Harrison White
Cambodia’s only fully Singaporean-owned commercial bank, Phillip Bank Plc, is continuing to bring its strong corporate ethos – and Singapore way of doing business – to Cambodia’s banking sector.
Director and Shareholder’s Representative of Phillip Bank, Mr. Ong Teong Hoon, told Cambodia Investment Review that the bank is first and foremost about customer-centricity in its approach to doing business as well as transparency in its processes and pricing.
“Phillip Bank is striving towards being a high-tech and high-touch bank, and focus on staff development, with our corporate ethos emphasis on developing people to their fullest capacity,” Mr. Ong said.
“Our vision to delight customers, grow people and benefit communities reflects the Singapore way of doing business,” he added.
The bank, which is under its parent company PhillipCapital Group, follows the model, ethos, and values of the entire network of businesses spread across 15 countries around the world.
According to Mr. Ong, investors from Singapore share common traits with the Singaporean bank in a way that constantly strive for excellence and integrity in all business dealings.
“Our [Phillip Bank’s] knowledge of the way things are done in Singapore makes it easier to communicate between investors from Singapore and our bank, especially with the use of “Singlish”, our mix of English, Mandarin, dialects, and Malay,” he said.
PhillipCapital Group operates under a strong corporate ethos that binds all of its group offices with its parent company, and of course, its bank in Cambodia. The group also has two other major Cambodian investments in Phillip Life Assurance and Phillip General Insurance. Phillip Bank also has a property arm, called Agility Property Services Cambodia Co., Ltd. as well as an organic fertilizer factory called Twin Agri Tech Co., Ltd.
As part of its robust strategy to provide financial solutions to every Cambodian, Phillip Bank supports the full range of Cambodian entrepreneurs, including banking products catering to Small & Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs).
The bank believes this newly developing sector plays an increasingly important role in the growth of the Cambodian economy. Because of this, Phillip Bank sees great opportunities to strengthen and support the dynamic growth of SMEs in addition to its existing expertise and services to retail, corporate and micro-enterprise customers.
Singaporean investors have been active in Cambodia’s development and promotion of the technology and digital sectors, with the most prominent area being tourism and hospitality.
Singapore’s investments in Cambodia reached $1.29 billion between 1994 and 2020. Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Singapore reached $4.2 billion in 2020. Senior officials of the two nations are optimistic that trade figures will increase further in 2021.
