As China continues to invest in Preah
Sihanouk province, despite fears raised by residents over the recent
influx of its nationals, an official from the Asian giant on Monday said
President Xi Jinping is pushing for further investment in the coastal
area.
“Cambodia and China are good friends
and good neighbours. Jiangsu is a Chinese province [and] we are pushing
for more cooperation with Cambodia,” Huang Xiqiang, the deputy
director-general of the Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial
People’s Government, told visiting Cambodian journalists to the southern
Chinese province on Monday.
“President Xi Jinping regards [Preah Sihanouk province] as a role model of cooperation between China and Cambodia.”
Preah Sihanouk has seen huge growth in the manufacturing, tourism and
gambling sectors, and a local real estate agency director said further
investment in manufacturing would “help transform Cambodia from an
agricultural to an industrialised nation”.
Bilateral trade between Jiangsu and Preah Sihanouk, which have just
signed an agreement to become sister provinces, was valued at $1.2
billion last year. This is equal to one-fifth of China’s total trade
with Cambodia and is expected to increase 30 per cent this year, Huang
said.
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Jiangsu province accounts for 10.38 per cent of China’s total economy, with its GDP hitting $1.2 trillion last year.
Preah Sihanouk province has increasingly become a hotbed for Chinese
investment in the Kingdom, and its geography has proven strategic in
pushing Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia.
“We encourage enterprises to invest in Cambodian production, from
resources and labour to technology,” Huang said. “In the past,
[investment] was more focused on garment manufacturing. In the future,
we will cooperate in technology. This is a win-win strategy.”
Huang said the Preah Sihanouk Special Economic Zone has 125
enterprises and has created 21,000 jobs with $500 million in
investments. He said the zone plans to create between 80,000 to 100,000
jobs.
Emerging Markets Consulting senior consultant Ngeth Chou said he
welcomed an increase in investment in Preah Sihanouk province’s
manufacturing, which he said would largely benefit the Kingdom.
He added that investment in the sector would help Cambodians acquire
new skills and stable incomes, as opposed to growth in the gaming
industry, which has been blamed for causing social problems.
“Casinos do not offer as many economic benefits as the manufacturing
sector, because investment in factories could help Cambodia benefit
greatly, from the use of local raw materials to [the creation of] a
skilled workforce, as well as reduce migration.”
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However, Chou suggested that for sustainable development, the
Cambodian government must also create mechanisms to control the nature
of investment, such as insisting on the use of local human resources and
raw materials.
Key Real Estate director Sorn Seap said that while the influx of
Chinese has raised property prices in Preah Sihanouk, more investment in
manufacturing would help create new jobs and technology for the future
development of Cambodia.
“It will help transform Cambodia from an agricultural to an
industrialised nation, and promote the Kingdom’s image on the
international stage,” Seap said.
Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Yun Min, who visited Jiangsu
province last week to strengthen city-level relations, could not be
reached for comment on Tuesday.
Jiangsu provincial statistics showed that 200,000 of its residents visited Cambodia in 2016.
The increase of tourists led to direct flights between Jiangsu and Cambodia’s international airports, Huang said.
Source - TheNation
