Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and South Korea reached $762 million in 2024, an increase of 11.49 percent compared to the previous year, according to a report from the Ministry of Commerce (MoC), released yesterday.
The report said that Cambodia’s exports totaled $288 million in 2024, while imports from Korea were worth $474 million.
Cambodia mainly exports footwear, apparel, travel products, beverages, electrical and electronic components, rubber, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural products to South Korea.
The Kingdom imports vehicles, electronics, kitchen appliances, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and finished plastics and products from Korea.
Speaking at the ‘Summarise the Work Result of Ministry of Commerce (MoC) in 2024 and the Work Direction for 2025’, Cham Nimul, Minister of Commerce, said the main export markets of Cambodia are the US, ASEAN, Europe, China, Japan, Canada, UK, Australia and Korea.
“Cambodia has free trade agreements with many partner countries, so we need to maximize the benefits of both agreements and expand new markets to boost our exports,” Nimul said.
According to the MoC report on the achievements and bilateral trade in 2024, the first meeting of the Joint Committee of the Cambodia-Korea Free Trade Agreement in the Republic of Korea has approved the rules of procedure for the joint committee and reviewed and recommended the results of discussions from the three sub-commissions—the Commodity Trade Commission, the Commodity Rules of Origin and Customs Commission, and the Economic Cooperation Commission.
Both parties encouraged the committee to hold regular meetings and make efforts to promote the Cambodia-Korea Free Trade Agreement to maximize the benefits of the agreement. They agreed to resume talks to initiate negotiations on trade, services, and investment, and to hold the second joint committee meeting in Cambodia in 2025.
The MoC met with the President and CEO of Korea’s national trade and foreign investment promotion agency and agreed to continue strengthening cooperation to promote trade between Cambodia and Korea in the fields of digital technology, electronics, automobiles, processing, agriculture, and food.
It may be recalled that the Cambodia-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA) came into force on December 1, 2022. The CKFTA encourages more investors from South Korea to invest in the Kingdom and export products to the Korean counterpart and third countries.
The foreign direct investment (FDI) from Korea last year stood at $30 million with a total volume at $5 billion, ranking ninth in 2023.
