Cambodia, China to sign bilateral FTA before August 12
Vietnam Plus - 24 July 2020
Cambodia, China to sign bilateral FTA before August 12
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong said on July 23 that Cambodia and China will sign a free trade agreement before August 12 ahead of the European Union’s partial withdrawal of the Everything-but-Arms (EBA) trade status.
According to the Khmer Times, speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting to discuss an action plan for the China-Cambodia Community of Shared Future at the Office of the Council of Ministers, he said Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China to preside over the signing ceremony of the agreement.
“This agreement will open the door for more of our goods and agricultural products, such as bananas, cassava flour and rubber, to be exported to China. That is why China told Cambodia to speed up the work plans,” Nam Hong said.
In 2010, Cambodia and China agreed to create comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation. The two countries signed an action plan between 2019 and 2023 to build the China-Cambodia Community of Shared Future in Beijing on 28 April last year.
He said that from this year till 2025, China will also extend credit for projects such as road construction and repairs, rice storage warehouse and rice drier construction, hospital construction in rural areas, and electricity connection and water supplies in rural areas to improve the lives of Cambodian people.
So far this year, Cambodia has exported more than 300,000 tonnes of rice to China, as compared to the target of 400,000 tonnes for the whole year reached by both sides.
