Cambodia-China trade volume tops 11 bln USD in 2021, up 37 pct

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Trade volume between Cambodia and China was valued at 11.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up 37 percent from 2020, according to a report issued by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

Cambodia's export to China reached 1.5 billion dollars last year, a year-on-year increase of 39 percent, while its import from China was 9.6 billion dollars, a rise of 37 percent from 2020, the report said.

The main products the Southeast Asian nation shipped to China are milled rice, bananas, mangoes, dry rubber, cassava, fishery and apparels, and what it imported from China mostly are garment raw materials, machinery, vehicles, foodstuffs, electronics, medicines and cosmetics, among others.

Penn Sovicheat, Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's undersecretary of state and spokesman, said trade cooperation between the two countries has been rising against the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"China is a huge market for Cambodia, and despite the COVID-19, our bilateral trade volume has steadily increased," he told Xinhua. "Agricultural products such as rice, bananas and mangoes, among others are our potential goods for exporting to the Chinese market."

Sovicheat said the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA), which was entered into force on Jan. 1, 2022, would inject new impetus into the trade relations between the two countries.

"Under the CCFTA, we hope that Cambodia's export to the Chinese market will be bigger, especially the export of agricultural produce, industrial products, and processing goods, among others," he said.

He said the CCFTA will bring the proportion of zero-tariff products in the goods traded between Cambodia and China to more than 90 percent for both countries.