Cambodia's international trade up almost 20 per cent in five months

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua): Cambodia's total trade volume was valued at US$22.4 billion in the first five months of 2022, up 19.7 per cent from 18.7 billion dollars over the same period last year, an official report showed on Monday (June 14).

The kingdom's total exports were worth $9.41 billion dollars during the January-May period this year, up 34.5 per cent year-on-year, and total imports reached 13 billion dollars, up 11 per cent, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise's report.

China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, followed by the United States, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, the report said, adding that the Sino-Cambodian trade volume hit $4.99 billion, up 26 per cent.

Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's undersecretary of state and spokesman Penn Sovicheat attributed the remarkable growth to Cambodia's high vaccination rates, free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as market diversification.

"The effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact and the Cambodia-China FTA (CCFTA) are the key factors for boosting our trade growth," he told Xinhua.

"We expect that the upward trend will continue throughout this year and in coming years."

Sovicheat said China is a huge market for the South-East Asian nation and that trade cooperation between the two countries will continue to soar in the future.

"Under the RCEP trade deal and the CCFTA, we're confident that Cambodia's export to the Chinese market will be bigger, especially the exports of potential agricultural produce such as rice, bananas and mangoes, industrial products, and processing goods," he said.

Cambodia has fully resumed its socio-economic activities and reopened its borders to vaccinated travelers without quarantine since last November after most of its population have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The kingdom has administered one dose of Covid-19 vaccines to over 15 million people, or 93.7 per cent of its 16 million population, the health ministry said, adding that of them, 14.34 million, or 89.6 per cent, have been fully vaccinated with two required shots.

China's Sinovac and Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines have been widely used in the kingdom's immunisation programme.

According to the health ministry, Cambodia has become a Covid-Zero state since June 7.