SKorean firm to invest $150m in corn plant

The Phnom Penh Post
June 10, 2009

KOGID Cambodia to grow and process corn to produce
animal feed for export, it says, as part of long-term investment

Cambodian corn growers have traditionally dried their crops by hand

THE Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Monday that South Korea's KOGID Cambodia plans to invest US$150 million to grow and process corn for animal feed to be sold overseas.

Chan Tong Yves, secretary of state who is in charge of investments at the ministry, told the Post on Monday that the company has long-term investment plans for the Kingdom and would buy from the four top producing provinces.

Chan Tong Yves said KOGID plans to purchase 70,000 to 150,000 tonnes of corn this year from Battambang, Pailin, Kampong Cham and Kandal provinces, and will build corn-drying machines.

"We welcome this plan because it will help create markets for Cambodian corn, which we have had trouble finding," Chan Tong Yves said.

"Our farmers only sell corn to Thailand and Vietnam, and these markets are unpredictable. Sometimes they buy, but sometimes they don't," he added.

According to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in 2008-09 Cambodia harvested 611,865 tonnes of corn from 163,106 hectares of land.

Battambang province was the leading producer with a yield of 432,966 tonnes.

Pailin province followed, producing 51,302 tonnes, Kampong Cham province 39,245 tonnes and Kandal province 23,610 tonnes.

Tong Savuth, manager of KOGID Cambodia Co Ltd, confirmed on Monday the total investment.
But he added that the company would invest only $38 million from 2009 to 2012 as part of the first phase.

"We will encourage the government to give us land concessions ... after 2012."

"We are trying to contact brokers to buy corn from farmers in the four provinces for $200 to $210 per tonne for dried corn," he said.

Oung Savuth said his company would buy between 70,000 and 100,000 tonnes from farmers to export to South Korea in 2009.

In 2010 he plans to sign contracts to procure corn from Cambodian farmers, he added.
Oung Savuth also said that to ensure smooth exports in 2010, the company would spend $1.8 million to build three drying machines, each able to dry 500 tonnes of corn per day in Battambang province.

A multi-million dollar storehouse would also be constructed to facilitate sea exportation, he said.

"We will encourage the government to give us land concessions to grow corn after 2012 by providing houses, water and electricity, and building markets and schools and hospitals for our workers by following the same model as the Mong Reththy Group," Oung Savuth said.

Softbank Says New IPhone to Sell in Japan on June 26

By Yoshinori Eki and Pavel Alpeyev

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Softbank Corp., Japan’s third-largest mobile-phone operator, said it will begin offering Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone in Japan on June 26.

Yuuki Akazawa, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based mobile-phone operator, declined to comment on the price. Softbank began selling iPhone 3G, the predecessor model, in Japan in July 2008.

Cupertino, California-based Apple yesterday unveiled the iPhone 3G S, which will be sold in 32-gigabyte and 16-gigabyte versions and will be available in the U.S. from June 19. The latest model is faster, more energy-efficient and has a built-in compass, higher resolution digital camera and is capable of recording video.

Softbank rose 4.2 percent to 1,873 yen as of the 11 a.m. trading break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the highest since Aug. 18. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 0.2 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net; Yoshinori Eki in Tokyo at yeki@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 8, 2009 22:25 EDT

