Cambodian, Chinese entrepreneurs meet to seek business chances

The 2013 China's Zhejiang and Cambodia matchmaking symposium was held in Phnom Penh on Tuesday to seek opportunities to expand business ties between China and Cambodia.

The Chinese delegation, comprised of 130 Chinese entrepreneurs from 62 enterprises, was led by Gong Zheng, Vice Governor of Zhejiang province, while Cambodian business people were led by Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh.

Gong Zheng said the Chinese firms are doing businesses in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure development, construction and real estate, mineral resources, food and beverage, manufacturing industries and the visit to Cambodia was to explore opportunities to promote trade and investment ties between the two countries.

He said the two-way trade between Zhejiang province and Cambodia was worth 460 million U.S. dollars last year, up 10 percent year-on-year.

Cham Prasidh said the forum would help strengthen friendship relations and deepen trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

He said that Cambodia's security and political stability and the country's investment law is conducive to investors.

"These are major factors to build confidence among investors," he said. "More importantly, labor costs here are also much cheaper if compared to other countries."

Kith Meng, president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said the country has one of the most favorable business environments in Asia because it has a unique array of trade relationships and agreements with all of the major importing countries and regions.

"We are already seeing increasing levels of investment from China, but we still look forward to greeting more Chinese investment."

According to a report of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, China is Cambodia's largest investor. From 1994 to 2012, Cambodia had received 9.17 billion U.S. dollar investment from China.

Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue said that the bilateral trade volume between China and Cambodia valued at 2.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, up 16 percent year-on-year.

At the symposium, Cambodian officials and business leaders had also presented those Chinese entrepreneurs with Cambodia's investment potentials and investment-related laws and incentives.

The half-day event was co-organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade-Zhejiang Subcouncil and Zhejiang Chamber of International Commerce in cooperation with the Council for the Development of Cambodia.