He made the remarks while co-chairing the 4th Vietnam-Cambodia Investment Cooperation Conference together with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen on January 13 in Phnom Penh, which sought to further foster bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation.
Highlighting connection potential and opportunities shared by the two countries, he said the Vietnamese Government has offered a number of support policies to enterprises operating in the countries, including a tariff cut, and land rent reduction.
PM Dung said he hopes the Cambodian side will pay more attention to facilitating Vietnamese firms’ effective investment and operation along with removing difficulties and obstacles to projects it had licensed.
He suggested relevant agencies of both sides work together to put the Vietnam-Cambodia Investment Encouragement and Protection Agreement into force soon, allowing relevant activities to be carried out to support businesses directly.
Particularly, the two sides should work for the early signing of a double taxation avoidance agreement and the upgrade of a cooperation deal in rubber planting to a government level, he said.
PM Dung also stressed the importance of trade promotion to allow enterprises to establish new partnerships on such promising areas as telecommunications, infrastructure development, trade, investment, finance, banking, agricultural product processing, forestry (especially rubber planting) and building distribution channels for major products.
He asked Vietnamese investors to strictly abide by the host’s laws and support their Cambodian partners and localities for mutual development, stressing that each successful project will make practical contributions to the long-standing relationship between the two nations.
PM Dung expressed his hope that Vietnamese and Cambodian firms will work closely towards the target of raising two-way trade to 5 billion USD by 2015.
The Vietnamese Government will spare no effort to work with Cambodia to lift up their neighbourliness, friendship and comprehensive cooperation to a new height, he underlined.
Reviewing Cambodia’s important socio-economic achievements over the past years, PM Hun Sen said the results show the Cambodian Government’s capacity in managing and creating opportunities for political stability and sustainable development in the future.
He held that the strong cooperation between the two countries within the sub-regional and regional framework has optimised advantages and potentials for enterprises.
Businesses and investors of both countries should study carefully each other’s people and markets to design their own strategies, he said.
He pointed out that Cambodia’s abundant source of products can create win-win opportunities for Vietnamese food and agricultural product processors.
PM Hun Sen voiced his hope that the Vietnamese Government will continue supporting Cambodia through strengthening investment in the country.
Cambodia always backs all Vietnam-funded projects in the country, he confirmed, adding that the country will exert more efforts in improving its investment environment to maintain Vietnamese investors’ confidence.
In 2013, Vietnam’s registered investment in Cambodia totalled 3 billion USD, with 127 projects - a six-fold increase in the total investment and over three times the number of projects than before 2010, said President of the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Cambodia Tran Bac Ha.
Vietnam is now the fifth largest foreign investor in Cambodia, with projects in agro-forestry-aquaculture, energy, finance, banking, insurance, telecommunications and aviation helping spur Cambodia’s economic development.
Two-way trade between the two countries has also registered a yearly average rise of 30 percent. Vietnam’s major exports to Cambodia include fuel and steel, while it buys rubber latex, wood and wooden products.
Vietnam’s enterprises operating in Cambodia have also actively participated in social welfare programmes, contributing to improving the living conditions of Cambodian people.
At the conference, participants urged the two Governments to reach a consensus on the contents of long-term economic cooperation, while issuing specific policies on projects along the common borderline to ensure border security.
They also emphasised the necessity to build an information portal between the two Governments to provide their businesses with updated information on policies and the political security situation in each country, helping them avoid risks in their investment and business.
Organised for the first time in 2009, the conference aimed to promote investment from Vietnam to Cambodia. Over the last three events, many cooperation agreements between the two sides’ businesses were implemented.
On the occasion, PM Dung and his counterpart Hun Sen witnessed the granting of investment licence for the Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk) to build a 23 million USD factory in Cambodia.
They witnessed the signing of an agreement on 50 scholarships for Cambodian students to study in Vietnam between the Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV) of Vietnam and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.
