Cambodia stands at the forefront of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Southeast Asia, anticipating a robust influx of capital in 2024, buoyed by a solid economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects the country’s growth to reach 6.1% next year, as highlighted in the annual FDI Standouts Watchlist from fDi Intelligence, the industry analysis division of Financial Times (FT) Group Ltd.
The report underscores that the study, evaluating the macroeconomic and FDI trends of the world’s top 50 FDI destinations using data from the IMF and fDi Markets, identifies countries poised to enter the new year with strong momentum, as the world continues to navigate an uneven post-pandemic recovery.
“Asia has performed admirably in this year’s Watchlist, with six countries in the top 10: Cambodia, leading the list, followed by the Philippines, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and India. Only three African countries feature in the top 10: Kenya, Namibia and Morocco. Serbia is the sole country outside Asia and Africa to secure a spot in the top 10, ranking ninth,” stated the report.
Chea Vuthy, deputy secretary-general of the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB) and the Cambodian Special Economic Zone Board (CSEZB) at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), noted at a recent business forum that the country boasts economic potential, peace, security, and political and economic stability.
He emphasised the crucial role of the private sector in driving national economic development.
“We see that FDI annually approaches $4 billion. In 2020, ASEAN experienced a steep 40% decline, but our FDI remained stable at around $3.6 billion,” said Vuthy.
He added that Cambodian investors took the lead in the first half of the year, buoyed by confidence in the country’s investment climate and “trust in its leadership”.
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Author: May Kunmakara
Source: The Phnom Penh Post
Cambodia earned a gross revenue of $3.9 billion from the export of agricultural products in the first 11 months of 2023, said a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) report on Tuesday.
The Southeast Asian country shipped 7.31 million tons of agricultural products to 75 countries and regions during the January-November period this year, a year-on-year drop of 4.6 percent, the report said.
Key agricultural items for exports included rice, rubber, cassava, mangoes, fresh bananas, pepper, cashew nuts, longan, and corn, palm oil, among others.
“Despite a slight drop in the commodity export in the first 11 months of this year, we’re optimistic that the growth will rebound soon because our export in November had seen a significant increase,” Ngin Chhay, director-general of the MAFF’s General Directorate of Agriculture, said in the report.
He added that the kingdom exported 1.03 million tons of agricultural products in November this year, up almost 50 percent from 0.69 million ton in the same month last year.
China, Vietnam and Thailand are the major importers of Cambodia’s agricultural items.
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Author: Xinhua
Source: Khmer Times
AMID a global funding winter, fintech investors in South-east Asia are concentrating the limited funds they are willing to cough up in early-stage startups and alternative lending.
Fintech funding in the region – or more precisely, the six largest Asean economies of Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia – has fallen by 70 per cent for the year to Sep 30, 2023, said a report by UOB, PwC Singapore and the Singapore FinTech Association released on Thursday (Nov 16).
The report, based on data from Tracxn’s platform, said early-stage companies received half the total fintech funding of US$1.3 billion, which went to six of the top 10 funded companies in the first nine months of 2023.
Investors surveyed in the report said that, for them, the key attractions in this space were the new ideas being explored by these early-stage startups, and the smaller capital outlays being sought.
The average fintech deal size stood at US$13.5 million for 9M 2023, down from US$21.8 million for 2022. For comparison, the average deal size in 2019, before the Covid pandemic, was US$9 million.
Shadab Taiyabi, president of the Singapore FinTech Association, said: “While the landscape for fintech funding across the region has certainly been trickier to navigate, it is good to see Singapore retain its (2022) position as the region’s most vibrant destination, attracting the highest number of deals.”
A total of 51 deals were inked in Singapore, comprising 54 per cent of total deal volume of 94 logged for the six Asean economies. In terms of deal value, Singapore bagged 59 per cent, or US$747 million.
Among the nine categories of fintechs surveyed in the report, alternative lending led funding numbers across those six economies for the first time. This form of lending, which includes online lending and crowdfunding, attracted US$408 million, or 32 per cent of total fintech investments – a 22 percentage point increase from 2022.
Insurtech came in second at 25 per cent or US$325 million, increasing by 20 percentage points from 2022. In third place was payments, at 15 per cent or US$186 million, down 24 percentage points from 2022.
By deal volume, the cryptocurrency sector ranked first. However, its share of funding fell 10 percentage points from 21 per cent in 2022 to 11 per cent in 9M 2023, as investors avoided overvaluing the sector.
The fintech slump in the six Asean economies in 9M 2023 mirrors the global one. Fintech funding globally fell to US$43.5 billion as high interest rates and an uncertain economic environment crimped investor appetite. The decline follows the US$163 billion raised in 2021 and the US$107 billion in 2022.
Source: The Business Times. Link: Here.
THE United States has long been a global leader in technology and innovation, and for the last several decades, the San Francisco Bay Area has dominated the conversation. Today, the landscape is fast evolving, with the rise of other prominent startup hubs across the US – notably New York City, Austin and Boston in more recent years.
