Cambodian, Thai trades up 36 pct in Q1 despite border row

PHNOM PENH, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Thailand is still on the rise in spite of recent deadly clashes between the two countries'troops over the border conflict, statistics showed on Sunday.

Total bilateral trades mounted to 716 million U.S. dollars in the first three months, up 36 percent from 527 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, according to the statistics provided by Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Cambodia's export to Thailand was 55 million U.S. dollars, up 139 percent from 23 million U.S. dollars, while Thailand's export to Cambodia worth 661 million U.S. dollars, up 31 percent from 504 million U.S. dollars.

According to the statistics, Thailand's exports to Cambodia include petroleum, processed goods, consumer products, construction materials, fruits, vegetables and cosmetics, while Cambodia primarily ships agricultural products, second hand garments, recyclable metal, and fishing products.

Jiranan Wongmongkol, director of Foreign Trade Promotion Office at Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh, said the rise is due to mutual trust between Cambodian and Thai businesspeople and Cambodians' faith on Thai products.

"We still see a sharp rise in bilateral trade exchange from January to March this year despite there was a border fight in February," she told Xinhua by telephone on Sunday. "We expect the rise trend continues throughout the year."

Cambodian commerce officials agreed that the sporadic border clashes have slight impacts on trade activities.

"Trade is for profit, when merchants think it is profitable they still do," said Chan Nora, a secretary of state for the commerce ministry.

Cambodian and Thai border has never been completely demarcated. The conflict has occurred just a week after Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

So far in this year, two major deadly clashes had occurred. One was on Feb. 4 to 7 at Preah Vihear temple and the other was from April 22-May 3 at Ta Mon temple and Ta Krabei temple in Oddar Meanchey province, leaving dozens of both sides' soldiers and civilians killed and tens of thousands of locals fled home for safe shelters.