Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighboring Vietnam declined slightly in the first quarter of the year compared year-on-year with Ministry of Commerce officials citing the rise of people’s incomes and new trade deals as the major reasons behind the fall.
According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs Vietnam, in the first quarter of 2016, the total import-export between Vietnam and Cambodia declined 10.85 percent, totaling $843.6 million, compared with $946.5 million for the year before.
In June 2012, both governments pledged to push bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2015. However, a Vietnamese embassy official in Phnom Penh told Khmer Times last month that the target had been missed, citing a large quantity of imports from other countries into the Kingdom.
Ministry of Commerce spokesman Seung Sophari attributed the rise in personal income and the increase of new trading partners as affecting bilateral trade with Vietnam.
“We have seen the earnings of our people increasing, so perhaps they have changed their product preferences from buying cheap to buying expensive,” she said.
“For example, before our people can afford Vietnamese products, but now they want to change to buy products from the United State or other countries.
“At the moment, we have also increased our number of trading partners, so we don’t only import or export to Vietnam or Thailand, but to other places because we have signed a lot of trade deals with many other countries,” she added.
The General Administration of Customs Vietnam statistics highlighted exports from Vietnam to Cambodia totaled $534.4 million, down 12.7 percent compared with the same period in 2015 of $612.5 million; while Vietnam’s imports from Cambodia declined 7.4 percent, totaling $309.2 million from $333.9 million in the same period last year.
Cambodia’s main exports to Vietnam were seafood, corn, dried tobacco, rubber, paddy rice and cashew nuts, with Vietnam exporting steel, confectionary items and cereal products, garments, products derived from rubber, vegetables and fruit, paper, metal, machinery parts, vehicles and spare parts to the Kingdom.
Ms. Sophari said despite the pledge being yet to be reached, both countries still continue to strive to boost trade and spur investment between the two Asean member states. “Although we see that trade between our two countries did not meet the promise by both countries last year, it doesn’t mean that causes us problems. We still cooperate with each other in order to improve the economy of both our nations,” she said.
Source: http://www.khmertimeskh.com
Keyword : Cambodia-Vietnam, Trade Slumps.
