Economy and commerce

USAID kicked off a seven-year program to guarantee over US$10 million in microfinance loans to the agricultural sector on September 20, as part of a new US effort to offer greater economic support to the country. The US development agency has signed a multi-bank loan portfolio ...

PEA ENCOM International Co on September 21 announced its collaboration with Fah Chai Engineering, a provider of solar power systems, to offer such systems via its PEA Shops nationwide, focusing on customers of its parent, the Provincial Electricity Authority. PEA Encom, a state enterprise, has been authorised ...

The bank of Thailand will open the way for financial-technology product experimentation under its regulatory “sandbox” in the first quarter of next year, in the hope that fintech developers applying to participate can receive licences quickly once they decide to commercialise their products or services. ...

Nearly 750,000 foreign nationals arrived in Myanmar through air and sea ports during the first seven months of 2016, according to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. Industry observers predict another 500,000 will visit the country as the tourist season resumes in mid-October, pushing total numbers for ...

Consultants and experts have recommended that Vietnam take measures to prevent foreign-invested projects from using outdated technologies, causing pollution and consuming national resources. First, oil refineries. The projects licensed so far in the field have total capacity of up to 50-60 million tons. It is estimated ...

Greater connectivity between Japan and Cambodia is tightening economic links between the two countries while catalysing Japan’s ambitions to develop a chain of industrial complexes that cut a tract through the Lower Mekong region. Officials at Japan External Trade Organisation, Japan’s development agency, say Cambodia’s economic ...

“I think I want to be the first patient,” Prime Minister Hun Sen, who routinely leaves the country for medical care, said on September 20 at an opening ceremony for Cambodia’s first Japanese hospital, a state-of-the-art, $35 million facility in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district. Sunrise Japan ...

AirAsia has announced it will launch daily flights between Phuket and Siem Reap in November, becoming the first airline to link Thailand’s most popular beach destination to the city that serves as a gateway to Cambodia’s biggest tourist draw, Angkor Wat. The flights will be operated ...

A roadshow to Hong Kong this week to pitch Cambodia’s newly received duty-free access on travel goods to the US market was successful, but manufacturers have yet to sign concrete deals to establish new production lines here, a delegate of the returning business mission said. US ...

Many people are wondering what the point of the quarantine station on the Thanaleng side of the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge actually is, given that its spray station resembles a nursery water sprinkler. Ostensibly, the spray station, through which every vehicle entering Laos must pass, is to ...