PHNOM PENH — Cambodia and China have agreed to boost the use of local currency for investments and bilateral trades, and to encourage the participation of Cambodian commercial banks in cross-border transactions and QR Code use.

The agreement was announced in a joint statement following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day state visit to Cambodia, and issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on April 18.

On March 10, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and the UnionPay International (UPI) established the second phase of cross-border transaction: a QR Code called Bakong UnionPay.

The agreement enables people based in Cambodia to make payments in China and other countries through QR code and the UnionPay network and QR of the WeChat Pay, while people based in China can make transactions in Cambodia through UnionPay and KHQR Code.

“The people of Cambodia who visit other countries must have a bank account in riel currency to be able to make the transactions, while in Cambodia, they must have that account to receive the transactions from Chinese yuan into Khmer riel currency,” said NBC Governor Chea Serey.

“So, China encourages the use of Chinese yuan in their country while Cambodia also urges the local people to use Khmer riel currency in the country,” he said.  

As was explained, this cooperation will make cross-border transactions between the people of the two countries easier and reduce the loss on exchange rate. This also aims to promote the use of Khmer riel currency in Cambodia.

In the first quarter of 2025, Cambodia-China trade has reached more than $4 billion in purchased goods, which represented an increase of 26.7 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Cambodian exports amounted to $348 million, which was a drop of nearly 5 percent, while the imports reached $3.72 billion, up 30.8 percent compared to the same period in 2024.

Originally written in Khmer for Thmey Thmey, this story was translated by Meng Seavmey for Cambodianess.