Economy and commerce

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has announced it is preparing to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC). NBC’s director-general, Chea Serey, said the central bank was developing “the national payment gateway for Cambodia.” It would serve as a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer platform with its own specially designed cryptocurrency. According ...

The former chief of Pak Chim, a tiny village on a tributary of the Mekong River, remembers clearly the moment he knew his hamlet would be no more. It was a decade ago. A few hundred residents of Pak Chim and nearby villages along the snaking ...

Waking up to a misty skyline resembling the mysterious town of Silent Hill, a survival horror video game, with the haze foreshadowing obscured dangers lurking in thick smog, is jarring for all Bangkok residents. The level of particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 ...

The World Bank has classified Laos as a lower-middle-income economy in its latest classification for the 2020 fiscal year. The bank classifies the world’s economies into four income groups, namely high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low, based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in U.S. dollars. Lower middle-income economies are those ...

A new financing package of $212.5 million (£162m) has been announced to support climate-friendly projects in Vietnam. The funding from IFC, a member of the World Bank, will enable VPBank to expand its lending to small and medium businesses and boost financing for projects that help reduce carbon ...

If there were any doubts around China’s thinking about where to direct its money and influence in Southeast Asia, they were dispelled by the recent announcement that Xi Jinping would visit Myanmar on 17 and 18 January, the first state visit by a Chinese leader ...

Past policies that have enabled Laos to meet the UN’s least developed country (LDC) graduation thresholds are no longer adequate to ensure sustainable development. The focus of future policies should be on fostering greater productive capacity, increased economic diversification and enabling a stronger business environment. The ...

While Cambodia has achieved nothing short of a “miracle” in terms of economic development, there is still much to be done if the Kingdom wants to improve or sustain such progress and the financial/ non-financial wellbeing of its people in the long run. The 2019 Global ...

Pineapple growers are asking the government negotiate official exports of the crop to China as soon as possible, a farmers association says. The call comes after pineapple cultivators suffered estimated losses of K700 million (US$458 million) during the previous harvest season when China suddenly banned imports ...

Many Vietnamese enterprises lack understanding about sustainable development goals (SDGs) and are not applying them to their business, Tran Thi Lan Anh, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said at a forum held in Ho Chi Minh City on November 25. Associations that represent enterprises ...