Cambodia is betting on more financial support from China, including for infrastructure, as President Xi Jinping visits the country on Thursday (Apr 17) at the end of a three-nation trip in Southeast Asia, a Cambodian government spokesman said.
The country, which is a major exporter of clothing and footwear to the United States, was hit with a 49 per cent “reciprocal” tariff by US President Donald Trump, one of the highest rates globally, before most duties were paused until July.
Phnom Penh is also a close partner of China, which has invested billions of dollars in projects including roads and airports, and is the country’s largest creditor.
“We expect more cooperation including on infrastructure development,” Meas Soksensan, spokesman for the Cambodian finance ministry, told Reuters on the eve of Xi’s arrival in Phnom Penh.
He was answering a question about whether Cambodia expected Beijing to announce financial support for a 180km canal, which is the country’s most ambitious infrastructure project.
In an article published on Thursday morning on Cambodian media, Xi urged Phnom Penh to oppose “hegemonism” and “protectionism”, repeating messages he sent earlier this week to Vietnam and Malaysia in the first two legs of his trip.
He listed past Chinese infrastructure projects in Cambodia that benefited the local economy but mentioned no new specific project in his article.
The Cambodian government has said China would pay for the Funan Techo Canal, which would run from the Mekong River, from a site near Phnom Penh, to the coast on the Gulf of Thailand, diverting water from the fragile rice-growing Mekong Delta and reducing Cambodian shipping through Vietnamese ports.
China has so far made no public financial commitment to the project, while Phnom Penh has changed its statements on Chinese engagement from covering 100 per cent to 49 per cent of total costs, estimated at US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 per cent of Cambodia’s annual gross domestic product.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambdoia-china-xi-jin-ping-visit-southeast-asia-us-tariffs-5070776
