HE Vu Quang Minh, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Kingdom of Cambodia and Madame;
HE Nguyen Thanh Dung, President of the Vietnamese Business Club in Cambodia;
Excellency, Ladies, and Gentlemen
Tonight, I have the honor and pleasure to express my sincere thanks to HE Vu Quang Minh, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to Cambodia and Madame and HE Nguyen Thanh Dung, President of the Vietnam Business Club in Cambodia, for inviting me to this auspicious gala dinner to celebrate the Vietnam Tet 2020 (the Vietnamese New Year). I welcome and thank honorable guests for their presences in this pompous event to illustrate bond of traditional friendship and solidarity, and to strengthen partnership with every stakeholders involved and cooperation between the two countries.
On behalf of the Royal Government and the people of Cambodia, I am expressing my greeting to rapid progress made in every fields by Vietnam, especially this achievement of free trade agreement between Vietnam and European Union, which will promote further economic, trade and tourism growths. It would also generate flow of foreign direct investments in Vietnam as well as countries in the region, Cambodia also included, partially contributing to elevate growth, especially living conditions of peoples of our two countries.
Along with this, the current Cambodian-Vietnamese cooperation achievements, as in every other years, have reflected good neighborly relation, traditional friendship, trust, and mutual respect, in every field of cooperation between our two countries, especially realizing progresses in the economic, trade, political and diplomatic fronts. I am optimistic on national and foreign investors, especially those from Vietnam for choosing Cambodia as their potential investment target for initial investment or expansion of their businesses. They have responded to the Royal Government’s investments and businesses principles of non-discrimination encouragement, competition, equality, protection of rights and legal interest, to expand and realize projected trade targets between our two countries.
A moment ago, President of the Vietnam Business Club talked about a trade volume that is more than 5.2 billion USD. This figure recorded by customs officers does not reflect the reality. At least, Vietnam help purchase from one to two million metric tons of rice from Cambodia per year and the customs office might not have properly recorded it. It is on this note that we call on our Vietnamese friends, as they have more ability in processing industry, to make further investments in Cambodia. It is beneficial for the Cambodian people as well as for Vietnam businesses in Cambodia.
Today, I am so happy that I have fulfilled the promise I made in one of my visits to Hanoi, where there was this request for an annual meeting. This is the first year that we meet and I hope that for the years to come, before the Vietnam Tet, we would continue to meet. I hope that such a meeting will strengthen further bond of friendship and increase level of mutual trust, especially those of the Vietnamese investors in/to Cambodia.
On this occasion of the celebration of the Vietnam Tet 2020 that is arriving soon, let me invite honorable guests to raise glasses for the strong bond of friendship and solidarity between people of our two countries – Cambodia and Vietnam, especially for health and successes in every tasks of your Excellencies, ladies, Lok Oknha, and gentlemen who are here present./.
