Vietnam, Cambodia Meet Over Trade, Security

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 03 August 2010

“Both sides agreed to create favorable conditions and further encourage trade and services in the border areas.”

Interior Minister Sar Kheng met with his Vietnamese counterpart on Tuesday in talks aimed at improving trade and relations among provinces along the border.

Trade volume between the two increased more than 120 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year. But smuggling and other trade barriers remain.

“Both sides agreed to create favorable conditions and further encourage trade and services in the border areas,” according to a government statement released following Tuesday's meeting.

The two sides also agreed to provide each other with trade preferences, simplify import and export procedures and enhance the prevention of contraband.

“Both sides also agreed to consider the possibility of upgrading the border checkpoints and/or to establish additional new border checkpoints,” according to the statement.

Officials along the border provinces say they need more work done to capitalize on trade, but that Vietnamese investment has begun to bring jobs.

“We do not have the Vietnamese in our province across the border because the road across the border has not been developed yet,” said So Neak, provincial governor of Ratanakkiri.

However, there is some trade, mostly of tools, fruit, cement and fertilizer imports, as well as rice, rubber, cassava and soybean exports.

There, Vietnamese rubber plantations have been established, employing more than 4,000 people, he said.

Similar Vietnamese plantations have employed more than 3,000 Cambodians in Kratie province, Governor Kham Phoeun told VOA Khmer.

“The Vietnamese investment and trade exchange helps boost our people's living, tax collection and work for Cambodians,” he said.

Trade between Cambodia and Vietnam down 26 per cent

Wed, 06 Jan 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - The global economic crisis caused a 26 per cent slump in trade between Cambodia and Vietnam through November, but officials in both countries expect a strong rebound this year, national media reported Wednesday. Two-way trade between the south-east Asian neighbours stood at 1.175 billion dollars, statistics released by the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh revealed. Vietnamese exports to Cambodia made up the lion's share, worth 1.017 billion dollars.

The commercial attache at the Vietnamese embassy told the Cambodia Daily newspaper that trade would likely double between the two nations this year. That echoed earlier comments made by Cambodia's commerce minister.

"The economic (ties) between Vietnam and Cambodia in investment and trade are growing," said the embassy's Le Bien Cuong, predicting improved figures in a number of areas particularly commodities and construction materials.

Vietnam, a close political ally, is also a key investor in Cambodia with significant interests in agribusiness, telecoms and banking. Last month the two nations signed an agreement that could result in investments worth billions of dollars, including one for a bauxite mining concession.

Exports of fuel and steel products totalling 560 million dollars made up more than half of Vietnam's exports to Cambodia. Bilateral trade stood at 1.64 billion dollars in 2008, up from 1.2 billion dollars the previous year.

Vietnam, Cambodia boost cooperation

12/24/2009
VNA/VOV News

In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam’s total investment in Cambodia reached US$400 million

A meeting between Vietnamese and Cambodian businesses was held in Phnom Penh on December 23 by the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee.

The event aimed to connect Vietnamese firms, including those in the southern province of Dong Nai, with Cambodian partners for trade and business collaborations.

The Vice Chairman of the Dong Nai Province People’s Committee, Ao Van Thinh, emphasised his province’s advantages including favourable geography for industrial and trade development such as National Highway 1A, Saigon port and Tan Son Nhat international airport.

Dong Nai’s industries that include rubber and wood processing, electricity, electronics, and apparel maintained growth along with main export products like rubber, coffee, honey, ceramics and cashew nuts, he said.

Trade between Dong Nai province and its Cambodian partners saw a sharp increase during the year with big contracts obtained by Donafoods and Vinacafe Bien Hoa.

In addition, the province cooperated with Cambodia’s Kratie province to provide high-yield cashew strains and farming technology.

The Vietnamese province is expected to sign memoranda of understanding on provision of farming technology for planting cashew trees with Cambodia’s Kampong Cham and Kampong Thom provinces, Thinh said, adding that Dong Nai’s businesses will build purchasing and preliminary processing stations in the two provinces.

