Cambodia highlighted market potentials for foreign investors

Cambodia highlighted market potentials for foreign investors

Hundreds of businesspeople from China and Cambodia on Wednesday met in a seminar of the “ China -ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and the potentials of the Cambodia Markets” in Phnom Penh city to seek opportunity to invest in their respective countries.

The event was conducted by the Commerce Chamber of Cambodia (CCC) and China council for the promotion of international trade Guangzhou council and it provided the business community to know each other that led to expand business and trade for mutual benefits.

“Now, Cambodia is the best place for investment because the country is peaceful and political stability. Labor force is large and growing and at the same time, the economic growth predicts to increase more this year,” the statement from the Commerce Chamber of Cambodia said in the event. Cambodia still has rooms to attract investors on many fields from agriculture and high-tech especially attraction from Chinese investors because the two countries have had long historic relationship,” it noted.

It continued that since peace has come to Cambodia , China ’s involvement in Cambodia has continued to grow. Over the last 15 years, china has invested over 6 billion US dollars in Cambodia , in areas such as hydropower, trading, tourism, agriculture, telecommunication and infrastructure.

“Investment of infrastructure, china has built more than 1500km of roads and Chinese companies are constructing a number of very large hydro dams,” the statement stresses.

“We have to strengthen cooperation and we are so genuine in willingness to work together for mutual benefits, the statement from CCC said, adding that it is in spirit of working together for mutual benefits that ASEAN and china has signed a free trade agreement. This creates the world’s biggest free trade areas, liberalizing billions of dollars in goods and investments covering a market of 1.7 billion consumers.

“The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement will rival the European Union and the North American free trade area in terms of value and surpass those markets in terms of population. It is truly historic, it added. the trade data from Chinese side, the China-ASEAN bilateral trade volume in January reached 21.48 billion U.S. dollars, up 80 percent year-on-year, of which China exported 10.55 billion U.S. dollars to ASEAN, a year-on-year increase of 52.8 percent, and imported 10.93 billion U.S. dollars from ASEAN, up 117.3 percent year-on-year. All growth rates are higher than the year-on-year level of China 's overall foreign trade. The statistics from EU, after the US and China , the group of ASEAN countries is the EU's 3rd largest trade partner outside Europe . Trade in goods and services between the EU and ASEAN has grown by more than a quarter between 2004 and 2008, reaching € 175 billion in 2008.
“you all have chosen a very good time to visit Cambodia . This country has developed significantly in recent years and continues to do so, the statement from CCC said, adding that in fact, it comes as a surprise to many to discover that prior to the Global Financial Crisis; Cambodia was one of the economic stars of Asia, with GDP growth second only to your own country. Over the previous decade, Cambodia ’s GDP growth was the 7th highest in world.

This remarkable economic performance led to an emerging middle class. In just the 5 years leading up to the crisis, per capita income increased by over 5 per cent. While Cambodia had a difficult year in 2009, it is now experiencing a strong rebound in growth in 2010.

“We believed that in the coming year, Cambodia will return to being one of the best performing in economies in Asia, the statement of CCC said, adding that the poor of labor is large and growing, the political environment is stable, and ongoing investments in infrastructure, in areas such as roads, the railway and electricity, will significantly enhance Cambodia ’s competitiveness.
So longer term, it would not surprise me to Cambodia return to GDP growth approaching 10%, roughly in line with China, presenting plenty of opportunities for many of you in the room today.

“ China has already been investing agriculture in Cambodia , and significantly opportunities still exist. Cambodia has a very large supply of arable land, the Mekong traverses the country along with other sources of water and a large labor force exists on rural areas,” it emphasized.

By combing china’s experience in developing a manufacturing base with an increasingly reliable electricity supply here, and large and relatively low cost labor force, we can rapidly grow Cambodia ’s manufacturing industry. Improvements in both the road and rail system will permit easier movement of goods around the country and to export points, particularly for Greater Mekong Countries, it added, noting there are just a few of the exciting opportunities before us. There has been no better time than today to invest in Cambodia .

“Even the global economic crisis affected global trade, the total trade volume between Cambodia-Guangzhou was worth about 3.7 million US dollars equaling 1.83% increase if comparing the same period of last year,”Yu Ruheng, vice president of the china council for the promotion of international trade Guangzhou (Canton) council.

“ASEAN –china trade agreement is really a new chance for two countries to be close together. According to trade, Guangzhou imported Cambodia about 1.3 million US dollars increasing about 46.3 %. “We have to foster and expand more trade,” Yu Ruheng said.

“We will join the international fair in Cambodia in the future and currently we push up to import into Cambodia like spare parts for machines, materials of electricity, materials of weaving, furniture, and light products, medicine, and healthy products,’ he stressed. ###