HK-Cambodia trade rises

FRIDAY, 21 MAY 201
byMAY KUNMAKARA
Phnom Penh Post

Modest 5 percent growth in first quarter boosted by increase in re-exports

TRADE between Cambodia and Hong Kong increased by 5 percent to $121 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the first quarter of 2009, figures released Thursday show.

The Ministry of Commerce’s International Trade Department director general said that growth was in line with an across-the-board increase in Cambodian trade during the first quarter of this year.

“I see that our exports to the United States, the EU, and other foreign markets also rose during the first quarter this year, leading to increasing trade with other nations,” director general Sok Sopheak said.

Compiled by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the figures showed Hong Kong’s exports to the Kingdom grew 4.4 percent to $116 million in the quarter, while $6 million worth of goods and services flowed in the opposite direction. This constituted a 33 percent increase year on year.

The growth was driven by a 122 percent increase in re-exports – mostly goods originating in Cambodia that are exported abroad by Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong investors “also run businesses in our country. When they get more orders from their buyers, they will import raw materials from their country to us, which they then re-export to other countries,” he said.

Leading the growth in Hong Kong’s exports to Cambodia was cotton fabric, up 42 percent, knitted fabric, climbing 19 percent, plastic products up 31 percent, yarns increasing by 54 percent, and paper products climbed by 146 percent over the first three months year on year.

Cambodia’s growing exports were footwear, which surged by 242 percent, men’s textile fabrics were up 202 percent, women’s knitted textiles were up 139 percent, and other textile fabrics went up around 56 percent.

Last year, bilateral trade between Hong Kong and Cambodia plummeted 22 percent, to $480 million, from $617 million in 2008.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, in quarter one US trade was up 4.13 percent, with EU markets up 7.32 percent and foreign markets 20.12 percent.