Vietnamese business club plans new links
THE Vietnam business community is planning to establish the Vietnamese Business Club in Cambodia (VBCC) to enhance and accelerate trade and investment between the two neighbouring ASEAN countries.
Vietnamese ambassador to Cambodia Nguyen Huy Tang met with 50 Vietnamese business owners and representatives on January 16 to discuss the challenges and plans for establishing the club this year, which aims to connect all Vietnamese firms operating in Cambodia.
Lim Heng, vice-president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC), said the establishment will serve as a central place for businesspeople, where investors from the two countries can have direct dialogues and exchange views in order to seek investment opportunities or partnerships with each other.
He added that the CCC has set up six representative offices abroad in four countries – two each in Canada and Australia and one each in the US and Japan – to provide factual and updated information about Cambodia’s regulations, laws and economic development.
“Once our foreign chambers of commerce establish themselves, it signifies the respective country’s trust in investing and conducting business in our country. Their presence also plays a vital role in obtaining more up-to-date and relevant information from their respective countries,” Heng stressed.
In June last year, Cambodia commenced the construction of the Phnom Penh-Bavet Expressway, which connects to the Vietnamese border in Svay Rieng province. The project is expected to enhance tourism and freight traffic between the two countries.
According to the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), the expressway, a $1.3 billion investment by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), spans 135.1km and is being developed on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis over a period of 50 years and is expected to take four years to complete.
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam has shown steady growth, reaching $6.58 billion in 2023, marking a 7.3% increase from $5.613 billion in 2022, as reported by the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE).
Cambodia’s exports were valued at $2.97 billion for the year, up 37.1%, while imports from Vietnam amounted to $3.61 billion, a decrease of 8.9% year-on-year.
The Kingdom’s main exports to Vietnam include paddy rice, rubber, cashew nuts, cassava, corn, bananas, mangoes, tobacco and natural resources.
Imports from Vietnam consist of construction materials, machinery, fuel, electrical equipment, electronic components, agricultural fertiliser, spices, vegetables and fruits, as per the GDCE.