Cambodian, Vietnamese businesses meet to boost trade, investment

[XINHUA]

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 19 -- Approximately 200 Vietnamese and Cambodian businesspeople gathered here on Monday afternoon to find ways to boost bilateral trade and investment.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by Nguyen Sinh Hung, chairman of Vietnamese National Assembly and Cambodian businesspeople led by Heng Samrin, president of Cambodia's National Assembly.

Speaking during the meeting, Hung said that Vietnam was committed to helping develop Cambodia through investments in various sectors ranging from agriculture, agro-industry, mineral resources, oil and gas exploration, construction, telecommunication, aviation, banking and finance, health and tourism.

According to the reports of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, Vietnam is Cambodia's 6th largest investor with the total investment of 812 million U.S. dollars from 1994 to July 2011.

"We will encourage more Vietnamese investors to Cambodia in order to cement the bilateral relations between our two neighbors," Hung said. "We want to see our neighbor prosperous and the people live in decent living condition."

On the trade side, Cambodian and Vietnamese trade was 1.35 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, 57 percent rise, compared to the same period last year, according to the figure from the Embassy of Vietnam to Cambodia.

"As Cambodia's good neighbor, I believe that Vietnamese investments in Cambodia will be doubled in the few coming years," said Heng Samrin. "Cambodia welcomes and fully supports good Vietnamese investors to do businesses in the country."