Yearender: 2016 marks "new highs" in Sino-Cambodian ties: Cambodia officials, scholars

Cambodian senior officials and scholars say that 2016 marked the year that Sino-Cambodian relations hit "new highs" thanks to the recent exchange of visits by the top leaders of the two countries.

The historic visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Cambodia in October, preceded by the state visit of Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni to China in June, clearly underscored the closer relations and increasing cooperation between the two countries, Phay Siphan, a spokesperson for the Council of Ministers, told Xinhua.

"Cambodia-China relations are the best they've been this year. Our bilateral ties should be viewed as a gold standard of relations between country and country," he said.

He praised China for treating a smaller country like Cambodia equally and thanked China for having provided support to Cambodia for its socio-economic development and poverty reduction.

"China's assistance has no strings attached," Siphan elucidated. "It has helped strengthen political stability here, develop infrastructure, boost economic growth and reduce poverty in Cambodia."

"We will never forget the good deeds of the leaders and people of China towards Cambodia," the spokesperson said.

Lawmaker Sok Eysan, a spokesperson for the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), said the exchange of visits by the top leaders had added a new momentum to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation that the two countries forged in 2010.

"Relations between Cambodia and China are currently at their highest level," he told Xinhua. "The recent exchange of top-level visits has further deepened strategic partnerships and cooperation between our two countries."

With strong commitments made by the leaders of the two countries, he was confident that such bilateral relations and cooperation would continue to be strengthened and expanded in the future, he added.

Eysan said the close ties between the two countries had provided Cambodia a lot of advantages, particularly in terms of economy, trade, investment, and tourism.

China is one of Cambodia's biggest trading partners with the bilateral trade volume valued at 4.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 and projected to hit 5 billon U.S. dollars by 2017.

On the investment side, China is the largest investor here with a cumulative investment of more than 14 billion U.S. dollars from 1994 to October 2016, according to Cambodian government figures.

In the tourism sector, China is the second-largest source of revenue to Cambodia with some 577,300 Chinese tourists visiting the country in the first nine months of 2016, up 12.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to official tourism statistics.

In addition, China has helped build the longest road of about 1,500 kilometers and seven bridges spanning approximately 3.1 kilometers in Cambodia.

Chheang Vannarith, chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies, said 2016 marked the "new highs" in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation between the two countries.

"It is a milestone year. Both countries have reached a new high in their bilateral strategic partnership," he said. "The first state visit of President Xi to Cambodia created a new momentum in deepening comprehensive bilateral ties; from those pertaining to the economy and security, to people-to-people ties."

The expert envisaged that the Sino-Cambodian strategic partnership would continue to grow both vertically and horizontally, saying that deepening "people-to-people ties" would be the core foundation of a long-term partnership.

Mey Kalyan, chairman of the state-run Royal University of Phnom Penh's board of trustees, said Sino-Cambodian ties in 2016 had been further developed and taken a step ahead and intensified in all fields in the right direction.

"This shows the maturity of relations and trust between the leaders and peoples of the two countries," he told Xinhua.

The close Sino-Cambodian relations has provided benefits to both sides, he said, adding that, for Cambodia, the benefits were predominantly in economics, security, and diplomacy.

"It is clear that in economics, China is instrumental as it provides official development assistance (ODA) to support infrastructure and energy that Cambodia badly needs, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in all sectors to promote growth and jobs creation," he said.

"We expect more Chinese investors to come as China is restructuring its economy. But Cambodia needs to learn lessons from China, and pay more attention to social and environmental impacts," he added.

Joseph Matthews, director of ASEAN Education Center, concurred that 2016 was undoubtedly considered the most important year in China-Cambodia relations.

"This year marks a successful and fruitful year for both countries and peoples," he said. "The most outstanding event was President Xi's visit to Cambodia in October and the signing of 31 bilateral cooperation documents."

Xi's visit could be highlighted as the most high-profile visit to Cambodia in 2016, he said, adding that although the visit was brief, its impact was still being felt in Cambodia and in the region.

Sharing his view on the future of Sino-Cambodian ties, the scholar said the existing bonds of friendship between the two fraternal countries would continue to go from strength to strength, and their "all-weather" strategic partnership would continue to serve the interests of the two countries and enhance peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

"The friendship between Cambodia and China is a role model of good-neighborly relations," he said. "The steady growth in Cambodia-China cooperation across all areas and commitments shown by both sides will take the bilateral relations to a higher level." Endit