corn in the Kingdom. According to CDC data, agriculture and tourism remained the most promising sectors for outside investment.Overall, ASEAN raised its investment into Cambodia from $139.61 million in the first seven months of 2008 to $471.23 million for this year up to the end of July.Europe also dramatically increased its investment in the Kingdom, up from just $15.6 million in the first seven months of 2008 to $292.95 million during the same period this year. Having represented just 0.19 percent of Cambodia's total investment last year up to the end of July, in 2009, Europe accounted for 19.95 percent of total investment in the Kingdom up to the end of last month.France increased its investment in Cambodia from just $6.24 million for the whole of last year to $49.68 million in the first seven months of 2009."I believe that investment in Cambodia will enjoy better development in the future," said Yun Heng, referring specifically to ASEAN and European investors, notably Singapore and France.He added that European investors had been especially interested in the tourism sector.However, the figures showed that Cambodia's traditional investors had largely walked away following the onset of the global economic crisis.China, which made up nearly half of all investment in Cambodia in the first seven months of last year, decreased investment a staggering 93.34 percent from $3.89 billion to $258.98 million.Similarly, South Korean investment in Cambodia fell over the same period 91.11 percent from $1.23 billion to $109.25 million.
About Me
- Ngeth Chou
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Chou was born in 1979 in a remote area of Takeo province. His childhood had no dream and he grew without clear future objective, but he can reach new height today due to his unwavering effort. “Always explore opportunity for life, do not wait for opportunity to come to you” is his word to share with young Khmer generation. His teenager’s life was the most beautiful and challenging time and brought a lot of sweet memories, particularly friends at Bati high school. He is a Consultant/Microfinance Manager at USAID/HARVEST Program and a former Senior Management Team at one leading Microfinance Institution – namely AMK MFI. Prior to joining AMK, he was a Senior Business Analyst at Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC), a leading regional consulting firm, which actively involved in many consulting projects for the World Bank, UNDP, USAID/DAI, Israeli Embassy, AusAID and few leading MFIs on strategic advisory. He holds BA in Philosophy, BBA in Marketing, MBA in Management and Executive Education Program on Strategic Leadership for Microfinance from Harvard University, Boston, USA.
