Ho chi minh city: The Vietnam-Cambodia Business Networking Conference was held on July 15 in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City aiming to bolster trade and investment between the two neighbouring countries. Neak Oknha Kith Meng, President of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and Chair of ASEAN Business Advisory Council, led a CCC delegation to participate in the event.
According to Agence Kampuchea Presse, the conference was organised by the CCC in cooperation with the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Vietnam-Cambodia Business Federation Association (VCBA). It was attended by senior leaders from the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and more than 200 Cambodian and Vietnamese businessmen, with the aim of strengthening economic ties, promoting bilateral trade and investment, and seeking broader markets for Cambodian products.
Speaking at the event, Neak Oknha Kith Meng mentioned the significantly increasing economic relations between Cambodia and Vietnam, with the two countries setting an ambitious goal of achieving a total bilateral trade of US$20 billion in the coming years. Apart from trade, Vietnam is a major investor among the five other foreign investors in Cambodia, with over 200 projects worth nearly US$3 billion in sectors such as agriculture, telecommunications, banking, finance, food processing, mining, aviation, and tourism.
The CCC president encouraged Vietnamese companies to invest in Cambodia and to build on the strong ties and real business initiatives that emerged from the discussions at the conference. Chairman of the VCBA, Oknha Leng Rithy, expressed his hope that with the close attention and coordination of the governments of the two countries, Vietnamese enterprises in Cambodia will continue to develop and contribute positively to the socio-economic development of the two countries, as well as strengthening the traditional friendly relations between both nations.
He asked the CCC to continue joining hands to strengthen the ties so that Vietnamese enterprises can invest in Cambodia and vice-versa to benefit and exploit the strengths of the two countries for mutual development. In 2024, the bilateral trade volume between the two neighbours increased significantly, reaching more than US$10 billion, up 53 percent compared to the previous year.