Monday, 28 September 2009

Investment worth $84m approved in August


(Post in http://www.khmernz.blogspot.com/)

Monday, 28 September 2009 15:01 May Kunmakara and Nathan Green

THE Cambodian government approved US$84 million in investment applications in August, taking the total value of approvals for the year to date to $1.564 billion, official figures released Friday show.

The new approvals included three agriculture and three industrial projects, said the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), the government’s chief investment body.

The names of the companies behind the proposed investments were not disclosed.

In August last year, the government approved $652 million worth of investments, and the first eight months of 2008 saw the approval of $8.992 billion worth of investment projects.

Youn Heng, deputy director of the Evaluation and Incentive Department at the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB), a body of the CDC, said he was too busy to comment Friday.

He said last month that although the number and value of applications was falling due to the economic crisis, a few very large project approvals contributed to heavily inflated investment figures last year, including a $3.8 billion proposal, the largest approval last year, by Chinese company Union Development Group Co to build a coastal development in Koh Kong.

Kang Chandararot, director of the Cambodia Institute of Development Study, said the drop in approvals in tourism and real estate was being offset by a investments earmarked for the agriculture, industrial and agro-industrial sectors.

The International Monetary Fund projected Wednesday that foreign direct investment in Cambodia would be worth $490 million this year, down from $815 million in 2008.

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