The government is pumping more money into its emergency rice loan fund ahead of next month’s rice harvest, raising the fund’s total capital to $50mn for this year. Kao Thach, CEO of the state-owned Rural Development Bank (RDB), said yesterday that the government had officially signed off on an additional $23mn for the fund, which he said should be sufficient to prop up the struggling rice sector. The government launched the fund with $27mn last September in response to private-sector demands for support. However, only $3.5mn of the available fund was utilized. Thach said the reason why the first package appeared unsuccessful was because millers were apprehensive over the instability of the market. He insisted that millers would respond more assertively in the coming season. Nevertheless, Tang Chhong Ngy, marketing manager of rice miller LBN Angkor (Kampuchea), said rice millers still had the same concerns over meeting the RDB’s collateral requirements. According to Ngy, the loan is necessary for rice millers, but the collateral is not in line with reality, which is why many have not been able to access the funding. (Source: Phnom Penh Post)