Economy and commerce

A group of Thai and Lao business people have announced a plan to spend 10 billion baht to develop a large shopping and hotel complex in Vientiane in order to cash in on opportunities arising from the coming from the coming Asean Economic Community. The massive ...

Cambodia granted operating licenses to 2,165 new companies in the first six months of 2015, up 7 percent from last year, according to a commerce ministry’s report. Keep reading ...

Germany’s development bank is considering expanding its investments into Cambodia’s renewable energy and agriculture sectors, a visiting German parliamentarian told the president of Cambodia’s Senate last week. Thomas Gambke, chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentary Group in the German Parliament, met with Cambodian Senate President Say Chhum ...

Cambodia has moved to formalise its ill-regulated derivatives sector by launching a key regulation earlier this month. On July 2, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) approved the prakas on the “Licensing and Supervision of Derivative Trading”. The prakas regulates the sector by allowing individuals ...

Vietnam has topped a performance index for greenfield foreign direct investment, leading all other emerging markets by a wide margin. The southeast Asian country ranked number one in a study by fDi Intelligence, an FT data division, which looked at inbound greenfield investment since 2003 relative ...

Kasikornthai Bank in Laos has extended loans and offered financial management services to Aeon Leasing Service (Lao) to support its retail and motorcycle-financing business there. Both parties are also ready to jointly develop payment channels and other innovative services in a bid to assist Thai investors ...

China’s economic slowdown may widen Vietnam’s trade deficit as the Southeast Asian nation counts on its largest trading partner to buy commodities, according to a government official.   “It would hurt our exports to China, especially with agricultural products,” Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy head of the National ...

Dutch giant Heineken opened its US$60 million brewery on 12 July, with its locally developed Regal Seven lager beer set to hit store shelves shortly. The brewer will also face the unusual situation of competing against one of its own beers. It owns Tiger beer, but ...

Life insurance premiums in Vietnam are on track for yet another record year, but industry observers say the gains are coming from a very low base and that foreign insurers have yet to truly crack the market despite dominating the sector.   Premiums from life insurance plans ...

The Burmese kyat has recently fallen. Down around 13 percent this year, and 26 percent since the instigation of the “managed float” arrangements in 2012, the decline in the kyat has also brought with it a return of many of the economically repressive impulses of ...