Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam will increase to almost $2 billion in 2009 up from $1.62 billion in 2008, officials said Monday.
“In particular, imports from Vietnam are increasing a lot because of a rise in local market demand,” said Thon Virak, deputy director of the International Trade Directorate at the Ministry of Commerce. “Once our own markets are fulfilled, Cambodia continues importing from Vietnam and exports those goods to a third country,” he said.
Mr Virak said that trade between the two countries has steadily increased in recent years, adding that in 2007 bilateral trade stood at $427 million.
The steady rise in commercial links between the two countries, he said, was mainly due to a boom in the Cambodian construction sector, as well as a relative increase in Cambodia’s agricultural exports.
The rise in bilateral trade was summed up at a business forum in Jeju, South Korea, last week, when Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung both agreed to boost their economic ties.
At the forum, the two leaders agreed to encourage and facilitate domestic business expansion and co-operation in hydroelectricity, mining, information technology and rubber farming.
Trinh Ba Cam, spokesperson for the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh, said that bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam has been steadily increasing since 2006.
“It is much easier now for businesses to prosper with Vietnam,” he said. “The border crossings are being upgraded making it easier for customs officials.”
Kang Chandararoth, an economist at the Cambodia Institute for Development Study, said that the recent dispute with Thailand had meant many investors in Cambodia had chosen instead to do business with Vietnam.
“With more trade between the two countries, more investors will come to Cambodia, meaning more potential for local production,” he added.
(Additional reporting by Simon Marks)
