Foreign direct investment reported by the Council for the Development of Cambodia for the first half of 2002 was $60 million—a 17.6 percent increase over the first half of 2001, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said Tuesday.
“It’s better,” he said, “but I’m not happy with the figure.”
The number of foreign investors will rise once the newly passed investment law takes effect. Government and private sector representatives are negotiating tax amendments that must be made to the tax law to comply with the investment law.
That should be completed soon, Cham Prasidh said.
The $60 million for 2002’s first semester is far shy of the investment Cambodia enjoyed during most of the 1990s. Those figures began to dip four years ago and the investment board only approved 27 projects worth $27 million in the same period last year, Reuters news service reported.
For all of 2001, the investment board approved a total of 51 new projects worth $130 million, according to the Ministry of Finance.
This year’s increase, while small, represents a reversal in foreign investment’s recent downward trend in Cambodia.
Foreign direct investment approvals by the CDC declined in 2001 by 14 percent compared to 2000, according to the Ministry of Finance, although not all companies register with the CDC.
Companies must be registered with the council in order to receive tax incentives offered by the government. Other investments are “established through agreements with relevant sectoral ministries [or] agencies,” the Ministry of Finance said in a report written for this year’s donor meeting.
