Bosch (Cambodia) Co Ltd, the local subsidiary of German electronics and engineering giant Bosch Group, saw continued strong growth in 2016 on the back of the Kingdom’s rapidly expanding construction sector and automobile sales, a company executive said yesterday.

With 29 percent year-on-year growth for the local Bosch subsidiary, Andre de Jong, managing director of Bosch for Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, said the company maintained its track record of double-digit annual growth in the Kingdom since first entering the market in 2010.

“Cambodia is growing as a country [where] the key sectors remain construction, and the automotive development is also growing,” he said.

According to De Jong, increased automobile sales in the country led to significant growth for the company’s aftermarket automotive care division, which grew by over 100 percent last year and was the main contributor to the company’s positive performance in 2016.

“Registered vehicles in Cambodia grew 16.4 percent to 3.7 million vehicles, out of which most is motorbikes and about 12 percent is trucks and cars,” he said.

Construction activity in Cambodia led to continued good performances for both the company’s power tools and security systems divisions, he added.

“Construction is booming,” he said. “We have security systems and we have power tools – all products that go into these growing areas, so we see a very positive outlook with the seven percent yearly growth of GDP.”

Investment in construction projects grew by over 140 percent to reach $8.5 billion in 2016, according to a Bosch press release.

Bosch is now looking to further its activity in Cambodia by offering advanced technology solutions, particularly in the manufacturing sector, De Jong explained. He said a primary objective for the company is to help the country adopt “Industry 4.0,” a term to describe manufacturing activity powered by technologically advanced and inter-connected machinery.

Failing to do so would leave the country lagging behind advancing regional economies, he added.

“Cambodia has to leapfrog into the technology in order to be on par with those other countries,” he said. “Otherwise, people decide to put the new factory not in Cambodia, but in Malaysia or in Vietnam, so you miss out.”