HANOI: Viet Nam was among Cambodia’s top five investors as of last April with US$3.2 billion in 171 projects. It is also Cambodia’s third largest trade partner with bilateral trade topping $3.3 billion as of 2015, Vietnamese Commercial Counselor Nguyen Bao said, noting the two countries are striving to raise the figure to $5 billion.
The information was released at a seminar held in Phnom Penh on Tuesday by the Vietnamese embassy, the Vietnamese Business Association in Cambodia (VBAC), and the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Cambodia (AVIC).
Executives from Vietnamese firms in Cambodia called on the Vietnamese Government to create more favourable conditions for them to do business to help boost bilateral economic, trade and investment ties. They also called for overhauling the VBAC to promote solidarity and create a strong business community that could contribute much to socio-economic development in both countries.
Vietnamese ambassador to Cambodia Thach Du highlighted the great potential for economic co-operation between the two countries, describing Vietnamese businesses as a key conduit to step up economic links in a rapid and sustainable manner. He asked the VBAC to update its members on the two countries’ new policies and regulations on nationality, finance, accounting, and tax, and loan access, among others.
It should team up with the AVIC, local business associations and Vietnamese Embassy’s commercial office to advise Vietnamese businesses on investment opportunities in Cambodia and organise visits for them to survey the market.
More than 50 Vietnamese projects are operational in Cambodia – including rubber plantations by the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group and the Viet Nam Rubber Group, Cambodia Five-star Fertiliser Production Plant, Cho Ray-Phnom Penh Hospital, sugar-ethnol-thermopower compound production plant and several financial, aviation and telecom projects. Du said there is still room for growth in economic co-operation between the two countries.