Vietnam invested in many projects in Cambodia in 2009. In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam’s total investment in Cambodia reached US$400 million.

The Yuons are complaining about high Cambodian import tax rate, will Hun Xen comply to his masters?

High import duties hinder access to Cambodian market

14-12-2009
VNS

HCM CITY — The high import tax rate imposed by Cambodia has become a big challenge for Vietnamese goods seeking to enter the neighbouring market, delegates said at a meeting held in HCM City last week.

Organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the meeting aimed to help local enterprises resolve difficulties they are facing in exporting goods to Cambodia.

With favourable transport conditions between the two countries, the Cambodian market, with a population of more than 15 million, was a promising market for Vietnamese products, the ministry said.

Aware of the huge potential, many Vietnamese companies in recent years have increased promotion programmes, expanded distribution networks and improved cargo transport services in Cambodia.

A number of Vietnamese businesses are co-operating with Cambodian partners to establish a retail sales network, storage and goods distribution chain.

But local firms said the current import duties between 25-40 per cent imposed by Cambodia made it difficult for them to compete with other products in the market.

Most local firms, therefore, were opting to sell their products at border gates, they said.

The trade ministry said it had sent the list of 32 essential items to the Cambodian Government to reconsider the import tariffs. Negotiations on the issue are expected to take place next year.

Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City People’s Committee, said at the meeting that establishing Vietnamese trade centres in Cambodia is a must to increase the popularity of Vietnamese goods.

She asked the trade ministry to offer incentive policies including interest rate subsidies and capital support to enterprises who invest in building warehouses in border areas or establish trade centres in Cambodia. More than 100 Vietnamese enterprises are operating in Cambodia at present.

A trade fair promoting high-quality Vietnamese products last month in Cambodia’s Battambang Province gained positive results with all products sold out in two days, said Hong.

Local companies should follow up on this programme in the future, she added.

Viet Nam enjoys a trade surplus with its neighbour, exporting products such as electric wire and cable, fuel, fertiliser, food and foodstuff, electronic and cosmetic products.

The country earned US$1.43 billion from exports to Cambodia last year.

Trade with Vietnam plummets by 39pc

Tuesday, 01 December 2009
May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post

CAMBODIA’S bilateral trade with Vietnam saw a further decline in October, dropping 39 percent year on year, according to official figures released Monday by the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh.

Trade was down to US$103 million in October, down from $169 during the same month last year. The fall was greater than the aggregated year-to-date slide of 29.7 percent for the first 10 months, meaning a recovery in trade with one of the Kingdom’s most important economic partners has failed to materialise. Bilateral trade was down an annualised 22.8 percent in September.

“People [in the two countries] don’t earn well, meaning they have had to cut expenses,” Le Bien Cuong, Vietnam’s commercial counsellor in Phnom Penh, said Monday, also citing a drop in Cambodia’s imports of raw materials for the key construction and garment sectors.

Two-way trade stood at $1.049 billion this year to the end of October from $1.493 billion over the same period last year.

Still, Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association, said Monday that there had been flight from Thai products to those from Vietnam in the wake of the diplomatic dispute with Bangkok.

“The more problems that exist with Thailand, the more progress is made with Vietnam,” he said, although it remained difficult to back up this claim statistically given that trade data for November – when relations with Thailand reached a recent low – will not be available for another month.

Cuong predicted trade between Cambodia and Vietnam would be down about 20 percent overall for 2009 compared with last year.

Economic Thrust Eastwards

Hun Xen embraces Nguyen Tan Dung, meanwhile....
Villagers from the beseiged Kraya commune in Kampong Thom province say they have been forced to hide in cassava fields for fear of arrest and now face increasing health risks from a lack of medicine and the threat of malaria from sleeping outdoors. Authorities blockaded the commune following a violent protest last month over their impending eviction, during which equipment belonging to the Vietnamese-owned rubber company Tin Bean was set on fire (Photo by: Heng Chivoan, The Phnom Penh Post)

Alternatives Watch – 30xi09
Op-Ed by Ung Bun Ang

Almost three decades after sending its troop into Cambodia, which has since paid dividends so handsomely, Vietnam makes another strategic move that will have far-reaching implications for Cambodia. This year sees a thrust of Vietnamese investments that reaches a total of US$1.5 billion in Cambodian vital sectors: land, natural resources, and telecommunications.

