Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cambodia Electricity prices, rice and garment production

Electricity purchases shown local supply short

The Cambodian government has released its first breakdown of energy
purchasing from neighboring countries, highlighting what officials say
is the importance of domestic power production and continued
investment in the sector.

Of the 500 megawatts of power consumed each year by Cambodia, 42% was
bought from Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

The Kingdom's demand for power would increase by as much as 500%
during the next 15 years, reaching about 3,000 megawatts by 2025.

The high cost of electricity had stymied Cambodia's milled-rice and
garment-production capacity.

High priced power was the leading cause of un competitive milled rice exports.

The Kamchay hydroelectric dam-a $280 million investment by China's
Sinohydro Corporation is scheduled to open on December 6.

The dam, 112 meters high, will generate 193 megawatts a year.

Sinohydro has a 40-year contract to operate the dam.

(The Phnom Penh Post)

Monday, November 28, 2011

First leather furniture factory ever in Cambodia

DeCoro, one of the most highly renowned brands in the leather
furniture industry, has announced it is opening a new state-of-the-art
manufacturing facility in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Headed up by Chief Executive Officer Luca Ricci, DeCoro Cambodia Co.,
Ltd. will again focus on producing the finest quality, popular-priced
Italian-style furniture for global consumers. The new facility will
employ approximately 1,000 workers and is now fully operational.

DeCoro is the first leather furniture factory ever in Cambodia. In
addition to the jobs and general benefits it will create in the
country's capital and beyond, the company is making a direct effort to
improve the social welfare of Cambodian children by partnering with
Amici dei Bambini Association or Ai.Bi. (http://www.aibi-us.org/), a
non-governmental organization (NGO) registered in Italy and active in
25 countries including Cambodia. Ai.Bi. is dedicated to finding a
family for every child who lives in an orphanage. DeCoro will donate
U.S. $.75 to Ai.Bi. in Cambodia for every product it produces.

DeCoro was initially launched in 1997 by Mr. Ricci with manufacturing
facilities in Shenzhen, China. The company was the first international
sofa company producing in China and was followed by many others.

"DeCoro is back, and as a real Italian company, we will use our
knowledge and experience to produce the finest quality, superior
designed products at the best possible price," said Luca Ricci, chief
executive officer, DeCoro Cambodia Co., Ltd. "Moreover, we are very
happy to be involved in supporting social and charitable activities in
Cambodia that will help local children here to enjoy a better future."

Nov. 28, 2011
PRNewswire

Friday, November 25, 2011

Cambodian exports to China

Cambodia's commerce officials said Thursday China's tax exemption for
418 items of Cambodia's products to its market is an impetus for
Cambodian producers; however, the country has still not taken the
maximum advantage of the offer.

"The China's tax exemption is the open of the market for Cambodian
products and is an encouragement for Cambodia's producers to increase
their production," Ok Boung, secretary of state at the Ministry of
Commerce, told Xinhua in an interview.

"The provision is very useful to reduce Cambodia's reliance on only
the European markets, or the United States."
However, the country is still unable to maximize the benefits from the
bilateral cooperation due to the shortage of resources, quality
products, and market information.

"Cambodian producers need to learn more about Chinese market in terms
of product characteristic and qualities," he said. "It's important to
know about the needs of Chinese consumers."

Ok Boung said among the 418 tax-free items, Cambodia has exported to
China mostly garment and textile, footwear, some agriculture and
forestry products, and food products.

"Our export to China is still in small amount, but, in the future, we
see China as the largest market for our products," he said.

The tax-free products the government of China provided to Cambodia
include garments, textiles, shoes, food products, living animals such
as cattle and swine for breeding, according to the list of tax
exemption items, provided to Xinhua by Cambodia's Commerce Ministry
on Thursday.

Also, a number of agriculture and forestry products include cashew
nut, cane sugar, fruits, coffee, furniture, vegetations for using in
pharmacy, rattans, crude maize oil, castor oil, sesame oil and other
fixed vegetable fats.
Rice, cassava, rubber and corn, which are mostly grown in Cambodia,
have not been included in the tax exemption list.

