Cambodia EXPORT FIGURES UP 42% IN 2011

EXPORT FIGURES UP 42% IN 2011
Despite the trade deficit, Cambodia did show strong growth in garment, textile and agricultural
exports which has seen a 42.7 per cent year-on-
year increase in Cambodia’s total exports for 2011;
it has exported US$4.98 billion in goods last year, compared with $3.49 billion the year before.
Market diversification and a relaxing of rules of
origin in the euro zone fuelled last year’s growth,
insiders and experts say.
Heightened awareness of export schemes among
investors, as well as government facilitation, also contributed to growth.
Cambodia obtained duty-free export treatment in the European Union, so now there are more
buyers. There was a huge increase in exports to that market last year, noting the importance of exports to the European Union for Cambodia’s
garment manufacturing sector.
Hiroshi Suzuki, chief economist for the Business
Research Institute for Cambodia, agreed that the lowering of trade barriers by the euro zone had been a driving factor for export growth in the past year.
Cambodia’s total export of garments and textiles
rose about 25 per cent year-on-year in 2011 to
$4.25 billion, compared with $3.4 billion the year
before, data shows.
Of this, garment exports to the European Union rose more than 42 per cent to USD1.3 billion. Exports to the United States, worth USD1.84
billion, rose 11.4 per cent, retaining the country’s
number-one spot among importers of
Cambodian goods.
Garment exports to all other countries, including
Japan and Canada, increased 38 per cent, hitting
USD 980 million last year from USD645 million in 2010, according to the data.
Exports to Japan alone increased by 100 per cent
last year. The sharp increase in the Kingdom’s