In order to promote the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, the Ministry of Commerce of China, the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia, and the Council for the Development of Cambodia jointly hosted the 2022 China-Cambodia Trade and Investment Forum on May 18 with the theme of "Sharing Development Opportunities and Creating Regional Prosperity". Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming, Cambodian Ministry of Commerce’s State Secretary and Spokesperson Seang Thay, Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia Wu Guoquan and other officials addressed the forum. CFNA vice president Rong Weidong made a speech on strengthening China-Cambodia agricultural cooperation during the industrial discussion session.
Vice president Rong Weidong said that China-Cambodia agricultural trade cooperation is promising. In the past five years, the total trade volume of agricultural products between China and Cambodia has shown an upward trend year by year, from US$180 million in 2017 to US$670 million in 2021, with an average annual growth rate of 25.2%, a 3.6-fold increase in exports, and a 2.5-fold increase in imports. China is Cambodia's largest export market for rice and bananas. Cambodia is China's second largest importer of bananas and the sixth largest importer of rice. There is a lot of room for cooperation in agricultural trade between China and Cambodia.
Rong Weidong said that CFNA is willing to carry out different forms of cooperation with the Cambodian government, Embassy and Consulates, industrial associations and related enterprises: firstly, to strengthen information exchange, and to promote Cambodian agricultural trade and investment policies through different platforms of CFNA; secondly, to jointly host online and offline promotion meetings, and to invite the Cambodian side to participate in CFNA’s industrial conferences and other activities; thirdly, to build connections with relevant Cambodian associations and to carry out cooperation in information exchange, trade promotion, investment promotion and other aspects, so as to build bridges between Chinese and Cambodian enterprises, deepen mutual understanding , and to achieve mutual-beneficial and win-win result.
The forum is jointly organized by China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products and the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce. It set separate venues in Beijing and Phnom Penh and is held in a hybrid format. More than 300 companies from the two countries attended the forum, and the scale of online and offline participation exceeded a thousand people.
