G ROWING trading links beween Singapore and Cambodia, which now stand at US$650
million annually, will pave the way for greater investment, a senior Singaporean
commerce expert said on July 12.
"I think we will see the same pattern as
in Vietnam. Singapore started trading with Vietnam and then from 1992 started
investing and I think last year, we (Singapore) were the second largest
investor," said Graham Hayward, Executive Director of the Singapore
International Chamber of Commerce. (SICC)
Singapore is currently
Cam-bodia's biggest trading partner.
"I can say one of our members is
looking at the possibility of electronics assembly here. He's particularly
interested in ascertaining the skills of the labor force to see whether they are
capable of handling assemblies," Hayward said.
The visit by the SICC,
Singapore's oldest chamber of commerce, is its first to Cambodia. The aims of
the trip are to assess the environment for business opportunities and to talk to
senior government leaders and local businessmen, Hayward said.
The
fact-finding and business survey by prominent Singapore business leaders gave
Cambodia "positive recommendation and the green light" for their fellow
investors.
The 26-member delegation is expected to hold talks with local
businessmen and with senior officials at Cambodia's Ministry of Finance,
Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Industry and finance experts at the National
Bank.
"We're very happy that today we have a team of people really from all over
the world. We have Germans, Americans, Japanese, Sing-aporeans and myself, an
adopted Singaporean. We have a very good international team here today to meet
with your businessmen," Hayward said.
Mission leader, Peter Tan, Managing
Director of Goodyear Orient Co Pte Ltd said he was paricularly encouraged by the
drafting of a Cambodian investment law. "Any development of the legal structure
would give confidence to investors," he said.
The final draft of the
investment law is designed to attract much-needed foreign capital.
