(MPI) - The Vietnam-Cambodia trade and investment promotion forum was co-hosted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, the Council for Development and the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on November 8, within the Vietnamese Prime Minister’ official visit to Cambodia.
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At the forum. Photo: VGP |
This is an important event within the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Year 2022 to promote economic, investment and trade cooperation - one of main pillars and priorities in the two countries’ comprehensive partnership.
Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1967, Vietnam and Cambodia has unceasingly reinforced and developed the good neighbourliness, traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation in all spheres, in which investment cooperation is one of the key pillars in the two countries’ priorities and has encouraging outcomes.
Vietnam has so far invested over 2.9 billion USD in 200 projects in Cambodia, focusing on such fields as agriculture, energy, telecommunications, banking and finance, processing industry, healthcare, trade and services. Cambodia ranked the second among 79 countries and territories receiving Vietnam’s overseas investment. Vietnam is also the top ASEAN investor and one of the five biggest foreign investors in the country.
Meanwhile, Cambodia now has 28 projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 70.12 million USD, mainly in agriculture, warehouse and transportation, and trade. Vietnamese authorities always pay attention to and create favourable conditions for Cambodian firms to invest and do business in the country, the minister said.
The minister proposed five groups of solutions to effectively foster the Vietnam-Cambodia relations. Firstly, besides joint efforts to consolidate and enhance investment cooperation in agriculture and forestry, telecoms, and banking, the two countries should promote investment in some promising fields like processing of clean agricultural and forest products, tourism, healthcare, education and high value-added industries.
Secondly, the two authorities should continue to speed up the implementation of the signed agreements to create a legal basis, ensure safe investment and business activities and tackle difficulties and obstacles faced by enterprises; particularly prioritising resources to implement the Framework Agreement on connecting Vietnam-Cambodia economies till 2030, as well as complete the project on building a master plan to connect the two economies.
Thirdly, both sides need to perfect the legal system and drastically improve the investment climate, focusing on administrative procedure reforms to ensure transparency, synchronisation and consistency in the promulgation and enforcement of laws while upgrading, completing infrastructure systems to enhance connectivity between the two economies and support the two countries’ investment and trade cooperation.
Fourthly, Vietnam and Cambodia should actively integrate into the international community and take advantage of external resources for development. With Vietnam’s extensive international integration and participation in numerous new-generation FTAs, the countries should effectively coordinate within the framework of ASEAN, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade agreement and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to bring Vietnamese and Cambodian goods to the international markets, and attract quality foreign investment from development partners.
Fifthly, the two countries’ business associations need to enhance their roles, step up connectivity and support investors to effectively operate. They should frequent coordinate with relevant agencies to protect the legal rights and interests of investors./.
Bao Linh
Ministry of Planning and Investment