S’poreans invited to invest in Cambodia
THE Cambodian government yesterday invited Singaporean businessmen to invest in key sectors of its country.
“We hope the Singaporean private sector can make a study to see the fields for a profitable investment,” Cambodia’s Second Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, said.
Cambodia has identified investment opportunities for Singaporean companies in agriculture, transportation, electricity, tourism and human-resource development.
Cambodia’s main priority now is to develop infrastructure. This would be possible with multilateral aid.
Singapore is Cambodia’s major trading partner: trade reached a record $755 million last year.
Mr Hun Sen, who arrived in Singapore on Tuesday, is on a five-day visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. The delegation includes the Cabinet ministers, Mr Sok Ann and Mr Veng Sereyvuth, the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Uch Kim An, and senior officials.
The programme included a tour of the Port of Singapore Authority.
Mr Hun Sen met Mr Goh on Thursday and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew yesterday.
The 42-year-old Cambodian leader, who is here on his first visit, said Singapore was helping his country in its rehabilitation effort.
He said that a second Singaporean team would visit Cambodia next year to finalise details of the reconstruction of its airports and seaports.
A 12-member team, including PSA and Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore officials, visited Cambodia in October on a survey mission.
Their visit followed a request by Cambodia’s First Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, to help draft an economic master plan for air and seaports in his country.
Mr Hun Sen said that Cambodia would also seek Singapore’s help to develop a 300-km highway from Phnom Penh to the south-western port of Sihanoukville.
Turning to the political situation in Cambodia, he said that the Khmer Rouge still posed a problem for the newly-elected government.
While the Cambodian government would not be a “hostage of the Khmer Rouge”, it would try to find a peaceful solution to the situation by “integrating” the Khmer Rouge into the political process.
