FDI inflows into manufacturing remain high
FDI inflows into manufacturing remain high
Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the manufacturing sector remained high, after investment into construction and real estate, as per the Annual Financial Stability Review Report 2023 of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC).
“FDI inflows continued to rebound, yet the inflows remained uneven across sectors,” said NBC in its report.
If one were to look at FDI inflows by sector, manufacturing has seen an increase in funding over the last five years. This is followed by increased FDI inflows in construction and real estate. FDI inflows into other sectors remained at similar levels.
Sectors that saw reduced FDI inflows in the last five years, included financial activities, agriculture, accommodation, telecom among others.
When it came to FDI inflows by region or source country for 2023, NBC saw its highest inflows from China (56 percent), followed by Korea (10.2 percent) and Canada (9.5 percent).
This was then followed by Japan (7.6 percent), Singapore (6.6 percent), Malaysia (2.5 percent), UK (1.6 percent), US (1.3 percent), Vietnam (0.9 percent) and other countries at (3.9 percent).
The NBC report also said that Cambodia’s economic growth of five percent in 2023 was mainly contributed by growth in its manufacturing and services sector. For 2023, NBC data showed that the highest contribution to economic growth came from manufacturing, followed by trade, accommodation and food services. This was followed by a rebound in other sectors, including transportation, communication, construction and real estate.
The NBC report also looked at international arrivals and said that there was good improvement in 2023, even if it had not reached 2019 pre-COVID levels. In international arrivals, arrivals for holiday purposes and leisures were nearly as high in 2023 as 2019. Business and professional visits were nearly as much in 2023 as 2019, showing signs of recovery.
But the NBC warned that despite a quick rebound in international tourist arrivals, the quality of recovery appeared less promising. Shares of tourist arrivals by means of transport – reduced from 66 percent by air in 2018 to only 34 percent by air in 2023. This shows that there is a lower influx of moneyed tourists. In contrast, arrival by waterways – which was only 34 percent in 2018, has risen to 66 percent by 2023.
Despite this, the overall increase in tourists is to be commended, said NBC. Of total tourists in the country, as much as 82.5 percent were international tourists. And as much as 62.7 percent of them visited Angkor Wat.
