Cambodia, Japan hold talks on investment treaty

Cambodian and Japanese government officials in Phnom Penh on Friday held their first round of talks to hammer out a bilateral investment agreement which aims to pick up the latter's investment speed in the kingdom.

"We want Japanese investors to invest in the sectors of copy machines, television sets, spare parts for cars and others, which they have already invested in other Southeast Asia countries," said Sok Chenda, Secretary General of the Council for Development of Cambodia.

Cambodia needs the investment from Japan to increase its employment and speed up the economic growth, said Chenda, adding that both prime ministers have been pushing the technical officials to reach the agreement as soon as possible.

Currently, Japanese investors have over 20 projects like bank, hotel resort, mansion construction, trade company and island development in Cambodia, Chenda told reporters after Friday's talks were wrapped up in the Council of Ministers.

"Investment in Cambodia is liberal. But the agreement we talk about this time is more complicated than the others. We need to be more detailed," he said.

Meanwhile, Mizukoshi Hideaki, Director of Asian Division of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, said that Cambodia is a country that strongly attracts Japanese investors.

"Cambodia is stable now and we encourage Japanese investors to invest in Cambodia," he told reporters.

"The labor price is low and we focus on garment, all kinds of spare parts, agricultural production and other sectors," he added.

According to official statistics, from 1994 to 2005, Cambodia attracted 5.49 billion U.S. dollars of agreement-bound foreign direct investment.

Japan, as the kingdom's largest aid country in recent years, is not among Cambodia's top 10 foreign investment countries.

Source: Xinhua