The above statement was made at the graduation ceremony for students of the Vanda Accounting Academy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen said that as the locomotive of global economic growth, if this economy weakens, it will drag the global economy down with it. Surely no one will forget the economic crisis in 2008 that started from the collapse of banks in the United States and then spread to the EU. However, Asia was still able to stand firm thanks to the economic growth of China and India combined with the stability of the Japanese and Korean economies, which helped to prevent the crisis from spreading further to Asia.
“Of course, this crisis also affects us as many factories have to close… Because the income of people in the US and EU has decreased, orders and purchases have decreased,” said Prime Minister Hun Sen, affirming that the US and EU are the main markets for Cambodia’s organic rice.
Prime Minister Hun Sen also asserted that the world , including Cambodia , would benefit from the growth of the United States and other economies. “Do not compete to destroy each other, but compete to promote growth for all of us,” he urged.
“A competitive market economy does not mean competing to knock out competitors. For example, in the past, some banks tried to beat other rival banks… This is called competition to “knock out” competitors to win. But in this era, it is not like that, because they are always closely monitored, it must be healthy competition, promoting each other to develop,” the Cambodian Prime Minister stated his opinion.
Referring to China, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that trying to prevent China from developing is impossible because it is the country with the largest population in the world. It is a potential market for Cambodia and other ASEAN member countries. The Prime Minister also said that Cambodia and ASEAN in general export more goods to China than they import from there. China is also the largest supplier of raw materials to manufacturing countries, including Cambodia - a country that imports more than 80% of its textile materials from China for its garment industry.
Cambodia also welcomed more than 2 million Chinese tourists before the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr. Hun Sen said that China soon plans to restart 300 international flights per week so that Chinese tourists can travel around the world and it would be great if Cambodia welcomed about 5 million tourists from China. Thailand plans to attract about 10 million Chinese tourists and Singapore has also outlined strategies to attract Chinese tourists.
Cambodia does not hinder the development of any country. It would be a very wrong economic policy to want to develop Cambodia by hoping that the economies of Vietnam and Thailand will weaken. Mr. Hun Sen argued that if the Vietnamese economy weakens, inflation will affect Cambodia because it is one of the main markets for Cambodian exports.
Cambodia exports about $5 billion worth of goods to Vietnam, whose population has grown to nearly 100 million this year, and imports some of its electricity, Prime Minister Hun Sen said. If Vietnam’s economy weakens, Cambodia’s recovery will be affected as Vietnam reduces the amount of electricity it exports, he said. Cambodia imports electricity from Vietnam and Laos, but also plans to export electricity to Singapore via an undersea cable under an agreement between private companies from the two countries.
The Prime Minister said that if Vietnam’s economy weakens, Cambodia will lose $5 billion in exports, including about 1 million tons of cashews, as Cambodia does not have enough processing capacity. He added that if Vietnam and Thailand suffer from 20-30% inflation, the rate will also increase in Cambodia.
“So this is called win-win competition, not lose-lose competition. We will not participate in any campaign to destroy any country… The world is full of competition, but competition must be on the basis of mutual benefit and mutual growth, that is a developing world,” Prime Minister Hun Sen shared.
“We should not wish for any country to fall into economic collapse, because the consequences are very serious,” Prime Minister Hun Sen stressed. “If we want our businesses to develop, instead of thinking of ways to destroy other businesses, we should think of ways to improve product quality, ensure safety and competitive prices,” he said.
DOAN TRUNG (according to Khmertimes)
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