The Ministry of Commerce and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) recently held a high-level meeting to discuss strategies to encourage the use of Khmer Riel and decided to promote price tag labelling in national currency as an important step.
The meeting was co-chaired by Yim Leat, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, and Serey Borapich, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Commerce, with the attendance of relevant officials.
The meeting was held with the aim to organize cooperation between the two institutions to promote the use of riel.
The meeting discussed the action plan of NBC as well as the various measures and policies of the Ministry of Commerce to encourage the wider use of riel in the economy.
Addressing the meeting, Leat said that NBC has also introduced electronic payment methods that contribute to the use of riel, besides making payments more efficient.
He praised the cooperation and efforts of the Ministry of Commerce, which contributed significantly to the promotion of riel in the past, especially the requirement to label price tags of products in shops and merchant outlets showing riel.
Promoting the use of riel requires the cooperation and coordination of all the authorities and all relevant parties, including the Ministry of Commerce, which is a key ministry, he said.
Cambodia has seen a big jump in the use of local currency riel over the past two decades, according to an NBC report.
With the objective of de-dollarizing the economy based on the market mechanism as a gradual approach, NBC has implemented various policy measures since the early 2000s.
The amount of riel in circulation has increased from 0.85 trillion riel (about $211 million) 20 years ago to 14.5 trillion riel (about $3.51 billion) by 2023.
The use of riel has gradually increased in terms of deposits, credits, and payment transactions in the country.
The US dollar flooded the Cambodian economy during the intervention of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) as part of their peace operations in the country in 1993, during which UNTAC spent $1.7 billion, equivalent to about 75 percent of Cambodia’s gross domestic product at that time, mostly on rent and local services.
