Backing China-Cambodia shared future

As participants in the China-Cambodia community with a shared future, Chinese companies can inject new impetus for promoting bilateral trade and development, a business leader has said.

"Over the past few years, with the strategic leadership of the two leaders and joint efforts of the two peoples, the China-Cambodia community with a shared future has made significant progress," said Lin Shiqiang, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia.

Despite the pandemic, bilateral trade volume between China and Cambodia reached $11.1 billion in 2021, achieving the goal of $10 billion two years ahead of the 2023 schedule, said Lin, noting also that China is Cambodia's biggest trading partner and biggest source of foreign investment.

As Cambodia makes efforts for economic recovery, Lin said he believes more investment from China and other countries will flow into Cambodia, which will be conducive for industrial upgrade and the improvement of Cambodia's supply chain. "This will, for sure, enhance Cambodia's position in the global industrial distribution," he said.

"The construction of new infrastructure projects like the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport and the Huadian Sihanoukville power plant also demonstrated the determination of Chinese companies to invest and develop in Cambodia," Lin said.

Nearly 9,000 vehicles traveled on Cambodia's first expressway on Oct 1, the first day of its opening for trial use, the country's Ministry of Public Works and Transport said, according to Xinhua.

Investing in the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway was the China Road and Bridge Corporation. The $2 billion expressway, with a total length of 187 kilometers, connects the capital city and the deep-sea port province of Preah Sihanouk.

Lin said the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia has nearly 300 member companies, creating job opportunities and making huge contribution to Cambodia's economy through key infrastructure projects and industrial zones.

For example, the Chinese-invested Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, the largest industrial zone in terms of size and occupancy, has created nearly 30,000 jobs for the local community, Lin said.

In line with the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, which focuses on people's livelihood and development, Lin said the economic and trade cooperation between China and Cambodia has created business opportunities for Cambodia's agriculture industry and related products, helping local farmers get out of poverty.

China remained the largest buyer of Cambodian rice during the first half of this year. The Southeast Asian country exported 168,280 tons of milled rice to China, up 17.4 percent year-on-year and accounting for 51.4 percent of the country's total exports of the commodity, according to Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

"China also authorized the import of Cambodian agricultural and fishery products including mango, banana, corn and Pangasius catfish, which injected new impetus in cooperation, brought substantial benefits to the two peoples and reflected the necessity and feasibility of the GDI," said Lin.

Noting this year marks the first year for building the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership, Lin said China and Cambodia, as ironclad friends and a community with a shared future, need to continuously promote cooperation in infrastructure, industrial capacity, the digital economy and the green economy.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia is the bloc's chair this year.

"(China and Cambodia) can also work on new areas of economic and trade cooperation, coordinate and promote key projects, expand the exports of agricultural products from Cambodia to China, deepen anti-pandemic cooperation, and push bilateral trade to a new level," said Lin.

Noting that bilateral trade has been expanding rapidly with the coming into force of the China-Cambodia free trade agreement on Jan 1, Lin said the agreement, Cambodia's first bilateral FTA, is of vital importance for the building of the China-Cambodia community with a shared future and Cambodia's socioeconomic development.

In the first seven months of this year, trade volume between the two countries was valued at $6.97 billion, up 15.6 percent year-on-year, according to Cambodia's General Department of Customs and Excise.

Lin said the signing of the China-Cambodia FTA showed the two countries' support for peace and development and the liberalization of trade and investment.

Lin said the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia will continue to contribute to economic and trade integration between China and Cambodia based on the principle of win-win cooperation.