Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC) vice-president Lim Heng says the trade body’s representative office in Japan will serve as a central communications and information hub, and advertise potentially bankable opportunities to allure more Japanese investors to the Kingdom. SUPPLIED
The Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC) is revving up moves to set up a planned representative office in Japan by the end of this year, according to the trade body’s vice-president Lim Heng.
To be established with the support of the Ministry of Commerce and the Japanese embassy in Phnom Penh, the office will serve as a central communications and information hub, and advertise potentially bankable opportunities to allure more Japanese investors to the Kingdom, Heng told The Post on July 6.
He said the CCC had held a meeting with stakeholders concerning plans to open the office, after the embassy and Japanese investors submitted numerous requests to the ministry.
“The Japanese embassy and Japanese businessmen had asked us to open a representative office in Japan.
“We [the ministry and CCC] have already discussed and will arrange accordingly to establish this representative office and hold elections to choose a president, in order to be transparent in representing Cambodia in Japan.
“We are speeding up the process [so that the plan] takes shape as soon as possible. The Ministry of Commerce and the Japanese side are also pushing for the earliest possible date – within this year,” he said.
According to Heng, plans to set up a representative office in Canada had been brewing since early 2020, even with a president-selection process in place, only to be derailed and put on an indefinite hiatus when Covid-19 struck, he lamented.
In opening the office, the CCC “wants to promote the development of our country, investment laws, and other principles and regulations that have the potential for Cambodia to attract more Japanese investors”, Heng added.
Sothea Sambath, president of the Bangkok-based Cambodia Business Council (CBC), welcomed the CCC’s move, saying it would take on a greater role in hyping up the Kingdom’s investment prospects and shoring up economic ties with Japan.
“I am very pleased to see that there’ll be a CCC trade representative office established soon in Japan.
“It is necessary to provide and spread concrete information about Cambodia, in line with the Economic Diplomacy [Strategy for 2021-2023] that our government just launched,” he said.
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Japan in the first quarter of this year totalled $633.12 million, up by 7.8 per cent from the same period in 2020, according to data from the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro).
Of that, Cambodia exported $489.62 million, up by 2.9 per cent on a yearly basis from $ 475.76 million, and imported $143.5 million, up by 28.5 per cent year-on-year from $111.71 million.
Cambodia’s exports to Japan comprise garments, as well as electric and electronic components, while imports from Japan include machinery and high-tech products.
From 1994 to 2018, the Council for the Development of Cambodia approved 137 Japanese investment projects in the Kingdom with a total capital of $2.486 billion, according to the commerce ministry.