Vietnam has secured the right to exploit in Block 15 – a 6,900 square km site off the northeastern shore of Tonle Sap – oil reserves for the next 30 years, and gas reserves for 35 years. It holds 100 percent interest in the venture giving Cambodia only an option to obtain later a share of up to a mere 5 percent. Meanwhile, to sweeten the deal, Vietnam presents to Cambodia a “social benefit fund” of US$2 million. There is no mention of how they will address inevitable environmental damages.

Back on land, Vietnam is to develop 100,000 hectares of rubber plantations in five Cambodian provinces to be completed in 2015. These involve land concessions that last almost 100 years – long enough for any land located close to the border to inconspicuously become part of Vietnam. The development has already led to a violent clash with local villagers; more than one thousand families live on the land that is now part of an 8,000 hectare land concession belonging to Vietnamese plantation firm Tin Bien.

Vietnam is shrewd in managing its own forests; it protects them and develops its economy by exporting its deforestation to Cambodia. Cambodia has become a major source of supplies of illegally logged wood to help fill a substantial hole left in Vietnam’s local lumber supply after the government implemented reforestation policies in the 90’s.

Vietnam sets itself up to control a significant chunk of the Cambodian telecommunication network. Vietnamese military-run telecommunication corporation Viettel is now the largest telecommunication service provider in Cambodia – six months after launching its Metfone mobile service network. Metfone currently accounts for 60 percent of all ADSL internet services and 50 percent of the fixed phone market; it has two million mobile subscribers. Vietnam claims its satellite system Vinasat-1, with its coverage over the Southeast Asia, can meet all the Cambodian needs ranging from television to internet. The sweetener is the Viettel’s donation of US$500,000 to help poor Cambodian children in need of medical treatments; it promises to provide internet services to 300 Cambodian schools this year. Vietnam agrees to help build a radio station in Siem Reap the Cambodian government claims it needs to give the local Vietnamese community a better access to information. With these benefits, Cambodia puts its national security that links to its communication network at the mercy of Vietnam.

The economic thrust eastwards will, first and foremost, benefit Vietnam. Cambodia will also gain; but the extent and nature of long term costs will be unknown for some time. Meanwhile, the thrust will divide Cambodian opinions, just like the Vietnamese military intervention and occupation of Cambodia. The combined impact of the two major Vietnamese strategies could only weaken Cambodia.

Ung Bun Ang

Quotable Quote:
“An inch of soil is an inch of gold.” - Anonymous, Vietnamese proverb.

Dong Thap boosts trade cooperation with Cambodia

10/28/2009
VNA/VOVNews

Almost 30 Vietnamese businesses from southern Dong Thap province and Cambodian companies have discussed how to boost opportunities for trade and investment cooperation between the two sides.

At a workshop on trade and investment promotion held in Phnom Penh on October 27, participants introduced each other to areas of potential and opportunity for cooperation, and ask questions on legal issues, customs, finance and banking.

Sharing a common borderline with Cambodia, Dong Thap province is ideally suited to boost trade promotion, expand into the market and consume products in Cambodia, said the Chairman of the Dong Thap Provincial People’s Committee, Truong Ngoc Han, at the workshop, which was held by the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce and the Dong Thap Provincial Trade and Investment Promotion Centre.

A memorandum of understanding on enhancement of investment and trade was signed right after the workshop by senior officials of Dong Thap province and the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce.

Additionally, companies from both sides agreed trade contracts worth US$1 million at the workshop.

Earlier, at a meeting with Cambodian Vice Prime Minster Men Sam On, Chairman of the Dong Thap Provincial People’s Committee Truong Ngoc Han pledged to push up activities at gates along the borderline between Dong Thap province and Cambodia’s Prey Veng province.

