Thailand
Chinese-invested Sihanoukville SEZ benefits Cambodians
The Chinese-invested Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) has brought tangible benefits to local residents in Cambodia’s coastal city of Sihanoukville.
HOdo Group, one of China’s largest apparel manufacturers, based in east China’s city Wuxi, has been working with Cambodia since 2018 to build the special economic zone in Sihanoukville.
According to the company, the SSEZ has created nearly 30,000 jobs for locals, and contributed significantly to the development of the local economy.
Enterprises in the SSEZ have experienced robust growth and seen that their combined trade volume surged nearly 40 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year, despite the adverse impacts of COVID-19.
Upon completion, the special economic zone is expected to be home to 300 enterprises and provide 100,000 job opportunities.
Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone （SSEZ）is jointly developed and constructed by private companies from both Cambodia and China, facing the world, and is committed to building a multinational investment platform for companies around the world.
The overall planning area is 11.13 Km2. The first phase of the industry will focus on textiles & garments, luggage and leather goods, wood products, etc. as the main development industries.
The second phase of the industry will take advantage of the port’s advantages and focus on introducing hardware machinery, building materials, home furnishings, auto parts & tires, new photovoltaic materials, fine chemicals.
According to Cambodian Custom and Excise Department, the total import and export volume of all enterprises in SSEZ has amounted up to $233 million in November, 2021 and the total accumulative import and export volume from January to November, 2021 has reached $2.001 billion, 40.03% up compared with the same period of last year.
While continuing to keep high growth against the trend, SSEZ has achieved three breakthroughs such as, the total import and export volume for the single month exceeded $200 million for the first time, the import and export volume for the single month exceeded $100 million respectively for the first time, the original goal of annual total import and export volume exceeding $2 billion has been achieved one month ahead of schedule.
Enterprises in SSEZ run with “acceleration” against the trend with real actions once again. Xinhua/SSEZ