Rolls-Royce to open showroom in Cambodian capital

UK car-maker says demand for luxury vehicles will grow along with economy in which annual income per capita is $1,000

• Associated Press in Phnom Penh
• The Guardian, Tuesday 10 June 201

Cambodia's minister of industry and handicraft, Cham Prasidh, checks out the rear of a Rolls-Royce in Phnom Penh on Monday. Photograph: Charly Two/AFP/Getty Images

A British luxury car manufacture will soon be marketing its goods in one of the world's poorest countries: Cambodia.

Rolls-Royce announced on Monday that it has joined with a Cambodian business partner to open a showroom in the capital Phnom Penh next month.

Its Asia-Pacific regional manager, Paul Harris, said Rolls-Royce signed a deal with HGB Group because it believed demand would grow for luxury cars along with Cambodia's economy.

The annual income per capita in the mostly rural nation is just over $1,000, according to the World Bank. That would cover less than 0.5% of the cost of the cheapest Rolls-Royce. But it is not unusual to see various models of high-end Lexus cars owned by a small but wealth elite pass pedicabs in Phom Penh's dusty streets.

Harris said five Rolls-Royces have been sold in Cambodia since 2005.

"Nobody would believe that such a luxury car would come to Cambodia," said the minister for industry and handcrafts, Cham Prasidh, who was present for the announcement.

Cheaper Japanese models still dominate the market, but the upgrading of roads – which had suffered from war and neglect – and the rise in people's living standards mean other car manufacturers from various countries are now entering the Cambodian market, he said.