EXIM Thailand opens new representative office in Cambodia

BANGKOK, March 7 (TNA) - The Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand) has opened its new representative office in Cambodia to provide financial support for Thai business operators, especially those running small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for their expanding trade and investment in the neighboring country. Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia Neav Chanthana and visiting Thai Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong on Thursday jointly presided over a ceremony to open the new representative office in Phnom Penh, the EXIM Thailand's third representative office in neighboring Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, known as the CLMV group, after the first one in Myanmar's Yangon City and the second one in Lao PDR's capital city of Vientiane in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Apisak expressed his appreciation to the Cambodian government, through the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Bank of Cambodia, for the support in the establishment of the EXIM Thailand's new representative office and its increasing roles in the region as Thailand's financial and economic partner to work together with the public and the private sectors in Cambodia, which is a key neighboring ally of the Thai Kingdom. Apisak said that the EXIM Thailand's new representative office in the Cambodian capital will also support the Thai Kingdom's chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2019 under the theme of “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability” through forging closer cooperation with all ASEAN member countries, including Cambodia, towards the expanding intra-ASEAN connectivity in all areas, covering infrastructure systems, rules and regulations and people-to-people contacts. "The EXIM Thailand can become a key financial and banking mechanism for Thai business operators in Cambodia and a major institution to drive forward economic growth and social development in the CLMV group through expanding trade and investment between the Thai and the CLMV economies", the minister acknowledged. The minister stressed that over the past 26 years, the EXIM Thailand has supported trade and investment between the Thai and the CLMV economies, totally worth over two billion US dollars or about 64 billion baht. According to the minister, bilateral trade between Thailand and Cambodia has expanded by up to 15 per cent year-on-year on average over the past five years, particularly standing at about 8.4 billion US dollars in 2018 alone, a jump of 36.6 per cent year-on-year, and expected to further grow by almost double to reach 15 billion US dollars by 2020, while Thailand has also been Cambodia's 4th largest foreign investment source as the Thai Kingdom's investment in the neighboring country has reached 7 billion US dollars over the past five years. (TNA)