The state-owned Small and Medium Enterprise Bank of Cambodia Plc (SME Bank) on Thursday soft-launched banking operations, it said in a press release.
SME Bank described its mission as “to provide financing and commercial banking services in an effective and sustainable manner to support local small and medium-sized (SMEs) with an objective to increase economic diversification and expand export volume”.
It said it strives to provide four main value added benefits to the SME community – better and affordable access to financing; technical assistance to SMEs to enhance their productivity and efficiency; downstreaming business advisory support; and facilitating access to regional markets.
SMEs can borrow up to $200,000 for working capital and $300,000 for investment capital with a maximum interest rate of seven per cent per year and a repayment period of seven years.
SME Bank stressed that it “aspires to be consistent and align itself with the strategic goal of the Royal Government of Cambodia”.
“As set out under the Cambodia Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025, the bank will provide better and affordable access to financing for SMEs in key priority sectors – food manufacturing and processing; manufacturing of local consumption goods, waste recycling and production of goods for the tourism sector.
“[Additional priority sectors include] manufacturing of finished products, spare parts or assembling parts to supply other manufacturers; R&D [research and development] associated with IT [information technology] or the supply of IT-based services; and enterprises located in SME cluster zones and enterprises developing the cluster zone,” it said.
SME Bank said it offers a wide-range of SME-tailored loan products and services under government initiatives such as the SMEs Co-Financing Scheme (SCFS) and Cambodia SME Scheme (CSS).
“The bank will also be extending various loan schemes, [such as the] Cambodia Women Entrepreneurs Scheme [CWES] and Cambodia Digital & Automation Scheme [CDAS] in the coming months.
“In addition to the above products and services that are offered to SMEs, SME Bank of Cambodia is glad to introduce other banking services comprising Savings Account, Junior Saver Account, Retirement Account, Current Account and Term Deposit Account,” it said.
SME Bank CEO Dexter Tan in June said the bank had allocated about 10 per cent of its total capital to SMEs, adding that he hoped that the full $100 million would be released by the end of the year.
There are currently 33 financial institutions involved in the SCFS – SME Bank, 23 commercial banks, two specialised banks, five microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs) and two microfinance institutions (MFIs).
SME Bank is located at #30, Pasteur Street (Street 51) on the corner of Prey Nokor Street (Street 126) in Daun Penh district’s Phsar Thmey I commune in Phnom Penh.
