Cambodian and Singapore Talk Finance, Trades and Energy
Photo: Prime Minister Hun Manet Facebook
- By Meng Seavmey
- June 19, 2024 5:15 PM
PHNOM PENH – Cambodia and Singapore have promised to strengthen trade and investment, energy security and cross-border financial services while combating human and drug trafficking and cybercrime.
Prime Minister Hun Manet said during his two-day official visit to the city-state that both countries will have more cooperation, specifically in 2025, to celebrate the 60th diplomatic anniversary.
At their meeting on June 18, Hun Manet and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong agreed to strengthen cooperation with support and experience-sharing. One area was politics with expanded regular consultation between their foreign ministries.
To improve trade and investment, both were to organize a joint working group to discuss solutions and action plans.
As for people-to-people exchange, they showed their commitment in building human capital, professional training, and boosting tourism through the expansion of direct flights and tourist attractions.
Both leaders also congratulated the success in establishing an energy security ministerial working group involving Cambodia, Laos and Singapore.
“Singapore is one of the top investors in several sectors in Cambodia, ranging from real estate, logistics, agri-business, and finance,” Wong said.
“Economic cooperation has expanded to new areas such as renewable energy and carbon credits.
“Singapore is ready to support Cambodia’s development priorities under the Pentagonal Strategy.
“I am confident that PM Manet and his team will succeed in his goals for Cambodia’s next bound of development,” he added. “I look forward to working closely with him to further strengthen our partnership and secure our future.”
In response, Prime Minister Hun Manet said Cambodia aims to “deepen this partnership by seeking new strategies and in human capital development, food security, energy security, and other important sectors that align with our priorities and goals.”
In defense, they discussed the exchange of high-level delegations and training courses, and combatting cross-border crime, human trafficking, drug dealing, cybercrime and online scams.
Hun Manet thanked Singapore for playing a significant part in Cambodia’s human resource development, especially through scholarships and training courses.
He also invited the new Singaporean Prime Minister to visit Cambodia at a suitable time, as the two leaders considered this official visit as a driving force to strengthen and expand the relationship and cooperation.
Hun Manet also met Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who highly praised the relationship and partnership in areas including the economy, trade, national defense, training and human capital development. Through this visit, the President hoped the countries would work more closely.
The President was optimistic that the potential of young people as human resources and the progress of vocational training programs in Cambodia will be a driving force to attract investment and accelerate development in all sectors, particularly energy, industry and manufacturing.
As regional countries, both talked about mechanisms and policies on environment protection for climate-resilient economies through the expansion of the use of renewable energy, which aims to achieve the ASEAN Power Grid.
They also encouraged relevant ministries and institutions to continue discussing with one another on cooperation in agricultural, trading, investment and other sectors.
Hun Manet said there will more cooperative works between the countries, especially in 2025 because it will be the celebration of the 60th diplomatic anniversary. At the same time, both will seek more business relations, private-and-private sector, and government-and-government cooperation.
The two countries also launched the Financial Transparency Corridor (FTC), which aims to boost commercial activities and cross-border financial services.
The FTC is a digital platform created by Cambodian and Singaporean banking and financial institutions to use the data of small and medium enterprises more efficiently and easily.
Some Cambodian banks like ACLEDA Bank, Phillip Bank, Sathapana Bank, Wing Bank, and Advanced Bank of Asia Limited (ABA), and other banks of Singapore such as ANEXT, Liquid Groupt Pte Ltd, and Sing Investment & Finance Limited will be linked to the platform. The FTC, developed and managed by Proxtera Pte Ltd, will improve the credit assessment.
On June , during the Cambodia-Singapore Business Forum that was joined by 481 investors from 348 companies, both countries signed three documents, including a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Cambodian and Singaporean business federations, the launch of the Financial Transparency Corridor project, and another MOU between Singapore’s Supply Chain and Logistics Academy and Cambodia’s PPLC Superport & Industrial Co.
Later that day, Manet also met Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Manet stressed that Singapore plays an important role in developing socio-economy in Cambodia.
In this sense, there were more areas of potential cooperation that both countries could strengthen, including vocational training, education, energy security, environment protection, regional peacekeeping, and regional prosperity, Hun Manet said.
