PREAH Sihanouk Provincial Hall signed an agreement in cooperation with Royal Group and Sinohydro Co Ltd yesterday to build a 70km road on Koh Rong island.
Provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun signed the agreement with Kith Meng, chairman of the board of directors of the Royal Group, to construct the road in the Koh Rong Development Area on the island.
The road is set to be completed within 16 months at a cost of $35 million.
Chamroeun said he welcomed the private company investment as it will provide infrastructure and improve travel for locals and tourists visiting Koh Rong.
“We are developing infrastructure across the province, both on the islands and on the mainland,” he said.
He added the companies have also helped build a hotel, other roads and will help develop facilities on Koh Rong, including electricity and water supply.
Meng thanked all relevant institutions for their contribution.
“The infrastructure we are building will lead to more activity, providing stimulus to the country’s economy,” he said.
“There have been some land disputes. However, I urge the people to understand that the state supports the development of the island,” he said.
He said the company has begun construction of the 70km road and in the future, there are plans to build ports, power plants and airports.
Meanwhile, provincial authorities are set to complete work on 34 roads within the province at a cost of $294 million.
ACLEDA Bank Plc Phnom Penh headquarters. Khmer Times
ACLEDA Bank Plc, one of the largest banks in Cambodia, announced that the China Development Bank (CDB), the world’s largest development finance institution, signed a $130 million long-term facility agreement.
In Channy, president and group managing director of ACLEDA, said that diversification of source of fund is very important to support sustainable and strategic growth of the bank.
“As one of the listed companies in the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), we can mobilise funding from the capital market to strengthen our capital, tap into savings and deposits from the financial market for short-term funding needs and from the international funding institutions such as CDB to support long term growth of the bank,” he said.
“With this $130 million long-term facility from CDB, the bank expects to reach out to at least another 5,000 small and medium enterprises.”
Lyu Zhinan, deputy general manager of CDB Guangxi branch, said that ACLEDA is the main bank supporting the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia. He said CDB firmly believes that this credit cooperation will help more Cambodian SMEs to fight the COVID-19 epidemic and resume production and will play a positive effect in promoting the economic recovery of Cambodia.
“CDB is willing to develop further cooperation with ACLEDA Bank, undertake a more important role
in promoting rapid economic growth and realising the true development potential in Cambodia,” Zhinan said.
As of the end of March 2020, ACLEDA Bank Plc had total assets of 25.01 trillion riels ($6.15 billion), total loans outstanding of 16.22 trillion riels($3.99 billion) and total deposits at 17.69 trillion riels ( 4.35 billion).
ACLEDA Bank Plc. is a public limited company, formed under the Banking
and Financial Institutions Law of the Kingdom of Cambodia based in Phnom Penh, with 261 offices covering all provinces, as well as 42 in Laos, and seven in Myanmar. ACLEDA started out in 1993 when it began providing micro credits to war victims. By now it is Cambodia’s major commercial bank.
With the ILO and UNDP as godparents, ACLEDA was established in January 1993, as a national nongovernmental organisation for micro and small enterprise development and credit by a group of founders. From its earliest days, it enjoyed the support of a number of major international development agencies whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged in ACLEDA’s “Roll of Honour”.
Two factors, namely the expansion of its network to cover all of Cambodia’s provinces and towns and its ability to operate at a profit to ensure its sustainability, led both its board and international partners to conclude that it should be transformed into a commercial bank.
This would not only provide a secure regulatory framework lacking under its previous status but would also enable it to enlarge its range of funding options (e.g., equity injection, taking public deposits, obtaining commercial interbank loans) to support the expansion of its core micro-finance business. With assistance from USAID, MPDF/IFC and UNDP – to name a few– a three-year programme for transformation commenced in 1998 which culminated in the granting of a specialised banking licence in October 2000.
August will finally see the reopening of schools which has been shuttered for months now.
The Education Ministry said that it is in the process of re-opening schools, after more than three month of shutdown as part of the effort to combat COVID-19.
Other Education officers meanwhile told Khmer Times on conditions of confidentiality that about 15 ‘high-quality’ private international schools, including Japanese, English, American and French institutes, with approximately 20,000 students will be allowed to reopen first as a test case.
Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told Khmer Times today that the process will be divided into three phases based on health safety standards of the schools.
“The first phase will include schools with high safety standards [preventive measures against the virus spread],” Mr Soveacha said. “The second phase will focus on schools with moderate standards and the third will be schools with minimum standards. Each class must have not more than 15 students and social distancing must be strictly enforced and other areas where contact may take place, must also be eliminated.”
Mr Soveacha added the Ministry of Education is working with all relevant parties, especially the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, on the re-opening based on health measures and socio-economic factors.
“In the near future, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport will announce the timeline of and necessary measures for the first phase to the public,” he said, adding that the timelines for the second and third stages depend on the effectiveness of the first stage.
“The ministry will carefully analyse the first stage and then go on to analyse the second and third stages, based on plans which the ministry will make with relevant ministries and institutions,” Mr Soveacha added.
