Cambodia's top diplomat hails Sino-Cambodian ties

Xinhua | 2013-12-4

By Agencies

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Wednesday highly spoke of good relations and cooperation between Cambodia and China in all rounds of cooperation.

While meeting with Gu Xiulian, president of the China-Cambodia Friendship Association, Hor Namhong said the relations between the two countries have become stronger and stronger thanks to frequent exchange of visits by leaders of the countries.

He thanked the Chinese government and people for providing a large amount of aid for Cambodia's social and economic development, particularly the development of roads, bridges, electricity facilities and irrigation system.

He said China was the first country that has invested in the development of infrastructure and hydro-electric dams in Cambodia.

According to him, China is one of Cambodia's leading trading partners. Bilateral trade was valued at 2.83 billion US dollars in the first nine months of 2013 and is projected to reach 5 billion US dollars by 2017.

China is the second largest source of visitors to Cambodia. According to the Ministry of Tourism, some 376,570 Chinese tourists have visited Cambodia during the first ten months of this year, up 42 percent year-on-year.

Gu said her visit to Cambodia was part of the celebrations of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Cambodia diplomatic ties.


She expressed her confidence that economic and trade ties between the two countries would continue to further grow thanks to the excellent ties between the two governments and peoples.

She believed that more Chinese tourists will visit Cambodia because the country has a lot of tourist attractions.

Earlier in the day, Gu met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and she is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath.