Vietnam exports to Cambodia forecast at US$1.6 billion
By Van Nam - The Saigon Times Daily
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| Vietnamese-made products displayed at an exhibition in Cambodia in 2006 - Photo: Le Quang Nhat |
HCMC – Vietnamese enterprises expect to export US$1.6 billion worth of goods to Cambodia this year, up from the US$1.1 billion recorded last year, said an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Chu Thang Trung, deputy director general of the ministry’s Department of Trade Policy for Asia-Pacific Markets, told the Daily on Tuesday that Cambodia had recently become one of the most potential Southeast Asian markets for Vietnam.
In the first six months of the year, he said, Vietnam’s shipments to the neighboring market amounted to US$728 million, a year-on-year increase of 34%.
Trung said the Vietnamese products for which the demand was running high in Cambodia included steel, machines, garment and textile materials, plastics, fertilizers, consumer goods and foodstuff.
To further promote local goods in Cambodia, Trung said, the HCMC Investment and Trade Promotion Center, or ITPC, will continue organizing two major exhibitions to introduce high-quality Vietnamese products to Cambodian consumers in late November with some 200 enterprises taking part.
Cambodia’s demand for Vietnamese products has rapidly increased in recent years. Two-way trade between the two countries has surged 30% a year on average since 2001.
Trung noted Cambodia was not only an increasingly important market for Vietnam but a key destination for investment as well.
Vietnamese enterprises have pledged around US$900 million in 63 projects in Cambodia and these projects have generated jobs for 30,000 local people. Vietnam is the third largest investor in Cambodia in terms of investor numbers after China and Korea.
The industries where Vietnamese enterprises are committed to Cambodia include finance, energy, telecommunications, agriculture and mineral mining.