VN, Cambodia discuss measure to boost bilateral ties

Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia Prak Sokhonn, November, 27, 2018

The event is co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia Prak Sokhonn.

In recent years, the two sides have exchanged many important high-level visits, including a State visit to Cambodia made by Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong on February 25-26, 2019, an official Viet Nam visit by Chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly Heng Samrin on May 28-30, 2019, and another visit by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn from November 26-27, 2018.

In addition, the PMs of the two countries have regularly had bilateral meetings at multilateral forums to discuss measures to promote bilateral ties.

The two sides organized the 10th cooperation and development conference for border provinces in Viet Nam from January 9-10, 2019, marked the 40th anniversary of the victory in the Southwestern border protection war and the joint victory of Viet Nam and Cambodia over the genocidal regime (Hanoi, January 4, 2019), and held the 16th meeting of the Viet Nam-Cambodia Joint Committee on economic, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation (May 2018).

Two-way trade revenues reached US$4.7 billion in 2018, up 24% compared to 2017, and hit US$2.74 billion in the first half of 2019.

Regarding investment, Viet Nam currently has 214 investment projects totally worth US$3.3 billion in Cambodia, ranking among the five largest investors in the country. Meanwhile, Cambodia is running 19 projects in Viet Nam with a total capital of US$63.42 million.

In terms of tourism, 835,000 arrivals of Vietnamese people visited Cambodia in 2018, ranking second concerning the number of international visitors to Cambodia.

Viet Nam continues to provide annual non-refundable aids to Cambodia, at VND193 billion (US$8.29 million) in 2018 and VND235 billion (US$10.1 million) in 2019. In addition to granting a large number of scholarships, Viet Nam is implementing technical assistance, capacity building and infrastructure construction projects for the Cambodian side, including the working house of the Cambodian parliament’s Secretariat (US$25 million), a voluntary drug detoxification center in Sihanouk province (US$3 million), a high school in Mondulkiri province, and a model border market in Da commune, Tbong Khmun province.

The security and order situation along the shared border remains stable, with the two sides maintaining joint patrol and the timely exchange of information, and coordinating to deal with the arising cases.

Cambodia has actively worked with Viet Nam in collecting and repatriating the remains of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers who laid down their lives in Cambodia. In 2018, the two sides searched, collected and repatriated 690 sets of remains.

By Vien Nhu