By May Kunmakara
Monday, 23 April 2012
Phnom Penh Post
Cambodia will no doubt look to partners other than the US and the
European Union to bolster its economic growth as those key export
markets continue to struggle, a senior International Monetary Fund official says.
One
way in which Cambodia would forge new and growing relationships with
higher-income economies was through their relocation of manufacturing
operations to the Kingdom, Abdul Abiad, deputy division chief in the
IMF’s Research Department, said on the sidelines of last week’s World
Economic Outlook.
“I think that’s going to help, because they’re
going to increase production,” he said, adding that the rise in garment
manufacturing also helped to boost the amount of capital generated in
Cambodia.
The country would then become more resilient to outside factors such as the slowdowns in the West, Abiad said.
Commerce
Minister Cham Prasidh told the Post at this month’s ASEAN Summit in
Phnom Penh he was not concerned about the issues affecting the United
States and the European Union.
The Kingdom was seeking out other markets to which to ship its goods, he said.
“We
are also building some trade inside ASEAN through free-trade agreements
with China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. That will
provide more help.”
Cham Prasidh predicted Cambodia’s exports
would grow by about 25 per cent this year, a momentum the
garment-dominated industry has maintained since 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story: May Kunmakara at may.kunmakara@phnompenhpost.com
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