PHNOM PENH : Cambodia's 9.19 per cent on-year rise in foreign trade value to the US$52.425 billion logged by Customs for 2022 was driven by “in-depth reforms in all areas”, improvements in export competitiveness, and an increasingly favourable business and investment environment, according to Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak on Tuesday (Jan 30).

Sorasak was speaking on the first of the commerce ministry’s two-day annual meeting, where officials reviewed the Cabinet-level agency’s performance in 2022 and set objectives for 2023.

The kingdom’s imports and exports totalled $29.942 billion and $22.483 billion in 2022, respectively, up 4.32 per cent and 16.44 per cent on a yearly basis, narrowing the trade deficit by 20.60 per cent to $7.459 billion, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE).

Cambodian goods exports, as well as the broader economy, maintained significant growth last year, even as the world struggled under the weight of rising inflation and fallout from the Ukraine conflict, on top of Covid-19, fuel, energy, and food crises, the minister said.

This, he said, came after the Kingdom’s coronavirus vaccination rates, among the highest in the region, compelled the government to adopt an endemic approach to Covid management and move to allow for the full resumption of socio-economic activity in November 2021, continuing to lift additional restrictions throughout 2022 that impeded commerce and trade.

Sorasak ascribed the nearly double-digit trade growth recorded last year to, among other things, bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTA), as well as an uptick in exports propelled by market diversification together with preferential trade arrangements maintained by various jurisdictions.

 - ANN