PHNOM PENH, Oct. 23, 2012 (PRU)
– Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Sok An shared view with the outgoing Thai
Ambassador, Sompong Sanguanbun, on Tuesday that the bilateral cooperation
between the two Asian nations has been improving and both sides agreed that the
two countries have more rooms of investment for mutual benefit in the fields of
agriculture, power production, and others.
The two neighboring countries
continued to maintain ties although they had gone through some rocky relations
in the past on the border issue.
His Excellency Dr. Sok An spoke
to the outgoing ambassador that: “You can see that I and my colleagues are very
happy to welcome you. Both countries can work together to increase the mutual
benefits of our two peoples and countries.”
“I myself have dealt with a lot
of issues to maintain our good relations with Thailand,” the Deputy Prime
Minister said referring to some incidents that took place in 2008 - 2011
without going into details.
The outgoing ambassador shared
the Deputy Prime Minister’s view, and saying that “we, on the Thai side, have
tried to maintain good relation with Cambodia and other countries in the region
as well.”
As the bilateral ties have been
improved, both countries are looking how to improve their cooperation in trade,
culture, and investment along their border areas and that will take time and
joint efforts.
“We want to see our border
areas to become more competitiveness for trade and investment for the sake of
prosperity of our peoples and countries,” said the Thai diplomat.
His Excellency Sompong
Sanguanbun, who spent a year and half in the Kingdom of Cambodia, said that
“both Cambodia and Thailand have more rooms that they can put forward together
for better relations.”
The bilateral trade between
Cambodia and Thailand last year amounted to more than $3 billion U.S.
Both sides said that their
nations can play a vital role in contributing to the coming ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC) that would take place 2015 or later depends on the readiness of
the members of the ten-country bloc of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).
“ASEAN: One Community One
Destiny is the common idea that all ASEAN leaders are trying to promote and how
we are going to prepare ahead of the AEC 2015, but we are committed and try our
best to achieve that goal,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
The Thai side also welcomed
group of 30 to 40 Cambodian students for the exchange visiting program of short
course in the areas of banking, management, industrial agriculture, and food
industrial processing in Thailand where those young graduates could learn more
experiences for better performance upon returning home.
“You can contact the Thai
companies directly or through Cambodian embassy in Bangkok. A lot of foreign
students want to study in Bangkok and in the provinces as well,” said His
Excellency Sompong Sanguanbun.
The outgoing ambassador
welcomed the latest activities of the Royal Government of Cambodia concerning
the implementation of current land reform which will be more beneficial to the
local people in contribution to the development of agricultural production.
“I heard Prime Minister Hun Sen
launched the latest processing of land title deeds for poor people, which is a
very good move,” said the diplomat, added that even in Thai’s land reform has
yet completely done.
Bangkok has seen that Cambodia
has potential in rice production. And this has encouraged the ambassador to
invite some Thai business people to look into Cambodia’s rice business since
Phnom Penh announced that it plans to export 1 million tons of milled rice a
year that will begin in 2015 onwards.
Thai also looks to export
electricity production to supply some provinces of Cambodia which border with
Thailand, and we hope that Cambodia would also be able to produce electricity
and export to its neighbor in the future, said the diplomat.
Both sides called for the
establishment of Cambodia-Thailand Cultural Association that will contribute to
better understanding of the two peoples and ultimately the countries’ bilateral
relations. End