Dong Thap province has helped build infrastructure for provincial road 102 in Cambodia, linking from the Dinh Ba-Bontea Chak Krey border gate to the trans-Asia highway.

Vietnam, Cambodia vow to increase the one-sided trade to $2 bln in 2010 ... to the benefit of Vietnam

Vietnam, Cambodia vow to reach two-way trade of $2 bln in 2010

HANOI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam and Cambodia expressed their strong will in reaching the bilateral trade of two billion U.S. dollars in 2010, the local newspaper Vietnam Investment Times reported Monday.

The target was made at a conference on opportunities for Vietnam to do business in Cambodia. The conference, which was recently-ended in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, drew participation of relevant agencies of both Vietnam and Cambodia.

Cambodia will be a potential market for Vietnam as Cambodian people has turned their eyes on consuming Vietnam's goods and products instead of Thailand's ones, said Yeav Kim Hean, a commercial counselor of Vietnam-base Cambodian Embassy.

Cambodia is calling for foreign investment in its key sectors of hydropower, mining, cultivation of industrial plants, and telecommunication. This opens more opportunities for Vietnam's businesses to invest in Cambodia, said Huynh Tan Phong, vice director of Ho Chi Minh Trade Promotion Agency at the conference.

To reach the target, Vietnam will conduct a wide range of trade promotion activities in Cambodia from now on. These activities include market surveys, conferences on trade cooperation and trade fairs, said Phong.

In 2008, the two-way trade between Vietnam and Cambodia was 1.7billion U.S. dollars, up 31 percent year-on-year. Of which, Vietnam's exports to Cambodia earned about 1.45 billion U.S. dollars, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

With 513 businesses having operations in Cambodia, Vietnam ranks 8th among foreign investors in Cambodia, said Yeav, the Cambodian commercial counselor.

Cambodia favours Vietnamese goods

One of the popular Vietnamese by-products in Cambodia

04/05/2009
VOV News (Hanoi)

A recent survey by Cambodia’s largest daily newspaper, Rasmei Kampuchea, shows that Vietnamese goods are especially favoured in the Cambodian market.

The survey was conducted among senior officials of the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and the country’s consumers during a Vietnamese products fair in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

According to the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, Vietnam took the lead with US$988 million worth of products consumed in Cambodia in 2008, surpassing China ($784 million) and Thailand ($674 million).

Vietnam exports a wide range of commodities to Cambodia, such as medicine, cosmetics, textiles and garments, electronics, mechanical products, processed food, fruit and vegetables.

This is the second year that Vietnam has topped the list of countries producing goods consumed in Cambodia.

Cambodian economic experts predict that with its geographical advantage, Vietnam will be able to maintain its leading position if it continues to diversify its products and improve its designs.

Hanoi's marching order: Boost the one-sided trade to $2 billion

Vietnam, Cambodia talk trade cooperation

16/03/2009
VietNamNet/VNA

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and Cambodian Minister of Trade Cham Prasidh held talks in Phnom Penh on March 16, agreeing to accelerate trade activities towards a target of 2 billion USD in turnover by 2010.

During the talks, the two ministers reviewed the implementation of trade cooperation agreements and discussed obstacles on the way to reach the targets.

The two sides agreed in principle to set up a coordination mechanism, probably a specialised board co-chaired by the two ministers, to deal with emerging issues in a timely manner.

They agreed that the two countries should meet to revise existing regulations on customs procedures for transit goods and border gate management in order to facilitate goods transport and travel along their shared border.

After the talks, the ministers signed minutes of their meeting, pledging to accelerate the implementation of trade agreements signed by the two countries’ Prime Ministers and the two ministries. They also plan to cooperate in personnel training hold more meetings between the two ministries to solve any rising problems, and promote border trade to boost sales of agricultural products and create more jobs for border inhabitants.

Earlier the same day, the two ministers co-chaired the opening ceremony of the second conference on Vietnam-Cambodia border trade cooperation.

During his stay in Cambodia from March 15-16, Minister Hoang was received by the Cambodian Prime Minister. He also had a working session with Vietnamese investors in Cambodia to learn of their projects and their difficulties in the process of implementation.