-Excellency Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia,
-Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I think that this forum is a good opportunity for ASEAN to hold discussion on infrastructure investment projects and other needs with major investors from all around the world.
With Cambodia’s long-term vision toward 2030, the Royal Government of Cambodia has developed and adopted, since August 2015, the “Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025” as the National New Growth Strategy. Regarding policy measures to promote Cambodia’s industrial development, we emphasize top priority on “Four Key Concrete Measures”, such as:
1. Reducing price of electricity for industrial areas, including expanding coverage and strengthening reliability of electricity supply.
2. Developing and implementing master plan for the development of multi-modes transport and logistic system.
3. Strengthening and developing labor market management mechanism and skill training and
4. Developing and transforming Sihanoukville into a multi-purpose special economic zone. In this regard, Cambodia’s prioritized sectors include: electricity, transport and logistic system, workforce development and special economic zone development.
To realize this development vision, Cambodia needs a huge amount of financing around 12 to 16 billion US dollars for infrastructure development in next decade. In this context, the promotion of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is one of our key priorities. In fact, between 1990 and 2011, the Royal Government of Cambodia has approved roughly 20 PPP investment projects in various sectors such as power stations, hydropower dams, airport, railway rehabilitation and so on. Recently, the Royal Government of Cambodia starts to review policies and regulations on PPP to facilitate private sector’s participation in infrastructure development.
On top of this, Cambodia still has huge potential in others sectors, therefore, I strongly encourage all investors to conduct investment feasibility study in Cambodia under both PPP and other forms of investment. Cambodia, indeed, is in great demand for physical infrastructure development, especially the transformation of Sihanoukville into a special economic zone with great potential in light industry, manufacturing and agro-industry. The Royal Government of Cambodia always stands ready to welcome, discuss and support every investment project to share win-win situation together.
Thank you!