CAMBODIA MARKS 26 YEARS IN ASEAN, EYES ROLE AS REGIONAL GATEWAY

By Vijian Paramasivam

PHNOM Penh, May 1 (Bernama) – As Cambodia celebrated the 26th anniversary of joining ASEAN on Wednesday, it is positioning itself to become a strategic gateway to the growing 670-million-strong regional trade bloc.

Emerging from years of internal conflict, Cambodia joined ASEAN as its 10th member in Hanoi on April 30, 1999.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation reiterated that ASEAN has always been an integral part of Cambodia’s foreign policy since joining the bloc.

“With the formal admission of the Kingdom of Cambodia into ASEAN at the special ceremonies in Hanoi on April 30, 1999, the first half of the vision of the Founding Fathers to unite all Southeast Asian nations under one ASEAN roof has materialised,” wrote Termsak Chalermpalanupap, former Director at the ASEAN Secretariat (from 1993 to 2012).

“After Vietnam, the arrival of Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999 has added more political diversities to ASEAN,” Termsak, who is currently with the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said in 1999.

Strategically located at the heart of Southeast Asia and sharing borders with Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia positions itself as an ideal entry point into the 670-million-strong ASEAN market deeply integrated with the global economy.

As a member of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), the Kingdom can leverage the region’s nearly RM 4 trillion (US$ 837 billion) intra-trade in 2022 and its more than 300 million inhabitants.

The GMS members include Cambodia, China (specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet called ASEAN a beacon of stability and prosperity during the Cambodia-ASEAN Business Summit in March this year.

“As a member state of ASEAN since 1999, Cambodia is an immensely potential market. Our economic foundation is built on decades of proven high economic growth, averaging over seven per cent before the pandemic and firmly on track to return to this momentum, with the projected growth of 6.3 per cent in 2025,” Manet said at the conference.

This strong performance is primarily due to Cambodia’s open policy on international trade and investment, which offers strategic advantages supported by political and economic stability, he said.

-- BERNAMA