2010-09-19 11:25

TIANJIN - Cambodia welcomes diversified investments from China, Keat Chhon, Cambodia's deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance said.

"Chinese investments have helped Cambodia reduce the gap with other Asian countries," Chhon said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

With official development assistance and foreign direct investment, China has helped Cambodia build infrastructure including roads, hydroelectric power projects, transmission lines and irrigation systems, he said.

Besides infrastructure, Cambodia welcomes all kinds of manufacturing industries, Chhon said.

Cambodia's industrial base is mainly reliant on the textile industry and the nation is taking steps to make its industry more competitive, said Yuan Bo, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

China's investment in Cambodia accounts for about 8 percent of its outbound investment in Southeast Asian Nations in 2008, according to official statistics.

Most of the Chinese investors were mainly focused on mature Southeast Asian Nations such as Singapore and Malaysia, but investment in Cambodia and Vietnam was increasingly active in the first half of 2010, with some relatively big projects being signed, said Yuan.

With a total investment of 2.4 billion yuan ($357 million), China Inner Mongolia Erdos Hongjun Investment Co will set up a joint venture with Cambodia International Investment Development Group to invest in an electric power plant in Cambodia, according to the official website of the Erdos government.

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Hongjun will own 51 percent of the joint venture. Two phases of the plant will be completed in 2013 and in 2014 respectively. Hongjun officials were not immediately available for comments.

Bilateral trade between China and Cambodia has surged on the back of the recent free trade agreement inked by the nation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The bilateral trade between the two nations reached $627 million in the first half of the year, a 37 percent growth over the same period last year, according to data from Customs.

China has provided duty exemption for more than 400 items or tariff lines for Cambodian products to enter the Chinese market.

"Cambodia mainly exports agricultural products to China. We are trying hard to take advantage of the favorable treatment to export more goods to China," said the deputy prime minister.