Cambodia had granted operating licenses to 606 new companies in the first quarter of this year, a 33 percent decrease compared with the 904 firms at the same period last year, the commerce ministry's report showed Tuesday.

Besides Cambodian-owned companies, those firms are run by mostly Chinese, South Koreas, Japanese, and Vietnamese. Foreign companies are mainly dealing in the businesses of garment and textile, footwear, agriculture, agro-industry, tourism, and construction and real estate.

Yim Rom, an official at the ministry's statistics and planning department, said the drop in new business registration was due to the ministry's restrictions on registration procedures by thoroughly examining proposed companies' business plans in order to ensure fair competition and to avoid duplicated trademarks.

Kang Chandararot, president of the Cambodia Institute of Development Study, said the restrictions will build more confidence for both local and foreign investors, saying that the decline in new company opening did not reflect slow economic growth.

In the whole year of 2012, Cambodia granted operating licenses to 3,385 new firms, a 9 percent rise year-on-year, the commerce report said.