Kong Putheara, director of the Commerce Ministry's Statistics
Department, said the tax exemption was very good for Cambodia to boost
production and to diversify Cambodia's export destinations.

"We see China as a stable and huge market for us -- unlike the
European markets that now are facing debt crisis," he said.

He said the exemption also helped boost Cambodia and China bilateral
trade relations.

According to the Commerce Ministry's reports, the two countries '
trade volume was $912.76 million in the first six months of this
year, up 82 percent from $501 million in the same period last year.

During the period, Cambodia's exports to China was $66.31 million,
increased 275 percent from $17.68 million, and Cambodia's imports from
China reached $846.45 million, up 75 percent from $483.37 million.

The two countries expected that the trade volume in 2011 would hit $2 billion.

China's tax free provides impetus for Cambodian producers
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/business/2011-11/25/content_14163616.htm
2011-11-25

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Schools and Flooding

Schools damaged in Cambodia's worst monsoons in more than a decade may
take up to a year to recover after flooding delayed the start of
school for thousands of students nationwide, say aid workers and
officials.

As of late October, 323 schools out of 1,400 damaged ones were closed;
some have since reopened. Though flood waters have receded, how well
those schools are functioning and how many remain closed is still
unknown, as the government continues its damage assessments in a dozen
flood-hit provinces.

At least 77 schools are beyond repair, while students and teachers
were still pumping water out of dozens more, said the director of the
education ministry's construction department on 21 November, Song Yen.

"We have not yet completely assessed the damage," he added.

Sam Sereyrath, general director of education at the Ministry of
Education, estimated some 20,000 children remained out of school,
based on the number of schools destroyed.

Meanwhile, teachers warned that flooding had exacerbated the chronic
shortage of books and other study materials. Purchases of 47,000
textbooks for 12 grades are under way while some schools simply opened
their doors in October with no teaching materials, said the president
of the Cambodian Independent Teachers' Association, Rong Chhun.

It will still take months for the school system to recover, he added.

Disruption from the flooding will have a "huge impact" on drop-out
rates, absenteeism and enrolment, said Keo Sarath, education programme
manager at Save the Children Cambodia.

MDG progress

The country's progress on the Millennium Development Goal for primary
school education is mixed: 94 percent of primary school-age children
were enrolled for the 2009-2010 school year; 83 percent of students
enrolled in primary school completed the 2008-2009 year; and there was
virtually no gender disparity in enrolment. Lower secondary education
goals cannot be achieved by 2015 at the current pace, according to a
preliminary UN analysis from September 2010.

To mitigate the risk that the floods may derail progress on primary
education, existing guidelines to make up lost school hours must be
enforced, said Denise Shepherd-Johnson, head of communications for the
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Cambodia.

A downward trend in government spending on education - 19.2 percent of
the budget in 2007 to 15.9 percent in 2012 - limits the Education
Ministry's ability to respond to the flooding, she added.

Almost 10 percent of the country's population, about 1.6 million
people, was directly hit by the flooding, about one-quarter of a
million people fled to higher ground and about 250 people died,
according to the National Committee for Disaster Management's most
recent data from 28 October.

The flooding began in mid-July in the upper Mekong River, and then
spread to 18 of the country's 24 provinces as Cambodia's largest lake,
the Tonle Sap, more than doubled its monsoon-season size.

Almost 20 million people have been affected since June in Thailand,
Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam and Laos.

Save the Children and the Education Ministry have set up more than 400
temporary schools in four of Cambodia's worst-hit provinces, reaching
more than 12,000 primary-school students.

"Every day a child is not in school increases the risk they drop out
permanently in a disaster like this. If we can quickly get them back
in school-like settings, the chances of this happening are reduced,"
Jasmine Whitbread, CEO of Save the Children International, told IRIN.

In recent visits to the flood-hit provinces, Battambang and Kampong
Cham, residents of villages who lost their annual rice crop, or remain
isolated by flooding, told IRIN they were struggling to feed
themselves and keep their livestock alive.

Flooding destroyed some 265,000 hectares of rice, about 10 percent of
the total 2.5 million hectares planted, according to the government.

A rice-growing village, Anlong Chrey, in Kampong Cham Province, has
become an islet reachable only by an hour's boat ride.

