Delegates
from the Import-Export Bank of China will visit Cambodia next week to
discuss loans for the rice-processing and exporting sector, according to
government officials.
Son Kunthor, president of the state-owned Cambodian Rural Development Bank,
said yesterday that Chinese delegates will come to study the
feasibility of providing loans to private investors to improve
Cambodia’s rice processing.
“We are currently negotiating and
next week they will come to Cambodia to discuss the matter further,” he
said, adding that the negotiations were far from final.
During their tour of Cambodia, the Chinese delegates are likely to visit the provinces where there are rice mills, he said.
The
mills would be the same mills to which he led Cambodian business
delegates in late May, as part of presentations to attract loans.
Cambodia’s rice millers needed about US$200 million in investments, he added.
The
two sides have been unable to reach an agreement. The Chinese bank
officials wanted the Cambodian government to insure the private loans,
while the government did not see this as its responsibility, Son said.
Loan
interest rates from China are usually between 1 and 2 per cent
annually, much cheaper than those offered by the Cambodian Rural
Development Bank’s rate of 7 per cent annually, he said.
Phou
Puy, president of the Federation of Rice Millers Associations and the
Baitong Rice Export Company, could not be reached for a comment
yesterday.
Earlier this year, however, he told the Post the
federat-ion was working closely with the government to receive the loans
for improving the capacities of rice mills in Cambodia, in a push to
export more rice.
No one from the Import-Export Bank of China could be reached for a comment.
The
push for increased exports is a new policy of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s
and aims to export one million tonnes of rice next year.
Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012081457965/Business/china-bank-to-study-loan-possibilities-for-rice.html
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