HCMC – The third Vietnam-Cambodia Investment Cooperation Conference was held on Sunday in Kien Giang Province, with the main aim to prop up economic ties between the two countries, especially investment.
The conference co-chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Cambodian counterpart Samdech Hun Sen was a chance for both sides to evaluate the investment cooperation achieved after the first and second conferences held in HCMC in 2009 and in Phnom Penh last year, according to Chinhphu.vn.
The two-way trade increased by 2.3 times, from nearly US$1.2 billion in 2007 to US$2.8 billion last year, with an average growth rate of nearly 25% per year and a high level of over 55% last year. The two-way trade amounted to nearly US$1.5 billion in this year’s first five months, up 30% from the year-ago period, despite encountering many difficulties.
Vietnamese enterprises have so far invested in over 110 projects in Cambodia with total registered capital of around US$2.4 billion. Many large-scale projects have been deployed smoothly, especially in telecom, aviation, banking, insurance, forestry and agriculture, contributing greatly to the socio-economic development of Cambodia.
The tourism cooperation of both countries has also increased. Specifically, the number of Cambodian tourists coming to Vietnam rose by three times in the 2007-2011 period with an annual growth rate of 29% while the growth of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia was nearly 46% per year, increasing by 4.5 times in the period.
Vietnam and Cambodia will to continue boost investment promotion activities, facilitating enterprises to seek investments especially in sectors that the two countries have development potentials or strengths.