Cambodia, Asean need China’s ODA

15 Oct 2018 2060 | Business & Trade Fairs

Cambodia is not alone in looking to China for assistance in her economic development as other nations within the Asean sphere of influence and beyond is also looking at Beijing to provide global leadership to help steer their economic future.

This was the main essence of a two day “South China Morning Post’s China” conference in Kuala Lumpur where the emphasis was on trade and bilateral relations with Beijing.

China is currently Cambodia’s largest source of official development assistance (ODA) due to its inherent policy of not attaching conditions to aid, coupled with Cambodia’s need for quick infrastructure development to ensure sustained economic growth.

In his opening remarks, Hong Kong’s former chief executive, Leung Chun-ying said economic integration, now termed as globalisation could be reversed if there are too many restrictions placed on China’s trading partners by countries like the United States.

He said the world needed alternate leadership and China could provide it within the boundaries of noninterference.

“Be it Cambodia, Malaysia or any other Asean member countries or even Africa, these countries are not islands in so far as trade and bilateral relations are concerned. Globalisation has made it imperative for all countries to trade with each other, including with China and the United States. The choice therefore, was, to decide who offered better trade and aid benefits to the host nations,” Mr Leung said.

On the worrisome topic of regional and global stability, participants were given an insight how this stability could be easily compromised and become collateral damage, casualties of the trade war between the United States and China.

“As competition in trade intensifies, so does the jostling for geo political prominence and in this aspect, if the trade war goes beyond the point of no return, beyond the rules of sanity, the possibilities of a geopolitical conflict which could affect regional stability cannot be ruled out as countries would then be put in a very unenviable position to take sides,” he stressed.