Taiwan’s leading Bank Opens in Cambodia to Boost Trade

By Sok Lak

The China’s Taiwan leading bank, Mega International Commercial Bank (Mega ICBC), on September 30th, opened its first branch in Phnom Penh, aiming to attract more Taiwanese investors to Cambodia and boosting further business.

“The Mega ICBC will bring capital investment injection into the economy of Cambodia, employment opportunities, upgrading the know-how of the banking industry, providing more funds to local enterprises, offering better banking services to the customers and to help boom the economy, especially in the factor of international trade,” Chay You Cai, Chairman of the Mega ICBC Phnom Penh branch said during the inauguration.

H.E. Neav Chanthana, Vice Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia 
presided over by inauguration of  Mega ICBC  in Phnom Penh

Mega ICBC is the most internationalized bank in Taiwan, which has 108 branches in Taiwan, and 32 overseas branches, representatives and subsidiaries. “Mega ICBC Phnom Penh Branch commences to serve in Cambodia and become the 33^rd overseas outpost of Mega ICBC,” he added. Mega ICBC is the sole US dollar clearing and settlement bank in Taiwan which is only one of two banks in Taiwan to supply Chinese RMB banknotes to customers and other local banks in Taiwan.

Yang Andy, Chief Executive Officer, said that Mega ICBC is 100 percent under Mega Financial Holding which merged with another two banks and has a long history. In terms of income, Mega holdings rank number two among the financial industry sector in Taiwan and ranks number four in terms of total assets with US$ 835 million and US$ 36.8 million in capital.

Till the end of year 2010, the value of the shares of the company has risen to 2,480 million Taiwan dollars and ranks well among the14 financial security companies. “The quality of our company’s assets is highly positive as the rate of non-performing loans (NPL) is low which has 0.34 percent and its return on equity (ROE) rate is 8.75 percent.”

“Taiwan is the fifth largest investor in Cambodia with over US$ 660 million from 1994 to 2010,” he mentioned. Till July 2011, the amount of investment was up to US$ 823 million according to a report from the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

At the event, H.E. Neav Chanthana, Vice Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, said the presence of Mega ICBC reflects the trust of foreign investors in the Cambodian banking industry’s development and in support of the banking industry policy.

“Mega ICBC is a standard international bank from Taiwan Island and has a lot of branches around the world with high professional skills and three decades of experience in the banking and financial service,” she added.

“Currently, there are 36 banks including Mega ICBC in the country while the total current assets in banking industry are equal to about 56 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” she stressed.

“By June 2011, the amount of deposit savings is up to 11.4 percent while the amount of loans is 13.4 percent while non-performing loans are low,” she emphasized. She highlighted that in semester one of 2011, the number of people holding bank accounts is 9 percent of the total population of Cambodia which went up from 6 percent in 2004.

Source: The Southeast Asia Weekly, October 2-8, 2011, Vol. 5, Issue 40, Page 3