Bilateral trade between Cambodia and South Korea jumped more than 40 per cent year-on-year through September, according to the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency.

Total trade between January and September reached $387 million, according to KOTRA, up 45 per cent from $267 million during the year-ago period.

Cambodia exported US$64 million worth of goods to South Korea, including crude rubber, agricultural products and apparel, a 100 per cent gain from $32 million in the first nine months of 2010. At the same time, South Korea’s shipments to the Kingdom totalled $323 million, a year-on-year increase of 37 per cent from $235 million.

KOTRA director-general Gwang-Ho Lee attributed the gains to both countries’ expanding economies and Cambodia’s growing importance among Korean investors.

“Now we see many Korean businessmen have good contact with local partners here. Cambodia is becoming very well-known to Korean companies,” Lee said.

Korean businesses wanted Cambodian commodities such as rubber and metal ores, and more and more Korean products were being sold in the Kingdom, he added. Korea’s main exports to Cambodia are textiles and fabrics, consumer electronics, vehicles and tobacco.

Kong Putheara, director of the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics department, pointed to the benefits for Cambodia in trading with a larger economy such as that of South Korea.

“It is a good thing, because our policy is that the government is trying as much as it can to enlarge business activities with every country in the world,” he said, adding that trade growth also created jobs and boosted domestic incomes.

About 600 Korean companies were doing business in Cambodia in real-estate development projects, garment manufacturing factories and agricultural development, Gwang-Ho Lee said previously.