The RCEP agreement – that came into force on January 1, 2022 – is designed to reduce trade barriers and improve market access for goods in constituent nations. This partnership, in addition to Cambodia’s existing bilateral FTAs with China and South Korea, are key factors when attracting investment to Cambodia.
Vongsey Vissoth, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Economy and Finance, supported this notion at the Macroeconomic Management for 2022 conference. “The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade pact and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) are one of the key factors attracting foreign direct investments to Cambodia in the post-Covid-19 era,” he said.
The RCEP FTA is the world‘s largest trading bloc with 15 countries, including all ASEAN members, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand and are key to promoting economic growth in the long run.
Cambodia’s economy is mainly supported by garment, footwear, tourism, real estate, construction and agriculture will all enjoy positive growth this year.
“Cambodia’s national economy is forecast to grow by 5.6 percent in 2022, up from 3 percent in 2021”, adding that “the growth is expected at a higher rate of 6.5 percent in 2023 and up to 7 percent in 2024.”
This growth will support the government’s plan to provide a stimulus package of more than $1 billion for these sectors in 2022, to boost the economy and mitigate the impacts caused by the pandemic.
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Author: Sok Sithika
Source: Khmer Times
February 23, 2022
