Guinea’s President to visit Cambodia this week

   PHNOM PENH, May 22 (Xinhua) -- President Alpha Conde of Guinea will make a two-day state visit to Cambodia, starting from Friday this week, in order to promote bilateral ties, according to Cambodia’s deputy Prime Miniser and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.

   During the visit, Conde will hold a bilateral talk with Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace on Friday afternoon, he said in a letter to deputy Prime Minister Sok An, minister in charge of the Council of Ministers, and it was released to the media on Tuesday.

   Conde is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Norodom Sihanomi, the King of Cambodia.

   Guinea is the world's largest exporter of aluminum ore bauxite.

Cambodia spends 121 mln USD for vehicle imports in Q1, up 40 pct

PHNOM PENH, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had spent 121 million U. S. dollars to purchase automobiles and motorcycles from foreign countries in the first three months of this year, a 40 percent rise from 86 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, the data of the Commerce Ministry showed on Saturday.

During the January-March period this year, the country had imported 217,000 vehicles, up 20 percent from 180,800 year on year, it said.

The reports did not separate the number of automobiles and motorcycles.

The increasing demand of vehicles thanks to people's better living condition and growing economy.

The Southeast Asian nation has imported vehicles mainly from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, China, South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Japan-branded vehicles are most popular in this country.

According to the figures of the Ministry of Public Work and Transport, to date, the country has about 1.8 million motorcycles and 320,000 cars, buses and trucks.

Cambodia's trade with UK up 48 pct in 1st quarter

PHNOM PENH, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The volume of bilateral trade between Cambodia and the United Kingdom for the first three months of 2012 is 178 million U.S. dollars, up 48 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a trade report provided by the British embassy here on Sunday.
It said the main Cambodia's products exported to the UK are garment products, footwear, sugar and honey, rice and bicycles. In return, the country imported industrial machinery, automobiles, medical and pharmaceutical products and malt from the UK.
Pan Sorasak, secretary of state at Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce, attributed the growth in the bilateral trade volume to Cambodia's political stability, good security, and favorable business environment for businesspeople.
More importantly, the two countries have had a good and long- lasting diplomatic relation since 1953, he said.
According to the report, currently, more than 15 UK companies have set up offices in Cambodia in different sectors including the garment and footwear industry, banking and finance, engineering and architecture, education, hospitality and property services.
The UK is the fourth largest investor in Cambodia. According to the report of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, since 1994 to 2011, Cambodia had received the promised investment of 2.4 billion U.S. dollars from the UK.

Cambodia launches first ever life insurance

PHNOM PENH, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia launched the first ever life insurance here with the official inauguration of Cambodian Life Insurance Company (Cambodian Life) on Monday, seen as another landmark in the kingdom's financial market after the opening of stock market in mid-April.
Cambodian Life is a joint venture established on January 10th, 2012 by Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance and four other partners, namely PT Asuransi from Indonesia, Asia Insurance from Hong Kong, Bangkok Life Assurance and Bangkok Insurance Public from Thailand.
The Ministry holds 51 percent of stake in the joint venture.
Operating throughout the whole country, Cambodian Life is tasked to provide life insurance products in the form of private voluntary for Cambodian people's safety nets, which is a new mechanism going to supplement the country's social security system under the Labor Law.
As a newly-born enterprise, only three types of insurances are found on the company's product list, so far, namely mortgage insurance, whole life insurance and term insurance.
According to the company's product introduction, the Mortgage Insurance has a coverage period of 2- 20 years on the insured person's outstanding loan with a minimum amount of 1,500 US dollars; the Whole Life covers the insured up to 90 year old under the condition of natural death, accident death and death of disease; while the Term Insurance provides life coverage for a limited period of 3, 5 or 10 years under the condition of natural death, accident death and death of disease.
Addressing the launching ceremony, Aun Pornmoniroth, the minister attached to the Prime Minister and the secretary of state of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, hailed the Cambodian Life' s inauguration as another historical achievement after the launch of stock market in mid-April. "The establishment of life insurance in Cambodia is a creation of diversity in financial services in the forms of saving schemes, investment, family financial planning for long-term to manage unforeseen risks," he said.
Also, he highlighted, life insurance is also significant in terms of liking other financial sectors, including securities market, banking sectors, as its premium will be invested in long- term investment in securities market and commercial banks.
Cambodian Life's staff told Xinhua that, in the future, more insurance products will be designed to diversify the country's insurance market, including health insurance and accident injury coverage.
Currently, Cambodia has six insurance companies and one domestic reinsurance company, all are general insurers, and none of them is life insurer.

Cambodia's banking industry reports 8 pct lending growth in Q1

PHNOM PENH, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Loan demands from Cambodia's banking industry had surged by 8% in the first three months of this year thanks to growing economy and business activities, a central bank's senior official said Monday.
As of March 2012, the kingdom's 30 commercial banks had lent a total of about 4.69 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 8% from 4.32 billion U.S. dollars at the end of last year, Nguon Sokha, director general of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said, citing the NBC's data.
She said most of the loans went to the sectors of trades, agriculture, manufacturing industry, and hotels and tourism.
"Economic situation in the first quarter of this year looks better; we see all sectors driven the economic growth including garment exports, tourism, and foreign direct investment are on the rise," she told Xinhua over telephone. "More business activities bring more loan demands."
On the deposit side, she said, the customers' deposits at the banks had increased by 12% to 5.26 billion U.S. dollars by the end of March this year from 4.7 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2011.

Measures needed to ensure food security: Cambodian PM

PHNOM PENH, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday appealed the world to take active measures to ensure food security and stabilize inflation.
"I have observed for years that much attention had been given on food security and energy security by international forums, but little measures had so far been initiated to relieve the contradiction," he said at the opening of a seminar on food security and nutrition.
The Prime Minister also used some "strong" words to raise the world's attention to this worsening situation by saying "currently, food producers are just waiting for their death as oil producers hike the energy prices at will."
"As the Prime Minister of Cambodia and the 2012 ASEAN chair, I appeal the world to give attention to soothe the conflict between food prices and oil prices, or the world will reach imbalance between oil producers and food suppliers," said the premier.
Hun Sen said world should take a serious consideration of his words.
"The food supply countries and oil producing countries should reach a consensus on this issue," he said.
According to the prime minister, as an agricultural nation, Cambodia suffers a lot from the hiking oil prices as its farmers are forced to spend more on agricultural machinery operation and products transportation.

Uruguay appoints 1st envoy to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Gerardo Prato, the first Ambassador of Uruguay to Cambodia, officially started his diplomatic mission on Monday, pledging to cement the bilateral ties in politics and economics.
Speaking during a meeting with Cambodia's deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Prato said Uruguay was willing to strengthen and expand bilateral ties with Cambodia, adding that the country would support Cambodia's candidacy for the non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ( UNSC) in the vote later this year.
He added that Uruguay also wanted to bridge relations and cooperations with the Southeast Asian kingdom in agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, Hor Namhong said sending ambassador to Cambodia will deepen the two countries' relations and cooperation. He welcomes Uruguay's desire to create relations with Cambodia in agriculture.
Cambodia is favorable for agricultural sector, especially rice farming, he said, adding that the country will be pleased if Uruguay investors come to invest in rice processing mills here.
Cambodia and Uruguay established a diplomatic relation in 1994, but the two countries have only had political ties, not any economic relations, said Koy Kuong, spokesman for Cambodia's Foreign Ministry.