To diversify Cambodia’s export industries and attract foreign direct investment, government officials and Japan International Cooperation Agency experts agreed last week on two new zones offering fiscal incentives for development in a special growth corridor, government officials said.
More than 150 government and private sector officials gathered at the fourth seminar on the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Growth Corridor to discuss the viability of free zones and promotion zones within the growth corridor, covering the municipalities and their surrounding five provinces, JICA study team leader Koji Yamada said.
The special promotion zones would be clearly delineated economic zones to attract foreign investment by applying different economic principles, tax systems and institutional procedures favorable to multinational companies.
“The special promotion zone… aims to encourage, promote, induce and accelerate a sound and balanced industrial, economic and social development as a whole,” Yamada said.
The fenced-in free zone would serve as a separate customs territory handling the export and processing of high-value materials. The promotion zone could be used as a promotional area for industrial, servicing, agro-industrial and tourist and recreational activities, one study said.
Ma Sun Hout, technical director for the Sihanoukville port, said authorities are seeking to attract foreign investment to the port area because it offers 50 hectares of land for hosting medium-sized processing and assembling factories.
“It is the right site for investment projects. It is close to our port, which is easy for exporting,” Ma Sun Hout said, adding that 20,000 jobs would be created.
Behind the Sihhanoukville port, a 240-meter-long container terminal would be expanded to 400 meters, said Lou Kim Chhun, Sihanoukville Port Authority’s general director. A 265-meter-long general cargo terminal, equipped with container handling facilities and an information system for the port’s management and operation, also would be created, he said.