Cambodia, Germany eye stronger ties in investment, tourism

PHNOM PENH, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Hermann Otto Solms, vice president of the German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Monday pledged to encourage German investors and tourists to Cambodia in order to cement the bilateral ties.

Hermann made his remarks during a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace here.

He said his visit was to strengthen and expand German-Cambodian relationship, adding that he used to visit Cambodia once in 1989; now, he came again and has witnessed a great and rapid development of Cambodia.

During the visit, Hermann also observed two polling stations in the Sunday's local elections and highly evaluated that the polls had been conducted smoothly in democratic norm.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen thanked the government and people of Germany for supporting the social, democratic and economic development in Cambodia.

He also urged Germany to help Cambodia in trade, investment, and tourism so as to boost the country's economic growth.

Earlier in the day, Hermann held a meeting with Khuon Sodary, the 2nd vice president of Cambodia's National Assembly. The meeting discussed ways to boost bilateral relations, especially in the fields of trade, investment and tourism.

Germany is one of Cambodia's foreign donors. However, on the investment side, there is no any investment from Germany to Cambodia since 1994 to 2011, according to the reports of the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

The bilateral trade figure was unavailable on Monday. On the tourism side, the latest statistics of the Tourism Ministry showed that during the first three months of this year, Cambodia received 26,890 German visitors, up 9 percent from 24,660 in the same period last year.

Sourced: Phnom Penh post