About Cambodia Emerging Market and the Cambodia Stock Exchange: Cambodia Stock Exchange set to launch in 09/09/2009 - In an agreement with the Korea Exchange to launch a Cambodian stock exchange by 2009— and a handful of the country's biggest corporate players are lining up to get in first. In Phnom Penh, Cambodians are becoming successful entrepreneurs, and, like businesspeople everywhere, they are hungry for capital that the banks—small themselves—can't or won't provide. With commercial lending rates at 10% to 18% per year, access to capital is often an impossibility. Leading lender Acleda Bank, for example, cannot make a loan over $9.6 million. "The banks only allow us to borrow a limited amount of money at a high interest rate," says Sok Kong, chairman of the private Sokimex Group, which he started in 1991 as an oil and gas distributor and which now includes the growing luxury Sokha Hotels chain, with four hotels. Sok Kong hopes to list Sokimex on the new stock exchange. What would he do with the capital? Build more rooms for the tourists flocking to the Kingdom's beaches and temples. With mass tourism, and with a potential multibillion-dollar oil project under exploration off its south coast—has been revving up its economy. Standard & Poor's gave Cambodia its first-ever sovereign debt rating in May. And although the nation certainly has many problems—per capita income is no more than $290, 40% of Cambodians live below the poverty line, and the country relies on international donors—economic growth hit 10.75% last year on top of 13.5% the year before, and is expected to be about 9.5% for 2007. http://cambodiacapital.com/8501.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