Still, the San Francisco Bay Area undoubtedly boasts the longest history in the tech industry. Silicon Valley, in particular, has seen the growth of tech giants like Apple, Google and Meta. So, what makes the Bay Area so special?
Even after all these years, the Bay Area continues to rank first across many notable global innovation and startup ecosystem rankings in 2023, such as those by Startup Genome and StartupBlink.
This is due, in large part, to its constant evolution in tandem with changes in the global startup and innovation scene. It is an ecosystem that has been meticulously cultivated over decades, with an established and solid foundation of research institutes, think tanks, venture capital (VC) and regulatory infrastructure.
Top-notch research institutions like Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, which are in close proximity, provide an available and diverse talent pool that feeds the ever-growing demand for innovation talent. Startups and companies also get to be active participants in cutting-edge research with these institutions that propel new innovations. This is supplemented by strong networks that companies get to connect to, share ideas and form new partnerships with.
Investment is another key building block of a successful startup ecosystem. The Bay Area’s high concentration of investors, corporates and specialised financial institutions mean the availability of smart monies for startups in the immediate area.
This is hugely appealing to tech startups. In fact, San Francisco topped Pitchbook’s Global VC Ecosystems ranking this year, with close to 2,000 funds and a fund value of over US$260 billion. In August 2023 alone, three startups raised US$100 million each in the Bay Area – cybersecurity startup Resilience, artificial intelligence startup Modular, and sales and martech platform Apollo.ai.
While incidents such as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 did shake confidence initially, specifically in smaller financial players, the ecosystem has made a quick recovery – a testament to the strength of the Bay Area’s foundation.
Despite the overall economic downturn and funding winter, VC funding in the Bay Area remains strong.
According to Pitchbook’s 2023 Global VC Ecosystem ranking report, there is a sizeable gap between the VC ecosystems of San Francisco and other hubs. From the third quarter of 2017 to Q2 2023, US$364.5 billion was invested into San Francisco-based startups, which is almost twice the amount raised from the second-highest ranked city in the US. Singapore ranked fifth in Asia within the same period, with US$39.5 billion.
The US as an innovation and technology partner
Beyond startups, the innovators of the Bay Area continue to push groundbreaking advancements in deep tech across all sectors. For instance, San Francisco-based OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year, taking the world by storm. Fuelled by both global demand and pressing societal issues, such as climate change and ageing populations, startups in the area have remained on the forefront of such much-needed technological advancements. The flow of talent, expertise and ideas have helped facilitate this.
Singapore companies, too, see the US as a great innovation partner, and have increasingly ventured there for growth.
In healthcare, the US has long been recognised as a mature and reference market. Singapore biomedical company Lucence first entered the US market in 2020, with support from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), and has since posted several Singaporeans to its San Francisco facility.
The company chose the US largely because the relatively high acceptance of personalised medicine and liquid biopsy is shared by both US clinicians and regulators. Earlier this year, Lucence managed to secure Medicare approval for its diagnostic testing solution, bringing Singapore-grown technical expertise to scale in the US. Beyond making its solution more accessible to everyday Americans, obtaining Medicare approval also lends credibility worldwide, given the US’ position as a global leader in precision medicine.
Similar to personalised medicine, the alternative protein market in US is more developed and widely accepted, given the growing demand by consumers seeking more environmentally friendly products. In March, EnterpriseSG led a foodtech-specific mission for startups to explore opportunities in the Bay Area. Startups on the trip, such as ImpacFat which develops cultivated fish fat, were very interested to find research partners in the Bay Area to further enhance their product and concurrently look for investors.
Apart from startups, many large Singapore corporates have entered the Bay Area. In 2019, ST Engineering established an office for its corporate VC unit in Silicon Valley, as part of its proactive engagement with the startup ecosystems. Singtel set up a corporate VC arm in San Francisco to invest in promising startups with world class technology whose solutions could eventually be incorporated back at the group level or diversified into new growth areas.
Accelerating entry into the US
The journey from Singapore to the Bay Area is not without its challenges. To help Singapore companies gain a foothold into the Bay Area, EnterpriseSG established an acceleration programme through its Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) initiative in 2019. Working with in-market players like Plug and Play helps to open doors for Singapore companies and provides insights into navigating the complexities of starting in a new city.
We see greater opportunities for Singapore companies in the market, especially in healthcare and biomedical, sustainability, digitalisation, advanced manufacturing and more. To facilitate the growing demand from more Singapore companies looking to establish a presence in the Bay Area, EnterpriseSG recently opened its San Francisco office, located in San Mateo.
Together with our offices in New York and Los Angeles, the new San Francisco overseas centre will provide Singapore companies with customer insights, help them identify projects and connect with the right partners as well as navigate regulations.
The US and Singapore have always enjoyed close economic ties, and EnterpriseSG will continue to look out for new areas of cooperation to deepen our bilateral relationship.
The writer is executive director of Americas and Europe at Enterprise Singapore
Source: The Business Times. Link: Here