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U.S. ambassadors in Asia make final plea for dead Trans-Pacific trade pact
When hope of enacting the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact ended in November, Max Baucus, the United States ambassador to China, was among the officials who had to grapple with disappointment. The partnership, called the TPP, was a hallmark of the Obama administration. It would ...
Yangon’s extreme poverty needs action: report
In a one-room hut in north Yangon, a middle-aged woman has a trick for those evenings when the children complain of hunger and she has run out of money and rice. “I ask them to drink extra water and go to bed,” said mother-of-seven Daw ...
Asia's smallest economies are among its fastest growing
Asia’s smallest economies are growing faster than giants like China, according to the World Bank. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar will post the most rapid expansions in Asia after India from 2017 to 2019, sustaining growth rates of close to 7 percent, according to forecasts released this week. ...
Central bank of Vietnam: restructuring of banks needs legal framework
Vietnam will step up the restructuring of the banking sector this year but this process will require certain regulations to be revised to create a favorable legal framework, the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam said. Le Minh Hung said at a VietinBank 2017 ...
Crisis relief measures hammered out
The government has teamed up with construction material and consumer product companies to offer special discounts to flood victims in the southern provinces. Wiboonlasana Ruamraksa, permanent secretary for commerce, said the traders agreed to the discounts following talks with the Commerce Ministry. The reductions will ...
Decline in transfers linked to rice prices
International fund transfers to Cambodia through Acleda Bank, which claims to handle a quarter of all inbound fund transfers to the country, decreased slightly last year as a result of lower rice prices, a bank executive said on January 8. In Channy, president and group ...
Ministry sees surge in investment
The Finance Ministry is optimistic the private sector will step up its investment to the tune of 400 billion baht next year, a crucial driving force for economic growth. The amount of private investment will be nearly half of the 900 billion baht the state ...
Rice infrastructure bids sought
The Rural Development Bank has called for expressions of interest to develop and operate a 200,000 ton rice warehouse and a rice paddy drying facility. The drying facility would have the capacity to process 3,000 tons per day. The government is seeking to finance additional agricultural ...
GH Bank to offer loans for cheap homes
GH Bank plans to offer mortgages for homes priced below 1 million baht next year as part of its effort to encourage those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder to have their own homes. At least 4,000 potential homeowners across the country are ...
Central bank orders lenders to step up lending in riel
Cambodian microfinance institutions have said they would comply with a new regulation issued by the central bank that requires them to hold at least 10 percent of their loan portfolio in the Kingdom’s national currency. A prakas published by the National Bank of Cambodia on ...