Bilateral trade between Cambodia and the United Kingdom increased more than 55 percent year-on-year during the first six months of 2011 according to the British Embassy in Phnom Penh.

Total trade between January and June, totalled US$247.2 million, up from $159.3 million during the same period in 2010, the embassy reported.

A breakdown of those figures showed Cambodia exported $234.6 million worth of goods between January and June to the UK, an increase of 55 percent from the $151.4 million in the year-ago period.

At the same time, Cambodia imported $12.6 million in goods from the UK, which was a 59-percent year-on-year increase over $7.9 million in 2010.

The bulk of Cambodia’s exports comprised garments, textiles, footwear and rice, while imports from the UK largely consisted of cars and machinery, Ministry of Commerce Department of Statistics Director Kong Putheara said yesterday.

“The EU is the second-largest market for the Kingdom’s garments and rice. We can export to Europe duty-free because of its ‘Everything but Arms’ policy,” he said.

In addition to the UK, Cambodian garment and textile exports to the United States are likely to remain strong in 2011, as should those to some European and Asian markets, Kong Putheara said.

“Even during the global economic crisis period, we saw that two-way trade between the UK and Cambodia has been increasing year-on-year,” Neng Vannak, a chancery officer at the British Embassy in Phnom Penh, said yesterday.

The British Embassy in Phnom Penh and the British Business Association in Cambodia would continue to work together to support British trade and investment in Cambodia, he added.