Cambodia's trade with Thailand up 8% [-Thailand is catching up with Vietnam?]

2011-10-17
Xinhua

PHNOM PENH - Trade between Cambodia and Thailand went up 8 percent in the first eight months of this year to $1.93 billion, according to the statistics provided by Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Cambodia's export to Thailand was 125.6 million dollars, down 17 percent, year on year, while Thailand's export to Cambodia amounted to 1.8 billion dollars, a 10 percent rise.

Jiranan Wongmongkol, director of the Thai embassy's Foreign Trade Promotion Office in Phnom Penh, said Cambodian and Thai trade has begun to see better recovery since the Pheu Thai Party led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra came to power in August.

"We project that through restoring good relations between the two nations, the bilateral trade will grow around 20 percent this year," she said.

Kong Putheara, director of statistics department at Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce, agreed that trade between the two countries would re-grow well from now on after it has slowed down since early this year due to the large-scale border clashes in February and April.

Cambodia and Thailand have had sporadic border conflict over territorial dispute near the Preah Vihear temple since the UNESCO listed the 11th century Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

Since then, both sides have built up military forces along the border and periodic clashes have happened, resulting in the deaths of troops and civilians on both sides.

However, the border tension has been eased since Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory in the July 3 general elections and the two countries' leaders have announced efforts to build "a new era of good cooperation between Cambodia and Thailand".