Cambodian,Chinese commerce ministers pledge to speed up co-op

Cambodia and China on Tuesday reiterated their commitments to boosting bilateral ties in trade and investment for the mutual benefits of the two countries' peoples.

Speaking to reporters after a 2-hour meeting with visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming on Tuesday night, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said that the trade between Cambodia and China was 2.5 billion U.S. dollars last year and the leaders of the two countries had decided to double this amount in the next five years.

Currently, Cambodia has received more and more investment from China thanks to strong relationship between the two governments, he said.

The minister added that Chen's visit to Cambodia would help further promote trade and investment ties between the two countries.

"In the meeting, we had discussed ways and means to help each other to promote more trade and investment from China to Cambodia," he said, adding that the two sides also discussed how Cambodia could export more cassava, corn and rice to China.

"Chen is very willing to support Cambodia to export more cassava, corn and rice to China, and he pledged to encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Cambodia in rice processing and garments," Cham Prasidh said.

He said currently, a couple of Chinese companies have invested in building sophisticated rice mills in Cambodia and their construction would be completed by the end of this year, and the country expected that it could export at least 300,000 tons of milled rice a year to China.

Chen arrived here on Tuesday afternoon to participate in the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting in order to discuss ways to increase trade and investment volume between ASEAN and China.