It had been entirely submerged for about one month, after the Mekong
River, 8km west, and the Tonle Sap River, 35km east, overflowed their
banks and converged in mid-September, said residents.

The village has two temporary primary schools - attended by about 140
children - but older students are among the hundreds who have been
forced to leave the village of about 380 families in search of work.

Some children have gone as far as Thailand and Malaysia, residents
said. A recent assessment by Save the Children Cambodia in 20 villages
raised concerns of increased child labour and migration as adolescent
girls search for work.

Soy Chet, 16, lives alone in Anlong Chrey village in a hut surrounded
by knee-deep water. Orphaned three years ago, she managed to remain in
school and support herself before the floods.

She said she hoped to finish primary school, but did not know what she
would do afterwards as her neighbours had told her they could no
longer support her.

"Maybe I will go to look for work in a sewing factory," she said,
adding that if she did, it would be the first time she had ever left
her district.

http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=94298
24 November 2011
PHNOM PENH

Cambodian Health Professionals Association of America

Daniel Chan is a Cambodian-American doctor who survived the Khmer
Rouge and says he was fortunate to escape it. Now he is determined to
give something back. That's why he'll be traveling with other doctors
to Cambodia in next year as part of a medical mission to provide
health care to some of the country's neediest.

"I came from Cambodia," he told VOA Khmer. "I saw it and lived it. Now
our lives here have gotten better, and if we don't help the poor, it's
like we are heartless."

Chan, a family medicine practitioner who is the vice president of the
Cambodian Health Professionals Association of America, will travel
with a team of doctors and volunteers to Koh Kong province from Jan.
30 to Feb. 4. They will provide free medicine and medical and dental
care. They will also meet with Cambodian doctors, nurses, students and
volunteers to share their experience.

"I want to help them because they need help, just like I did, 20 or 30
years ago, during the Khmer Rouge," he said.

This will be the association's second mission to Cambodia. Last year,
the Long Beach, Calif., organization saw around 5,000 people, much
more than they were prepared for.

This year, they have more volunteers, said Tang Song, who is a doctor
and the president of the association. "In the next mission, we hope to
add more doctors and physicians that have specializations in optometry
or even surgery," he said. "And we need more volunteers in dental
care, because it's highly needed in Cambodia."

"Some people had never seen a doctor once, even though they were in
their fifties," said Visal Nga, a specialist in internal medicine who
will travel again to Cambodia this year. "Problems like heartburn,
back pain, we can give them medicine, but some people have chronic
diseases like diabetes that really need to be taken care of."

Last year, the group had expected to see some 500 patients a day.
Instead, they saw 1,000. This year, they hope they will be prepared.
The doctors say that even though they will be in Koh Kong, anyone from
Cambodia is welcome.
Long Beach, California
Cheang Sophinarath, VOA Khmer
California Doctors Prepare for Mercy Mission to Cambodia
23 November 2011

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

US$200 million for struggling rice-milling industry

Two Cambodian banks have set aside US$200 million for loans to bolster
the Kingdom's struggling rice-milling industry, officials said
yesterday.

The move comes as the Cambodian government has called on the private
sector to boost loans to rice millers during the harvest season as a
way to curb paddy exports to neighbouring countries.

ANZ Royal Bank and Canadia Bank said yesterday they would prioritise
lending to rice millers given the government presently lacks the funds
necessary to subsidise the still-developing sector.

"ANZ Royal is very keen to expand it's lending to rice millers. In
fact, I'd be happy to make $100 million available today for millers
with the right credit quality," CEO Stephen Higgins said.

The lending market to rice millers is very competitive at the moment,
Higgins noted, as many banks have been aggressive in chasing potential
customers.

Canadia has also set aside $100 million to loan to the agriculture
sector, especially rice millers, Vice President Dieter Billmeier said
yesterday. He noted that agriculture loans account for 8 per cent of
all the bank's loans, and the rice industry comprises a significant
part of that lending.

The government has reached out to the private sector to provide
much-needed capital to rice millers, as public funding as of now
cannot meet the industry's need.

