Cambodia’s total trade volume was valued at $22.4 billion in the first five months of 2022, up 19.7 percent from 18.7 billion dollars over the same period last year, an official report showed on Monday.
The kingdom’s total exports were worth $9.41 billion during the January-May period this year, up 34.5 percent year-on-year, and total imports reached $13 billion, up 11 percent, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise’s report.
China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, followed by the United States, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, the report said, adding that the Sino-Cambodian trade volume hit $4.99 billion, up 26 percent.
Cambodian Ministry of Commerce’s undersecretary of state and spokesman Penn Sovicheat attributed the remarkable growth to Cambodia’s high vaccination rates, free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as market diversification.
“The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact and the Cambodia-China FTA (CCFTA) are the key factors for boosting our trade growth,” he told Xinhua.
“We expect that the upward trend will continue throughout this year and in coming years.”
Sovicheat said China is a huge market for the southeast Asian nation and that trade cooperation between the two countries will continue to soar in the future.
“Under the RCEP trade deal and the CCFTA, we’re confident that Cambodia’s export to the Chinese market will be bigger, especially the exports of potential agricultural produce such as rice, bananas and mangoes, industrial products, and processing goods,” he said.
Cambodia has fully resumed its socio-economic activities and reopened its borders to vaccinated travelers without quarantine since last November after most of its population have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The kingdom has administered one dose of COVID-19 vaccines to over 15 million people, or 93.7 percent of its 16 million population, the health ministry said, adding that of them, 14.34 million, or 89.6 percent, have been fully vaccinated with two required shots.
According to the health ministry, Cambodia has become a COVID-Zero state since June 7.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
