Phnom Penh (FN), Feb. 14 – British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Edward Vaizey appreciated Cambodia's incredible progress and the trade relations between the two countries in a meeting with investors from the United Kingdom.
The praise was made during a meeting on Tuesday at the Ministry of Commerce chaired by Pan Sorasak, Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce, and Edward Vaizey on Cambodia- UK trade and investment cooperation.
The UK trade envoy noted a number of sectors with great potential for attracting more British investors, including health, agriculture, especially pepper, tourism, technology and construction sectors.
Minister of Commerce mentioned the trade situation between Cambodia and the UK, focusing on investment in the garment sector, particularly Marks and Spencer, which has placed a large order from Cambodian factories.
Meanwhile, the minister also raised some of Cambodia’s goals to enhance trade relations between the two countries through the establishment of Cambodia-UK bilateral free trade agreement, technical cooperation and to attract more investors from the UK.
He added that the free trade agreement was Cambodia's desire based on Brexit to ensure the preferential tariffs that Cambodia has received from the European Union's "Everything but Arms" (EBA) preferential system.
In terms of technical cooperation, the minister mentioned e-commerce, education and vocational training. For investment, the minister has highlighted Cambodia's strategic location in ASEAN region that is easy to export from Cambodia to ASEAN, other regional and global partners.
In addition, that fact that Cambodia's business climate allows foreign investors to own 100% of the company is also a major luring factor for investment, while companies from the UK with high standard and technical skills will provide additional benefits for domestic industry and trade.
Edward Vaizey agreed to the minister's requests and promised to continue the cooperation between the two countries.
The trade volume between Cambodia and the UK in 2017 is over $1 billion as Cambodia’s exports was bigger than the UK’s exports.
Cambodia exports clothing and footwear products to the UK, while the UK exports cars and electronics products to Cambodia.
