Seoul (FN), May 17 – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet raised two initiatives to promote trade and investment of Korean investors in Cambodia.
The premier spoke at the opening ceremony of the Cambodia-Republic of Korea Business Forum on 16 May 2024 in Seoul, South Korea.
Samdech Thipadei highlighted that Cambodia seamlessly connects investors to a vast market through a network of regional and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) including ASEAN free trade area, ASEAN plus one FTA, RCEP, Cambodia-China FTA, Cambodia-Korea FTA and Cambodia-UAE FTA.
The Royal Government has established proactive mechanism to ensure a supportive and responsive environment for the success of existing and new businesses. In addition, the country achieved remarkable economic growth over the past two decades with an average gross annual growth rate of over 7% before COVID19 and the economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience with a swift recovery after the COVID19 pandemic.
Premier Hun Manet pointed out that he had a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on 16 May 2024. In that meeting, the promotional trade between two countries was the top of their priorities, in which private sector was a key role. In this case, Samdech Thipadei raised two initiatives to President Yoon. The first initiative is to the creation of a consultative mechanism by which Korean businesses can engage with Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) twice a year. This has been done in order to allow the opportunity for Korean businesses to have a chance to meet directly with government's bodies responsible for investments twice a year.
The premier continued that Cambodia has done this with Japan and offered that too business community in the US and Europe. Now, Cambodia is offering to business community and Korean investment in Cambodia, this to ensure that your concerned your issues can be listened to and have together find a solution in a timely manner because Cambodia cares about existing business in the kingdom.
“Our model is protecting the existing one while attracting the new one. If we cannot protect business that already in Cambodia and make environment for them to grow, we don't expect to attract new investment. This is the fact. So this has been a priority for the government,” the premier underscored.
The second initiative is to create an exclusive special economic zone for Korean firms. This is the aim to create an environment where Korean businesses can create an ecosystem or a supply chain model where the government of Cambodia can be a partner in providing a custom-made solution in timely manner to the Korean business communities. In this sense, Samdech Thipadei hoped that a task force between Korea and Cambodia can be created soon.
Samdech Thipadei added, “Through these two initiatives, we hope that we find a more creative, more responsive way to deal with concern of existing businesses while providing opportunity and models to catering toward the needs from business from Korea in the near future. This is what our incentive and our innovative approach of trying to improve the attractiveness and also the suitability to your need in Cambodia for Korean businesses and we hope that you take the opportunity to explore this new initiative.”
The premier hoped that with these initiatives more businesses, more private sector from Korea, find Cambodia as a good partner for this gross journey of them.
The Republic of Korea is one of Cambodia's largest trade and investment partners with a total bilateral trade volume of approximately USD 751 million, ranking 11th in 2023. In addition, The FDI from Korea last year stood at USD 30 million with total volume at USD 5 billion, ranking ninth in 2023.
Cambodia and Korea also signed the Cambodia-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA) in December 2022. Through the CKFTA agreement, it will make it easier for Korean investors to invest and export-import between the two countries with many domestic opportunities, along with the Royal Government of Cambodia's preferential investment policies.
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