Vietnam remained the second biggest export market of Cambodia after the US in the first seven months of the year buying goods worth $2.2 billion from the Kingdom, a rise of 37.7 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the latest trade data from the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE).
During the January to July period of 2024, the total trade between the two reached $4.6 billion, rising 23.5 percent year-on-year with imports from Vietnam to Cambodia accounting for $2.4 billion, an increase of 12.9 percent over the same period.
Cambodia’s exports to Vietnam included garments and cloth accessories, machinery and electrical equipment, rubber, articles made of rubber and agricultural products such as cashews, cassava, corn, bananas, mangoes and tobacco.
Imported goods include minerals used in fuel, mineral oil and refined products, injection moulding products, machinery and electrical equipment and their parts, electrical materials, short artificial fibres and vehicles, in addition to railways or electric cars and other materials.
In the first seven months, Cambodia’s total exports to international markets amounted to $14.7 billion, up 14 percent. Of this, the US accounted for more than $5.5 billion, up 6.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom’s exports to China accounted for more than $975 million, up 19.7 percent, and with Japan, it stood over $764 million, up 16.7 percent. Exports to China showed an increase of 19.7 percent.
Exports to the US accounted for 37.3 percent of Cambodia’s total exports during the period and to Vietnam the share stood at 14.9 percent. China accounted for 6.6 percent of Cambodia’s exports.
While Cambodia maintained a surplus of $5.3 billion in trade with the US, it showed a deficit of $6.7 billion with China and $199 million with Vietnam.
Cambodia’s total trade in the first seven months this year stood at $31.18 billion with imports accounting for $16.42 billion.
It may be recalled that Prime Minister Hun Manet met his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh on December 11, 2023, in Hanoi, Vietnam and both leaders agreed to take bilateral trade to the $20 billion target in the coming years.
For the current year, Cambodia and Vietnam planned to have a trade volume of $10 billion, said Vietnam’s Ambassador to Cambodia Nguyen Huy Tang, recently.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade between the two countries was at $5.32 billion in 2020. But the figure went up to $9.53 billion and $10.57 billion in 2021 and 2022, respectively, before falling to $8.6 billion in 2023, Nguyen said.
The Ambassador said there was more work that needed to be done to boost economic cooperation. He felt both sides needed to continue engaging to create favourable conditions for entrepreneurs and investors from both countries.
The growth in the trade between the two countries is particularly noteworthy despite the concerns expressed by Vietnam over the Funan Techo Canal (FTC) project of Cambodia, linking Phnom Penh with Kep through a 180-km long waterway.
