September 28, 2009
PHNOM PENH, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- The Cambodian government approved US$84 million in investment applications in August, taking the total value of approvals for the year to date to USD1.56 billion, China's Xinhua news agency said quoting a local media report on Monday.
The new approvals included three agriculture and three industrial projects, the Phnom Penh Post quoted the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), the government's chief investment body, as saying.
In August last year, the government approved US$652 million worth of investments, and the first eight months of 2008 saw the approval of US$8.99 billion worth of investment projects.
The Post said Youn Heng, deputy director of the Evaluation and Incentive Department at the Cambodian invesment Board (CIB), a body of the CDC, said he was too busy to comment Friday.
However, he said last month that although the number and value of applications was falling due to the economic crisis, a few very large project approvals contributed to heavily inflated investment figures last year, including a US$3.8 billion proposal, the largest approval last year, by Chinese company Union Developmem Group Co. to build a coastal development in Koh Kong.
Kang Chandararot, director of the Cambodia Institute of Development Study, said the drop in approvals in tourism and real estate was being offset by investments earmarked for the agriculture, industrial and agro-industrial sectors.
The International Monetary Fund projected Wednesday that foreign direct investment in Cambodia would be worth US$490 million this year, down from US$815 million in 2008.
-- BERNAMA
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