This investment was one of four projects approved last week by the
Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), three of them located in
the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone. Kai Feng is building a plywood
production plant in the SEZ’s Westport Special Zone, the same district
where Mei An Leatherware will invest $10.5 million and create 1,000 jobs
in a new luggage factory. Amto Chemical Technology is building a paint
and glue factory in the Xigang SEZ within the Sihanoukville SEZ. The
outlier is Golden Sun Fashion Apparel’s 926-job, $5 million garment
factory in Phnom Penh’s Phusenzhi District. In an interview with The
Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia Chamber of Commerce Vice President Lim Heng
credited the uptick in project approvals to “the improving political
situation, peaceful environment, more favorable investment laws, an
upswing in trade with more trading partners, benefits from bilateral and
multilateral free trade agreements (FTA) and progress on new deals, as
well as favorable tariffs provided by a slew of countries.” The Chamber
recently opened its first overseas office in Toronto.
Chicago-based investment research firm Morningstar last week announced
it’s adding 350 jobs in Toronto this year, bringing its Canadian payroll
to more than 1,000 employees. The new openings include approximately 250
technology roles for positions such as software engineer and developer,
product manager and project manager. The remaining roles will be in ESG
and credit rating capacities. “When we decided to grow our footprint in
Canada, Toronto was the obvious choice,” said Kunal Kapoor, CEO of
Morningstar Inc. “Toronto is a world-class city with a thriving
technology sector and a wealth of financial industry talent.”
Morningstar has operations in 29 countries.
As documented by The New York Times earlier this month, while some states
are trying to lure bitcoin mining operations, others aren’t so sure. New
York has passed the nation’s first moratorium, imposing “a two-year
ban on new cryptocurrency mining permits, specifically at fossil-fuel
burning plants, which some businesses have repurposed to power the
energy-intensive activity,” the paper reported, noting incentives to attract
the industry that passed recently in Kentucky and Illinois. Look to
resources such as Frost Brown Todd to get the lay
of the land in this dynamic industry.
PHOTO OF THE
DAY
Photo courtesy of Mason Morse Ranch
Company
A release last week announced the May sale of the Kremer Ranch,
encompassing 16,517 acres of deeded and BLM acres in the heart of the
Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. In addition to ample livestock and equine
facilities, the property boasts 2.5 miles of frontage along the Shoshone
River, rated among the top 10 freestone trout fisheries in the Rocky
Mountains, where several subspecies of cutthroat trout can be landed.
(Freestone means naturally fed by snowmelt and rainfall.) “Teddy
Roosevelt once called the North Fork corridor the most scenic 50 miles
of land in America,” said the release from Mason Morse Ranch Company,
noting that destinations surrounding the ranch include the Bighorn
National Forest, Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge, Medicine Lodge
Archaeological Site, Red Gulch Dinosaur Track Site, Shell Falls,
Paintrock, and the famous ancient Medicine Wheel. “Wyoming has low
property taxes, low sales tax, and no personal income tax,” the company
said, “and is becoming a place to live, work and play.”