Sacombank to open branch

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Nguon Sovan

Monday, 08 June 2009

Vietnamese lender to launch in Cambodia this month amid growing concerns that the sector is becoming overcrowded A teller serves a customer at Sacombank in Ho Chi Minh City. The bank will this month become the 27th in Cambodia. BLOOMBERG SACOMBANK, Vietnam's sixth-largest lender by assets, said it will open its first Cambodian branch in Phnom Penh on June 26, which would make it the third foreign bank to launch in the Kingdom since the beginning of May. A bank official who requested anonymity told the Post at the end of last week that branch would open on Norodom Boulevard with a ceremony to be attended by National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) Governor Chea Chanto. Tal Nay Im, director general of the NBC, said that yet another entrant to Cambodia's banking sector - Sacombank will become the 27th bank to operate here - spelled confidence in the country's financial sector. "I think it's because investors trust us ... that's why they come to invest here," she said. Last week the bank announced profits of 660 billion dong (US$37.1 million) for the first five months of the year, with total deposits of 69.1 trillion dong and outstanding loans of 44.8 trillion dong, a statement on the bank's We site said. Alex Ng, general manager of US-owned Angkor Capital Bank, which launched here in November, said he thought the banking sector was becoming too saturated. "There are too many banks for a market with a population of about 14 million people," he said, adding that he believed a total of 15 banks would be more suitable. Yum Sui Sang, CEO of Union Commercial Bank, agreed that competition was increasing. "There are many banks - it is a little in excess of what we need," he said. "After talking to other banks, they are also concerned about there being too many ... in Cambodia." South Korea's biggest lender, Kookmin Bank, and State Bank of India have each opened their first Cambodian branches within the past month.

Women lost ground in May polls

The Phnom Penh Post Written by Khuon Leakhana and Mom Kunthear

Monday, 08 June 2009

Number of female candidates down, NEC stats indicate. Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN A female commune councilor casts her vote in this year's district and provincial council elections in Phnom Penh. women in politics General election 2003 Female candidates 27 percent General election 2008 Female candidates 14.8 percent Commune elections 2002 Female candidates 14 percent (1,161 candidates top 3 on list) Commune elections 2007 Female candidates 27 percent (2,328 candidates top 3 on list) District council elections 2009 13.8 percent (1,177 of 8,506 candidates) Provincial council elections 2009 9.89 percent (37 out of 374 candidates) DESPITE decades of efforts to encourage more women to enter politics, the number of female candidates in May's local elections was nearly halved from an all-time high in 2007, National Election Committee (NEC) statistics show. "There are very few women getting involved in politics, especially in the general election," NEC Secretary General Tep Nytha said. In 1955, Cambodian women were granted the right to vote and allowed to stand for election. Three years later, the Kingdom's first female parliamentarian, Tong Siv Eng, was elected to the National Assembly. But real political equality has proved elusive - and recently, things have taken a turn for the worse. "Women [politicians] still feel that they are abandoned because there are only men around them," said Nop Mareth, the only woman to be elected to the new district and provincial councils in Ratanakkiri province. In last July's general election, only 14.8 percent of the political candidates were female, down from 27 percent in the 2003 national election, Tep Nytha said. "Unlike in other countries, Cambodia does not have legally stipulated quotas for female candidates, so we need political parties to step up and work to encourage female candidates," he said. "We should also pass a law saying how many women candidates need to be selected." Numbers were getting stronger at the local level, and with the country's first commune-level elections in 2002, 1,161 female candidates were ranked in the top three places on party lists. In 2007, that number leapt to 2,328, which represented about 27 percent of total candidates, Tep Nytha said. Commune elections run on a party-list system. A voter selects a party, not a candidate. The election winners are the top-listed party members from the party with the most votes. Local level losses In the recent district council elections - which use an indirect party list system, so only elected commune officials could vote - only 1,177 of the 8,506 candidates, or about 13.8 percent, were female. In the provincial council elections, which used the same electoral system, 374 candidates were elected, only 37 of whom were women. "We need at least 30 percent [of those elected] to be female in order for women to have the chance to work for their country," said Koul Panha, executive director of the election monitor Comfrel. "We know that women face many problems in society. So we think that if there are many women candidates, they can help solve these problems," he said. According to Ros Sopheap, executive director of the NGO Gender and Development for Cambodia, chauvinism remains a problem. "Women still don't have a proper chance to participate in politics," she said, citing a male-dominated environment in which women can feel intimated or ignored. "Even men who want to work for women don't know much about women's problems," she said. Despite the difficulties facing female candidates, Ratanakkiri's Nop Mareth says she is not discouraged. "This is the first time that I have participated in the political scene," she said. "I used to work in simple places - but I am not afraid and will do my best with this new job."