"The problem is a lack of capital to buy rice for stock. We need
US$200 million to $300 million. If we don't have enough, the rice will
flow to other countries," Son Koun Thor, general director of state-run
Rural Development Bank, said on Monday.

RDB holds $60 million in working capital for loans to rice millers,
Son Koun Thor said. Beyond that figure, some commercial banks are
working with the industry as well.

Chhun Thom, a rice miller in Prey Veng province, where most unmilled
rice is shipped to Vietnam, agreed that paddy-buying capacity is
constrained by companies' small budgets.

"Of course, we got some money from the bank, but it is still limited
unless we have enough collateral" to ensure the loans, he said. "But
if we don't have that collateral, we cannot get the loans."

Prime Minister Hun Sen had said previously that Cambodia will export 1
million tonnes of milled rice by 2015, however experts have countered
that the country lacks the milling capacity necessary to meet that
goal.

Much of the country's unmilled rice is shipped to Thailand and Vietnam
for processing. As a result, help from the private sector will be
crucial, Son Koun Thor said.

Banks offer millions to millers
Rann Reuy and May Kunmakara
23 November 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Rising Wages in Cambodia

With per capita GDP well under a thousand dollars and a government
dependent on foreign aid, Cambodia is among the poorest of the poor in
Southeast Asia. But with workers in China, Thailand and Vietnam,
demanding and obtaining heftier paychecks, Cambodians are getting a
residual lift. Rising wages, labour unrest, as well as currency
instability and political turmoil in some cases, elsewhere in the
region's traditional manufacturing centers are improving the prospects
of Cambodia, an industrial minnow.

The country's garment exports have soared in the past year, increasing
by nearly 40 per cent, according to the government. Independent
observers might put the figure lower, but they would agree with Ken
Loo, the secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association of
Cambodia, when he points to rising wages and work stoppages in China
as one of the main causes of Cambodia's increased share of the market.
It's an important boost in a sector that has been Cambodia's main
engine of growth since the late 1990s, when the country stabilized
after years of debilitating civil strife. The garment and footwear
industry employs some 400,000 people in this country of just over 14
million (the Gap, H&M and Nike are among the major brands that have
suppliers in Cambodia) and account for more than two-thirds of
Cambodia's exports.

But the spillover effects of higher labour costs in China and
elsewhere aren't limited to the textiles sector. Slowly but surely,
Cambodia's industrial horizons are expanding as well, with Japanese
companies leading the charge. Minebea, a Tokyo-based producer of micro
motors, for example, started operations in Cambodia at the end of last
year. The Japanese company began outsourcing manufacturing to Thailand
25 years ago, where it has grown to employ over 30,000 workers.
Because of rising wages there, it's now assembling some of its
products in a special economic zone in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital.
Other manufacturers—making headphones and wetsuits, among other
products—have opened plants there too, lifting the sophistication of
the Cambodian manufacturing sector above T-shirts and sneakers.

"It's unrealistic to say Cambodia is adding huge value-added chains,"
said Peter Brimble, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank in
Cambodia. But growing hurdles in Asia's main production centers are
"enough to tip the scales" to attract investor interest in Cambodia.
Gordon Peters, an investment adviser with Emerging Markets Consulting,
which operates in Southeast Asia, said the number of international
companies contacting his consulting firm about business scoping
opportunities in Cambodia has grown exponentially this year. More
investors are looking at Cambodia as an attractive "long-term bet,"
one with limited dividends now but high-growth prospects in the near
future, he said.

Observers often criticize the heavy-handed influence of Beijing on
Cambodia. But if rising wages in the regional powerhouse can lift
business and employment prospects in Cambodia, this is a spell under
China's shadow that the Southeast Asian country is likely to enjoy.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/11/22/cambodia-enjoying-chinas-long-shadow/

Cambodia: enjoying China's long shadow
Brendan Brady
November 22, 2011

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Cambodia fashion changing quickly

Cambodian youngsters are becoming increasingly fashion conscious and
are trying new looks
As the sun sets, the rebels come out. Their favourite form of
transport is the Scoopy motorbike. Their destination is Phnom Penh's
riverside branch of Pencil.

