[PHNOM PENH POST]
Two more Vietnamese banks have announced they will apply for licences to operate in Cambodia, according to media reports.
If
accepted, Maritime Bank and Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Bank (SHB) would
bring the number of Vietnamese banks in Cambodia to six, National Bank
of Cambodia officials said yesterday.
Experts say the banks’ entry is well timed to cater to the influx of Vietnamese businesses to Cambodia.
“The
many Vietnamese businesses starting up in Phnom Penh are an attraction
for the banks,” Cambodian Economic Association president Chan Sophal
said. “These establishments will need a bank, and will likely feel more
comfortable with one from back home.”
Separate target markets
could alleviate strain among competitors, Chan Sophal said, because
these new banks would most likely not be competing for the same clients.
Nguon
Sokha, director-general and spokesperson of the NBC, said Cambodia’s
increasing economic interactions with nearby countries were attracting
the attention of their banks.
“The more trade and economic
transactions the two countries have with each other, the more likely
companies from those countries are to set up business across the
border,” she said.
Thirty-three banking corporations already
catered to the Kingdom’s population of only 14 million, barely more than
a million of whom had bank accounts, Nguon Sokha said.
Experts
say banking investments in the Kingdom may also have increased
dramatically in recent years in response to the country’s accelerated
economic growth, which the IMF estimates will reach seven to eight per
cent this year.
Gaps in Cambodia’s banking services might have
attracted the banks, and could potentially help further develop some
areas of the market, ACLEDA Bank CEO and president In Channy said
yesterday.
“As Cambodia’s economy strengthens, the demand for
loans will soon surpass the current banking system’s ability to supply
them. Foreign banks see this, and realise there will soon be much
untapped potential in Cambodian markets,” he said, adding that the
Cambodian government’s business policies were also attractive.
“It
is rare to find a country that allows a foreign company to own 100 per
cent of its investment, or that requires a capital-reserve requirement
as low as US$37 million.”
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