CAMBODIA has urged more Americans to invest in the country.
In making the call, its Minister of Commerce, Pan Sorasak said the United States was committed to further promoting trade relations with the Kingdom and urged investors to participate in trade fairs and business matching to promote growth, as reported by the Phnom Penh Post.
The minister said this after meeting the US Ambassador to Cambodia, Patrick Murphy during the recent Seventh Asean-US Summit in Thailand.
"The ambassador vowed to promote economic and trade relations between the two countries," he said.
According to the Phnom Penh Post, US embassy in Phnom Penh spokesperson Emily Zeeberg said the country needed more high-quality investment and access to new markets to continue its strong growth.
“American companies offer world-class products, high labour and environmental standards, world-class training programmes, and state-of-the-art technologies,” she said.
Zeeberg said Murphy was currently in Bangkok with a Cambodia business delegation at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum.
She said the forum provided Cambodian businesses and other participants with key information about new US government initiatives to increase investment in priority sectors such as energy, infrastructure, and the digital economy.
Cambodia Chamber of Commerce vice-president Lim Heng said the appeal shows the close ties between Cambodia and the US in strengthening bilateral cooperation.
He said most businesses in the Kingdom exported garments, footwear, travel bags and electronics.
“Last month, the US delegation visited Cambodia. They were interested in investing in the agriculture sector for export. It’s good to boost our agriculture sector,” he said.
Cambodia’s exports to the US in the first eight months of this year were worth US$3.363 billion, while imports were US$375 million, data from the US Bureau of Statistics said.
Last year, Cambodia was the 57th largest exporter of goods to the US and the 104th largest importer of US goods.
Cambodia’s exports to the US last year were worth US$3.8 billion, while Cambodia imported US$447 million.