THE Asian Development Bank has released a revised forecast of 5.0 percent GDP growth expected this year for Cambodia, up half a percent as overseas markets for garments recover from the global financial crisis.
Cambodia has put its labour pool to good use in the key garment sector and improved infrastructure, but moving to higher value-added production requires the Kingdom to branch into related goods like footwear and soft toys, as well as maintaining its garment exports in an increasingly global market, according to the updated ADB report.
The financial crisis that began crippling world economies in 2008 caused the Kingdom’s GDP growth to fall 2.0 percent in 2009 from the year previous, the ADB said. The Cambodian government, which has disputed the negative economic projections released by various international financial organisations in the wake of the global market meltdown, claims growth increased 0.1 percent during 2009.
Foreign direct investment from China to ASEAN members also increased drastically during the global financial crisis, according to the ADB, fueling some of the post-crisis recovery experienced by Cambodia.
“PRC’s outward FDI to ASEAN has accelerated during the global crisis, expanding almost threefold between 2007 and 2009 alone and contributing to industrial upgrading broadly across the region, including in least developed countries such as Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic,” it said.
Data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) showed that approved investment from China was worth about US$530 million in the first half of 2010, up from $242 million in the same period in 2009, representing a 119 percent increase. ...read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.
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