PHNOM PENH, Oct. 14 -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Friday expressed his gratitude to the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) for always supporting development projects in Cambodia, a senior official said.

The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with Exim Bank's Chairwoman Hu Xiaolian at the Peace Palace here.

"The prime minister thanked the bank, saying that it played an important role in supporting Cambodia to carry out development projects," Kao Kim Hourn, a minister attached to the prime minister, told reporters.

Hun Sen said the government's national development strategy still identified four priority areas, namely, roads, water, electricity and human resources.

He suggested that the Exim Bank retain the same interest rate for concessional loans and accelerate its evaluation process for projects proposed by Cambodia.

The prime minister also suggested Hu to help encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in Cambodian agriculture, particularly in rice sector.

Hu said the bank was pleased to assist Cambodia in its socio-economic development, adding that to date, the bank has supported 77 projects in Cambodia, focusing on four areas, namely agriculture, energy, roads, and rural development.

According to Kao, the bank has provided concessional loans to Cambodia for the construction of roads in a total length of over 2,250 km, the construction and rehabilitation of irrigation system that could irrigate the farm land of 450,000 hectares, and other projects in electricity and agriculture.