Cambodia Reaffirms Its Stance in Favour of Multilateralism System
Phnom Penh, September 04, 2023 --
Cambodia continues to be committed to the multilateral system, rule-based international order and principle of non-interference, in order to protect and promote peace both at home and in the world.
The commitment was emphasised by Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia in his special remarks at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit 2023 organised by the ASEAN Business Advisory Council in Jakarta, Indonesia this afternoon.
“We will work closely with all ASEAN member states as well as private sectors to foster inclusivity, peace, and prosperity in the region and beyond. Cambodia stands ready to welcome all prospective investors to the Kingdom, where opportunities are abundant,” he underlined.
According to the Cambodian Premier, ASEAN has become the fifth largest economy in the world. The success story of ASEAN has always been based on peaceful cooperation, with active and proactive participation from the private sector, as a pre-requisite for socio- economic and human development.
By having peace as a core fundamental value, he added, ASEAN has forged stronger regional partnerships among its member states to enhance prosperity in the region and beyond. In this spirit, ASEAN must strive to strengthen its Unity and Centrality and advance the ASEAN Economic Community building process to sustain ASEAN as a region of critical importance and a major center of prosperity, which can be equally and inclusively shared.
In the current regional and global context, to achieve common prosperity, it is imperative that the strengthening and the deepening of ASEAN Economic Integration further contribute to narrowing development gap within ASEAN itself, he said, stressing that the promotion of intra-ASEAN trade and investment, in particular, ought to be meaningful and leave no one behind.
To realise this vision, he continued, ASEAN must strive in a concerted effort to secure a timely conclusion of a better, forward-looking, and more practical ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement upgrade. Equally important, ASEAN ought to fully and effectively utilise the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), while ensuring that the existing ASEAN Free Trade Agreements and economic cooperation with all ASEAN Dialogue Partners are still of critical importance and relevant for businesses and investors.
Moreover, ASEAN should take full advantage of the change in economic architecture to become more resilient, by accelerating inclusive ASEAN digital transformation, enhancing the participation of MSMEs in the regional and global supply chains, and being more forward-looking and adaptive to emerging issues such as climate change, food security, pandemics and others, he said.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet also mentioned about the Pentagonal Strategy-Phase 1 of the Royal Government of Cambodia for the 7th Legislature of the National Assembly, which focuses on the development of the private sector, especially through the provision of incentives and protection in the framework of the Law on Investment and the Law on Public-Private Partnership, together with free-trade agreements, and bilateral and multilateral collaboration.
