Monday, 21 December 2009 13:01 DAP-NEWS/ Ek Madra
(CAAI News Media)
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 21, 2009 – China announced on Monday to give another $1.2 billion in grant aid and loans for Cambodia to develop own nation, whose infrastructures were devastated by wars, said the information minister Khieu Kanharith.
The pledge was made in the bilateral meeting between the Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and China’s Vice President Xi Jingping who is visiting this impoverished Southeast Asian nation this week.
His Excellency Kahnarith also said that the latest aid from China on Monday of $1.2 billion making the total aid package of $2.23 billion including Cambodia has already received $930 from China since 1992.
“China’s assistance enables Cambodia to stand on its own of independency as a sovereign state,” Kanharith told a news conference after the meeting at the Council of Minister.
China, who is Cambodia’s biggest donor, said Beijing continues to assist Cambodia especially in the area of trades, agriculture and tourism—which are the country’s backbone economies, he said.
The Vice President Xi Jingping is pleased with the Cambodia’s developments over the years and said Cambodia has been playing a key role in term of China-ASEAN context, said Kanharith.
Cambodia’s growth hit double digits in the period 2005- 2007.
In response, Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked Xi Jingping for his 20-22 December’s visit during which both sides also signed 14 relevant documents on the cooperation.
Among those are: the exchange notes of the construction project of new office buildings for the Senate, restoration for Takeo temple, economic and technical cooperation, concessional loans for road constructions as well as the framework agreement on transport and infrastructure cooperation.
Cambodia’s infrastructures were destroyed by the civil war started in 1970s. The war did not end until 1998.
China has provided Cambodia with the duty free of 418 items for exporting to China’s markets.
“China wants us to export more products to their country, but to do that we need Chinese investors come to invest in our country as well,” said Kahnarith.
China is also the Cambodia’s biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) and has invested over $1 billion in 2007, according to the Cambodia’s investment agency report.
Both sides also agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation mainly in both politically and economically.
“We will increase their exchange visiting program to each other, so that they could exchange views in many sectors for the benefit of the two countries,” he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen told China’s Vice President Xi Jinping in the meeting that “the visit shows is another contribution to strengthen the friendly relationship of the two countries as partnership.”
No comments:
Post a Comment