2011-02-22 10:13

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Trade cooperation between China and Cambodia could be considered as "pattern cooperation" in developing countries, said Fu Ziying, visiting Chinese vice-commerce minister, during a meeting with Cambodian prime minister on Monday afternoon.

"We consider that the trade cooperation between our two countries is a sample among the developing countries," Fu said to Hun Sen, adding that China-Cambodia cooperation in economics and trades will be better.

Fu also promised to encourage more Chinese investors to invest in Cambodia, especially in agro-industry, mining and special economic zones.

"China wants to establish joint investment projects with Cambodia in agro-industry as Cambodia has favorable land and water resources, while China has markets and financial and technical resources to invest in this sector," he added.

He said that China welcomes the export of Cambodian agricultural product into Chinese market.

Fu also conveyed the greeting from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

In response, Hun Sen said that Cambodia is much in need of investment in agro-industry.

"Cambodia has been developing its agricultural sector, but it's still weak," he said. "In this sense, I would like to ask Chinese investors to consider investment in this sector."

The prime minister also asked China to support strongly the development of Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone.

Bilateral trades between Cambodia and China mounted to more than $1.1 billion in 2010, up 41.5 percent from about $791 million in 2009, according to the statistics from the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce.