Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Thailand is expected to reach $15 billion by 2025, said a release on Wednesday.
The optimism was shared during a meeting between Khuon Sudary, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia and the outgoing Ambassador of Thailand Cherdkiat Atthakor.
On behalf of the National Assembly, Sudary expressed her deep gratitude to Ambassador Atthakor as well as his predecessors for their active efforts to continue to maintain, strengthen, expand and enhance bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries.
Both countries have maintained a better, broader and deeper understanding with the exchange of visits by top leaders at all levels, facilitating and promoting trade and investment, health, education and culture.
Ambassador Atthakor praised Cambodia’s progress in all areas under the leadership of former Prime Minister Hun Sen and then Mr Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the seventh mandate, said the news statement of the National Assembly.
“Ambassador Atthakor strongly believed that under the leadership of Samdech Prime Minister Hun Manet, Cambodia will achieve rapid development,” a news statement read.
Sudary also said that although Ambassador Atthakor’s diplomatic mission in Cambodia lasted only two years, his mission coincided with an important point in Cambodia’s history, which went for a parliamentary election in July 2023 and the transfer of leadership was non-violent.
Sudary and Atthakor appreciated the cooperation in all fields that existed between the two countries and pledged to work together to further deepen the ties, improve trade volume, and economy and make people-to-people contacts more cohesive in the spirit of ‘Two Kingdoms and One Destination’.
“Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Thailand in 2023 reached more than $9 billion, and both countries would like to see this figure increase to $15 billion by 2025. Thailand is the sixth largest investor in Cambodia, with the number of Thai tourists visiting Cambodia also the first ranking,” the news statement underlined.
Dr Chey Tech, a socio-economic researcher, told Khmer Times yesterday that trade growth between the two countries does not seem to be increasing substantially.
“This failure is due to a number of factors, such as the uncertainty of the global economy as well as the economies of the two countries, especially when the incomes and livelihoods of the people of both countries are still dwindling,” Dr Tech underlined.
He added that the global economy still remains uncertain as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the war in the Middle East are continuing. Another important factor is that inflation is still rising, which affects the lives of people.
