Page 20 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE Vol 3

COUNTRY PORTRAIT‘There is no discriminationbetween local and foreign investors. There is no alienbusiness law. We open every single economicsector to foreigners and you can own 100%. There is no need totake a local partner. There will not be a nationalization of your investment.We cannot and we will not nationalizeinvestment in Cambodia’in ASEAN.” Last year’s elections strengthened political stability. “Now the opposition party joins the parliament and the ruling party has a majority of 68 seats in the assembly while the opposition party has 55 – enough to give the ruling party the freedom to pass laws.”Cambodia is a small open economy that gives a lot of incentives to investors. Corporate income tax is 20%, and only investor-friendly Singapore offers a better tax rate at 17.9%. Investors in Cambodia get a18 Elite+nine-year tax holiday and duty exemption for imported raw materials for factory production. But the most attractive aspect is the open-economy attitude of the government towards foreigners.“There is no discrimination between local and foreign investors,” he assured. “There is no alien business law, unlike in Thailand where the service sector is reserved only for Thai investors. We open every single economic sector to foreigners and you can own 100%. There is no need totake a local partner. There will not be a nationalization of your investment. We cannot and we will not nationalize investment in Cambodia.”Apart from impressive macroeco- nomic data, political stability and tax privileges from Western countries, the infrastructure of the country is improving.The country has completed a logistics network that opens the way for investors and tourists to come to Cambodia. The Asia Highway 1 linking Thailand, Cambodia and