Japanese investors eye investment opportunities in Cambodia
Japanese investors eye investment opportunities in Cambodia
Business executives from 60 conglomerates in Japan has visited Cambodia to study the country's potential sectors, investment laws and business environment before making investment in the future.
The group of Japan's top business leaders, led by Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, met with Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh and Cambodian business people on Friday morning in order to seek business opportunities.
In a presentation to those potential investors, Prasidh said that Cambodia now is full of political stability and its macro- economic situation is stable.
"Laws related to investment are sound, transparent and predictable. Moreover, products manufactured in Cambodia can get access to key world markets through trade preferences or duty-free because Cambodia is one of the least developed countries," he said.
The minister added that the country is strongly encouraging investment activities in agriculture and agro-industry, transport and telecommunication infrastructure, energy and electricity, labor intensive industries and export-oriented processing and manufacturing, tourism-related industries, human resources development, processing industry, oil and gas and mining.
The Japanese business people are mainly engaged in industries of automotive, petroleum, energy, banking and finance, transportation, brewery, food and beverage, steel and airlines, Yasukiyo Horiuchi, senior manager in charge of public relations bureau at the Japan Business Federation, told reporters.
Among them were representatives from Toyota Motor Corporation, Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Hitachi, Panasonic Corporation, Asahi Group Holding and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, he said.
The group also met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the capital's Peace Palace later the same day.
In the meeting, Hiromasa Yonekura said that some of the investors have expressed their desires to invest here in the fields of energy, mineral resources, infrastructures and banking, and asked the premier to support and facilitate their projects.
Hun Sen expressed his welcome for any plan to invest in Cambodia, saying that the country treated both local and foreign investors equally and foreign investors can hold up to 100 percent of their investments in the country.
Japanese investors have begun to focus their investment in Cambodia in recent years. According to Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia Masafumi Kuroki, Japanese investors have invested about 300 million U.S. dollars in Cambodia in the last three years.
On the bilateral trade ties, the two-way trade volume were valued at 641 million U.S. dollars last year, up 25 percent year on year, said a report from the Japan External Trade Organization on Thursday.
xinhua
