Rice, bananas, basa fish, quality Cambodian products as such have made more impression on the shopping lists of Chinese customers, a phenomenon that reflects the expansion of the industry between the two countries in recent years.
Official figures showed that, facilitated by the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), both of which came into force in January last year, the bilateral industry between the two sides has again reached a record. levels in 2022, expanding 17. 5% year-on-year to US$16. 02 billion.
The burgeoning industrial relationship, within the framework of the classic China-Cambodia friendship forged and painstakingly maintained through previous generations of Chinese and Cambodian leaders, is a treasure shared by the two peoples.
Today, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China-Cambodia relations have been further energized, and the construction of the China-Cambodia network with a shared long-term has reaped abundant harvests, bringing tangible benefits to both peoples and contributing to peace and prosperity in the region and beyond.
FRIENDS IN IRON
“I am very excited to work with you to fulfill our three-year commitment and usher in a new era of network building between China and Cambodia with a shared long-term term in early spring,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his meeting with the premier. . of the Kingdom of Cambodia Hun Sen on Friday in Beijing.
Three years ago, Hun Sen visited China at a demonstration and stood firm with other Chinese in their fight against COVID-19. The holding of this three-year meeting witnessed the unbreakable friendship between the two countries.
Joseph Matthews, a senior lecturer at BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said the closeness and speciality between Cambodia and China is characterized by deep ancestral feelings.
“Long-term political mutual acceptance as true and an equivalent remedy make Cambodia and China infallible friends,” he said.
China-Cambodia have stood the test of time for the past 65 years. Xi has held common interactions with Cambodian leaders to map out the plan for rapprochement between the two countries.
In April 2019, China and Cambodia took the initiative to point out an action plan to build a network with a shared long-term term. Under the leadership of the diplomacy of the head of state, China-Cambodia relations have reached new heights, and building a network with a shared long-term has yielded fruitful results.
China has provided all its aid and assistance to Cambodia’s development, helping the country build its first four-lane highway, cement plant, thermal power plant and largest hydroelectric power plant. help to China.
In the face of major global adjustments and the pandemic, never seen in a century, China and Cambodia have firmly promoted the construction of a network of shared destiny, setting an example of a new type of foreign relations, Mr. Xi said in a telephone conversation. exchange with Hun Sen last year.
COOPERATION IS WORTH THE SALE
Every day, the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville highway sees many cars pass by. Cambodia’s first road is one of the many historic achievements that the two countries have achieved within the framework of Belt and Road cooperation.
The 187km Chinese-invested highway linking Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh with the international deep-water seaport of Sihanoukville has attracted more than a million cars in the first 3 months since it opened to the public in October last year.
Sareth Sreypich, a 29-year-old toll booth manager, said the allocation has played a vital role in getting a better power and logistics formula in the Southeast Asian nation.
“Before, when we took National Route 4, it took us up to five hours, now, traveling on the road, it takes two hours,” she said excitedly.
Meanwhile, the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, jointly developed across China and Cambodia, has attracted more than 170 companies from around the world, creating only about 30,000 employment opportunities for the local population.
Bilateral economic and industrial cooperation has also borne fruit. China has been Cambodia’s largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years, and Chinese corporations had invested more than $10 billion in Cambodia by the end of 2022. And as Penn Sovicheat, Undersecretary of State and spokesperson for Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce, said, the upcoming RCEP and CKFTA has further deepened this cooperation.
Mak Chamroeun, president of e-commerce platform AgriBee (Cambodia), said RCEP and CKFTA will give a big boost to bilateral industry and investment relations, and expressed confidence that more Cambodian products, especially agricultural products, will be exported to China.
“RCEP and CKFTA will provide massive opportunities for Cambodian farmers, producers, processors, investors and exporters,” he said, adding that he believes more Chinese investors will flock to Cambodia’s technology, virtual economy and agricultural transformation sectors.
USEFUL ACTS, INSPIRING VISIONS
On Tuesday, Air China flight CA745, carrying about 125 Chinese tourists, arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport from Beijing and won a water cannon salute and a warm welcome from Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon.
Noting that the Southeast Asian country is expected to attract at least one million Chinese tourists in 2023, up from 110,000 in 2022, the Cambodian minister said: “China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market, so China’s outbound tourism recovery is very not only for Cambodia, but also for the whole world. “
Cambodia’s stance on China goes beyond the tourism sector. For years, the two countries have jointly carried out the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage, with the outstanding Angkor Archaeological Park as a good example.
Covering a domain of 401 km2, the site of Angkor is composed of dozens of key temples that reveal an ancient image of the capitals of the Khmer empire from the ninth to the fifteenth century, some of which, adding the Chau Say Tevoda temple, the Ta Keo temple and the Phimeanakas temple, China has helped repair since 1997.
“The Chinese team’s contribution to the conservation and recovery of Angkor Park is very historic. It’s very important,” said Long Kosal, deputy director general of the Apsara National Authority, a government firm to manage, safeguard and preserve the site. .
What China has done for Cambodia is not the only thing Cambodians see as useful. Chea Munyrith, president of the Cambodian Association of Chinese Evolutionary Researchers, said the Chinese government’s philosophy and experience have also mattered a lot for Cambodia’s development.
Learning from China’s poverty alleviation practices and taking into account the real situation in Cambodia, the Southeast Asian country carried out a poverty alleviation task in January 2021, which ended the lives of millions of Cambodians.
“Cambodia hopes to leverage China’s recently allocated resources for global progress cooperation, at a time when it wants every imaginable assistance to address those urgent global issues, such as COVID-19 reaction and vaccines, poverty reduction, food security, climate change. “and ecological progression,” said Sok Siphana, a senior adviser to Cambodia’s government.