On the face of it, this is an unlikely venue for youthful insurrection.

This nondescript, low-rise building in Cambodia's capital was, until
recently, a slightly shabby supermarket. But where the shelves of food
and household goods once stood, the rag trade has taken over.

This is what the rebels have come for. You shall know them by the
brevity of their skirts and the blondness of their hair.

Too much flesh?

They arrive in force. Hundreds of motorbikes are already crammed into
the narrow parking area in front of Pencil by 17:00, and a growing
queue of others is starting to block the road. The four-wheeled drive
cars dropping off the more well-to-do rebels exacerbate the
congestion.

Many of those arriving share a common look: micro-mini skirts or hot
pants for the women, and elaborately coiffed and coloured hairdos for
the men.

People have seen what they're wearing in other countries. Everybody
wants to be Korean"

In many countries, this would barely raise an eyebrow, but in Cambodia
it could be read as a deliberate effort to confront authority.

The lithe-limbed, topless apsara dancer carved into the stones of the
ancient temples of Angkor may be one of the icons of this small
nation, but the modern powers-that-be frown on the exposure of too
much flesh.

In the past, television celebrities have been ordered to dress
modestly, and keep a conservative hairstyle.

Even those with a lower profile have had to contend with the attention
of teachers and traffic police. Both groups have been known to
administer impromptu haircuts or even cart offensively styled
youngsters off for "re-education".

All this is a sign of how the aesthetic norms, in place since three
decades of conflict came to an end in the 1970s, are being challenged.

"It's changed a lot in the past two or three years," says Cambodia's
leading model agent, Sapor Rendall.

"Designers are making things more exciting now. When we got out of the
war, it was very conservative. In the past you'd think: 'My mum would
kill me for dressing like this'," she says, gesturing to her low-cut,
cleavage-exposing vest top. "But now... don't care."

That attitude is shared by the young crowd at Pencil.

Cambodian designers are also being influenced by trends in other
countries around the region

"Sometimes my mum asks 'Aren't you ashamed of going out like that?'
But it's changed for the new generation," says Arun, a 25-year-old
shop-worker with crimped and highlighted hair, who says she takes
style tips from international pop singers like Rihanna, Beyonce and
Pink.

Her 23-year-old friend Monika says her mother does not mind her
dyed-blonde hair or her preference for short skirts.

"People can do what they want now," she says. "Not just dress as the
authorities say. It's a free style - a sexy style."

A Korean style, as it turns out. The young women all acknowledge the
influence of the slew of celebrities coming out of Seoul, who they
watch on the wildly popular local, youth-orientated channel MyTV.

One of the busiest concessions inside Pencil is simply called Korean Style.

There are dozens of other clothing stalls - most no bigger than a
walk-in wardrobe, with garments hanging from floor to ceiling and a
fitting area squeezed into a corner.

Daly Na, 19, runs a stall called Darlink, which specialises in hot pants.

"These are my designs," she says, pointing out the boldly coloured
cut-offs on one side of the shop. Copycats are rife, she notes
ruefully.

"People have seen what they're wearing in other countries," says Ms
Na. "Everybody wants to be Korean - or pick up styles from Thai and
Hong Kong fashion magazines."

'Not our culture'

Prices can be bargained down from an initial asking price of $15 (£9).

However, the hot pants are still too expensive for those outside of a
rapidly emerging urban middle-class.

And Ravy Nick, a 19-year-old student, finds it hard to disguise her
distaste for the styles on display in Pencil.

"This is not our culture," she says. "Men look down on you when you
wear sexy. They think you're easy."

However, Ms Nick believes the sartorial mood may have shifted irreversibly.

"The government can say things, but they haven't made any rules or
laws - they're not doing anything about it."

As Cambodia has one of the youngest populations in the world, the
numbers would seem to be on the side of the fashion rebels.

For the moment, their desire for self-expression appears to be limited
to personal style and consumerism.

There seems to be little appetite for any movement other than that of
the upward march of the hemline.

However, as the increasingly affluent urban youth become ever more
savvy with social media and foreign travel, they may also bring
further changes to a country finally emerging from conflict and
conservatism.

Cambodia's fashionable rebels
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15632586