Yum Sui Sang, right, toasts one of the VIP members at the association’s annual party.

Mr. Yum Sui Sang, CEO of Union Commercial Bank, says UCB will enable customers to easily send money to China through remittances in Renminbi, the Chinese currency, in the next few months.

“We are planning to start our Renminbi remittance business by the end of the year,” Yum said.

Yum took time for an interview at the mid-Autumn festival celebration of The China Hong Kong & Macau Expatriate & Business Association of Cambodia at Diamond Island on Sept. 11, attended by Chinese Ambassador Mr. Pan Guangxue and many VIP association members, many of whom are factory owners Chinese businessmen. Yum serves as chairman of the Hong Kong and Macau Association.

Also on hand was a representative of the world’s largest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) which posted assets of US $1.9 trillion as of March, 2010.  Yum and UCB are working with ICBC and the China Development Bank (CDB) to facilitate the Renminbi remittance services.

“I think Cambodia has a very promising future due to, first, a stable political situation and second, an open market policy – and that is very important.  There is no foreign exchange control and that is very important.  The government is planning to attract more foreign investment.  We expect that in the coming months everything is going up,” Yum says.

“With the situation of Cambodia and I am looking forward that within five years Cambodia must have a very good future.  Among the ASEAN countries, Cambodia has very free speech, not too much playing politics and you can enjoy it when you come here,” he said.

Yum is 73 and a father of three.  He is joined in Cambodia by his son Simon, who also works at UCB.  His younger daughter lives in Hong Kong and works for Ocean Park, and his eldest son lives and works in San Francisco.

Unity in song: Chinese ambassador Pan Guangxue, centre, joins the heartfelt singing.

About 60 per cent of the members of Yum’s association are factory owners who came from the freewheeling atmosphere of Hong Kong and Macau.

“China is getting a lot of benefit from Hong Kong,” Yum says.

“It was the combination of East and West that made Hong Kong people very flexible and indust-rious. Years ago, people were scared of communist China, but after the return of Hong Kong and Macau to China, people understand they are playing by one country, two systems.’’

Yum is particularly proud of UCB’s Olympic branch, which opened only last November and is already UCB’s busiest branch. UCB employs more than 200 people and, according to Yum, is now searching for a suitable location for a new UCB branch in Phnom Penh. “We are professional bankers,” Yum says.  “We are very flexible.  If  you make money, we make money.”