Cambodian business official: Chinese enterprises can invest in any field in Cambodia

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was invited to visit China from February 9 to 11. In the joint statement, China and Cambodia said that they would take the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia in 2023 and the "China-Cambodia Friendship Year" as an opportunity to build a high-quality, high-level and high-standard community of shared future for China and Cambodia in the new era.
At the recent China-Cambodia Economic, Trade, Investment and Tourism Forum held in Beijing, Hun Sen said in his speech that Cambodia and China have close cooperation and great potential in economic, trade, investment, tourism and other fields. Cambodia looks forward to further deepening the docking of development strategies between the two countries, strengthening cooperation in economy and trade, infrastructure, tourism and other fields, and promoting the development of bilateral relations to a new level.
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In 2022, the trade volume between China and Cambodia reached US $16.02 billion, an increase of 17.5% year on year, reaching a new record. China has become Cambodia's largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years. The China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) came into force, and the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation between the two countries was further improved.
Ren Hongbin, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the economic and trade relations between China and Cambodia have maintained a good momentum of development, the cooperation between the business community has achieved fruitful results, and the bilateral trade and investment have reached a new high. As a major tourist destination for Chinese citizens in Southeast Asia, Cambodia has rich tourism resources. With the resumption of Chinese citizens' travel to Cambodia, the tourism cooperation between the two countries will stimulate great potential.
"In the past decade or so, Cambodia has maintained a high economic growth rate of about 7% before the COVID-19, which has significantly reduced social poverty and inequality, and entered the ranks of low - and middle-income countries in 2015." Minister of Commerce Pansousa of Cambodia pointed out that Cambodia's economic growth and development achievements are closely related to the cooperation between the Cambodian and Chinese governments in construction, clothing and footwear, services and other fields. The Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement is an important basis for broadening and implementing the Cambodia-China comprehensive strategic partnership and promoting economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.
Before the epidemic, China was the largest source of foreign tourists in Cambodia. In 2019, more than one third of the 6.6 million foreign tourists visiting Cambodia came from China. Tang Kun, Minister of Tourism of Cambodia, said that in order to provide better services to international tourists returning to Cambodia, especially Chinese tourists, Cambodia has made various preparations, such as strengthening the training of Chinese tour guides, encouraging the use and circulation of RMB in Cambodia, etc. It is estimated that Cambodia will receive about 4 million international tourists in 2023, including 1 million Chinese tourists.
China Tourism Group is the main force to promote Chinese tourists to travel to Cambodia. From 2014 to 2016, the Group opened three duty-free stores in Cambodia, including Angkor, West Port and Phnom Penh. Zheng Lijuan, General Manager of China Tourism Group Travel Service Co., Ltd., said that China Tourism Group's layout and tourism business exchanges in Cambodia have enriched tourists' consumption experience, and also created comprehensive benefits such as tax and employment for the local government. The growth of Chinese tourists has set off an upsurge in learning Chinese in Cambodia. She said that in 2023, the Group will take Cambodia as a major overseas destination for in-depth development, and lead domestic counterparts to focus on Cambodia, so that more Chinese people have the opportunity to experience Cambodia's long history, splendid culture and beautiful scenery.
The establishment of the "diamond six-sided" cooperation structure between China and Cambodia will inject important impetus into the construction of a community of shared future between China and Cambodia in the new era. In terms of capacity, the two sides agreed to deepen the docking and cooperation between China's "the Belt and Road" initiative and Cambodia's "Four Corners Strategy", and give full play to the role of China Cambodia capacity and investment cooperation mechanism. With a view to Cambodia's vision of building a multi-functional economic demonstration zone in Sihanoukville Province, the two sides discussed how to build an "industrial development corridor" and carry out more investment cooperation; In terms of energy, the two sides agreed to increase cooperation in clean energy, such as hydropower and photovoltaic, and explore green, environmentally friendly, stable and reliable energy cooperation schemes.
"Chinese entrepreneurs can invest in any field in Cambodia. Soqingda said that Cambodia has no restrictions on opening up all fields to foreign investment. It can be wholly foreign-owned and has no industry restrictions. The high-level political cooperation between Cambodia and China will provide a strong guarantee for Chinese enterprises to invest in Cambodia.
The China-Cambodia Economic, Trade, Investment and Tourism Forum was jointly hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia, and attended by about 300 representatives of the governments and business circles of the two countries.