Thailand
Cambodia’s economy to grow 6.6% in 2024, says PM
Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Sunday that Cambodia’s economy has been forecasted to grow 6.6 percent in 2024 after it is most likely that the country will achieve 5.6 percent this year even as garment and footwear industries have grown slightly slower than expected, which has been off-set by the growth of non-garment manufacturing sector.
He made these remarks at an interaction with approximately 20,000 factory workers from 24 enterprises in Bavet city of Svay Rieng province.
Mr Hun Sen said while the total exports of the country in 2022 were $22.74 billion, Svay Rieng alone contributed $5.23 billion or about 23 percent of the total export.
Svay Rieng province’s industrial sector has nine special economic zones that have employed over 80,000 workers who are employed in different types of factories.
“After I met workers yesterday, I reviewed the preparation of the macroeconomic framework for next year. We have thoroughly examined the economic growth of our country. This year, we may achieve growth as per the projection … The economic growth has provided benefits to the nation and people,” the Premier said.
Meas Soksensan, Spokesman of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, told Khmer Times yesterday that the government has revised the GDP growth forecast figures depending on the actual situation same as development partners including the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Without disclosing the figures, Prime Minister Hun Sen pointed out that the non-garment export products include bicycles and high-price electronic items, while bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam has crossed $10 billion on an annual basis, while the former has had more trade surpluses compared to the latter in some years of the last decades of trade history.
“The bicycles for export are more expensive than some kinds of motorbikes in our country,” he said, adding that Vietnam is not only the main market for Cambodia’s products as the neighbouring country has processing technologies while Cambodia has raw material, but has not been unable to process this agro-industrial crops such as cashew, but also the main channel for its exports.
Mr Hun Sen went on to add that it is very difficult to export goods that are produced in the special economic zones located in Svay Rieng province through the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port as it is very far from the province, which requires the government to cooperate with Vietnam to use its cheaper port to get economic gains.
The Premier said that Cambodia has produced 1.18 million tons of cashew in early 2023 and the capacity can be increased to 1.5 or 2 million tons, while Ivory Coast has produced 1.1 million tons. “We can produce more if there are more markets for us and have sufficient processing capacities,” he said, adding that Vietnam and India are the main distributors.
“It is not wrong that our farmers have crops and sell them to [that country] that also supplies its processed goods to us such as fuel, construction materials and sometimes foods, while Cambodia also exports foods and other stuff to Vietnam. Goods normally go and come. [We are] complementary economies … We have now worked harder together,” said Mr Hun Sen.
He went on to say that the government has also developed special economic zones in other regions of Cambodia such as Banteay Meanchey and Koh Kong provinces to promote trade with Thailand in addition to Phnom Penh—Royal Group Special Economic Zone or Royal Group PPSEZ that is also listed on Cambodia Securities Exchange.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501314496/cambodias-economy-to-grow-6-6-in-2024-says-pm/