Vietnamese electrical manufacturer THIBIDI was set to begin operations in the Kingdom next year, company officials said yesterday, citing Cambodia’s growing power grid as a big factor in entering the market.

The company, which makes industrial-grade transformers, sees potential in Cambodia’s booming electricity sector, THIBIDI Cambodia administration director Nguyen Viet Manh says.

“We are interested in the Cambodian market because it’s in a neighboúring country and it’s developing,” he said at a seminar held yesterday in Phnom Penh.  “We see that general development in a society is linked to electric development.”

Greater electrification, as well as the expansion of Cambodia’s industrial sector, had created a need for electrical products, Chhoeug Oeun, general deputy director of state-owned Electricitie Du Cambodge, said.

“When there is electricity, the need for tools will increase,” he said, pointing to the December 7 inauguration of  Cambodia’s biggest dam. “So there is very big potential in our market.”

THIBIDI had invested $3 million in its Cambodian factory, which was expected to open in mid-2012 and would  employ between 100 and 120 people, Nguyen Viet Manh said.