Thursday, 10 January 2008

Taiwan Request for Commercial Office Denied

By Chun Sakada,
VOA Khmer Original report from Phnom Penh
09 January 2008

Cambodian authorities have denied a request from the Taiwanese Overseas Commercial Development Council to open an office in the country, officials said.

Cambodia does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, but follows a “one-China” policy. China considers the island a renegade province.

“I completely turned the request down,” Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong said. “There can’t be any official representative or commercial or cultural mission or whatever from Taiwan. Cambodia permanently adheres to its one-China policy.”

Taiwan has no diplomatic representation in Cambodia, though many factories in the garment and textile sectors are Taiwanese owned.

The commercial office could have been used as an “unofficial embassy,” government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said. “It's better for these Taiwanese small business owners in Cambodia to establish their own association to coordinate their businesses.”

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