New Era of Trade Fair 2011 with ACMECS in Cambodia

By Sok Lak

“Cambodia will organize one province one product fair in mid-December to boost economic growth and promote products in the kingdom as the agricultural products like rice is potential sources, the commerce minister said.

He added: “this event will held from 15 to 18 December this year at Koh Pich in Phnom Penh. As the 6^th consecutive year of Cambodia trade fair, the Cambodia Import-Export and One Province One Product Exhibition 2011 is entering a new era with the inclusion of the  “Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS)”.

The Ministry of Commerce organized the Cambodia Import-Export and One Province One Product Exhibition in Penh Penh as Trade fair has become a basic foundation in the agenda of the country’s development program and a lot of initiatives have been put into implementation by the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant ministries, as well as many international communities, to jointly formulate policies and strategies to help investment and to promote economic growth and generating employment for people and reducing poverty.

“This year, the fair is different from other year.” It noted.

“This is an initiative first proposed during the 4th ACMECS summit held in Phenh Penh on November 2010 where joint campaigns in areas of trade fairs promotion among the ACMECS countries, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam are recommended to be further enhanced,” Senior Minister Cham Prasidh, Minister of Commerce said.

The formation of ACMECS was aimed at bridging the economic gap among the member countries and to promote prosperity in the sub-region in a sustainable manner. “Sub prosperity will not only benefit the five, but also add value to ASEAN and its solidarity,” he stressed. The emphasis of ACMECS economic growth cooperation framework is on using self-help and partnership to achieve sustainable development, including poverty reduction, in line with the United Nation Millennium Development Goals.

“The inclusion of ACMECS in the 6th Cambodia Import-Export and One Province One Product Exhibition 2011 is also timely with the new formation of the China ASEAN Free Area (CAFTA) in 2010 which the new free trade area has brought together developing countries in the region with a combined population of 1.9 billion, a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of up to US$6 trillion and total volume of US$4.5 trillion,” he mentioned.

In the 5th Cambodia Import-Export and One Province One Product Exhibition 2010, there were 252 companies from both aboard and local with 326 exhibiting booths. In the 4 days event, approximately 54,000 visitors have participated to visit different kinds of international and national products in the event.

In conjunction with the fair, there are other four events such as investment and business forum, business activation promotion workshop, business meeting, and investment and business singing contact. In the year 2010, the import and export sector in Cambodia attained double-digit progress as the total import and export volume increase 26.6 percent from US$6.53 billion in 2009 to US$8.27 billion in 2010 in which total import rose from US$3.47 billion to US$4.78 billion and total export rose from US$2.79 billion to US$3.49 billion.

Source: The Southeast Asia Weekly, October 30-November 5, 2011, Vol. 5, Issue 44, Page 9