REPRESENTATIVES of three Vietnamese firms met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday to obtain permission to invest in Cambodia, Hun Sen’s spokesman Eang Sophalleth said.

He declined to name the companies but said they were in the involved in chemicals, sugar and construction.

Hun Sen told the group he welcomed the proposed investment but referred them to Suy Sem, the minister of industry, mines and energy, and Sok Chenda, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, Eang Sophalleth said.

The companies were supported at the meeting by Tran Bac Ha, chairman of the state-owned Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Vietnam’s second-largest bank by assets and fourth-largest enterprise. BIDV and its Cambodian subsidiary, the Investment and Development Joint Stock Company of Cambodia (IDCC), which owns the Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC), are behind a number of major investment initiatives from across the border.

In October, the IDCC established a US$8 million joint-venture rice-processing and -export company called Cambodia-Vietnam Foods Company (Cavifoods) with Vina Foods II and Cambodia’s Green Trade Co.

In August, a 60-strong delegation led by Tran Bac Ha inked what is said to be the country’s largest investment package with Cambodian government representatives. The package included eight deals worth $420 million, taking the value of Vietnam-funded projects approved by the CDC to around $540 million at that time.