[Vietnamization] Common Border, Common Gates

[Background / related]

Meeting in Svay Rieng

On Saturday 7 April 2012 at approx. 11:30 AM, a meeting was organized in Svay Rieng provincial capital with the participation of at least 100 cars bearing Vietnamese license plate. Some of the Cambodian cars bear the lable NCDD.

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Common Border, Common Gates

Khmer Times | 1 July 2016

Cambodia and Vietnam plan to open more gates at the common border between Svay Rieng, on the Cambodian side, and Tay Ninh, on the Vietnamese front, according to the state-run news agency VNA. 

The agreement to open four new border gates, was signed by both countries recently according to VNA and they include checkpoints at Duong-Vam Trang Trau, Prey Ta Ey-Long Phuoc, Brasat-Phuoc Chi and Kser Dek-Hoa Hiep.

This agreement was revealed to the Vietnamese media after the country’s new president Tran Dai Quang returned home from his visit to Cambodia early this month.
 

Svay Rieng provincial governor Men Vibol could not be reached yesterday for comments, but according to VNA, about one million people crossed between Svay Rieng and Tay Ninh each year.
 

Cambodia and Vietnam have two international border gates at the common border between Bavet and Moc Bai and Trapeang Phlong and Xa Mat.
 

Mey Kalyan, a senior advisor to the Supreme National Economic Council, said the new border gates will boost trade activities between Cambodia and Vietnam.

“These border gates reflect the growing bilateral trade relationship between Cambodia and Vietnam and this is an important development,” said Mr. Kalyan. “The relationship between neighbors is important.”
 

The senior advisor however stressed that Cambodia needed to have more value-added products to trade with Vietnam in order to be more competitive with others.
 

“It’s useless to just have border gates, if we don’t have goods to export,” he said.
 

When President Tran Dai Quang met with Prime Minister Hun Sen recently, both countries agreed to promote bilateral trade and investments valued at $5 billion.
 

According to the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, as of May this year there were 183 Vietnamese-owned projects in Cambodia worth about $2.85 million.
 

The figure makes Vietnam the fifth ranking country in Cambodia’s foreign direct investment list. By 2020, total Vietnamese investment in Cambodia is expected to reach $6 billion.
 

According to figures from the Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia’s exports to Vietnam totaled $185.65 million in 2015 and imports in the same period were valued at $926.97 million.
 

Cambodia, too, has revealed plans to install more border checkpoints and border gates along land crossings with other neighbors to facilitate the inter-country movement of people and goods for trade.
 

With Thailand, Cambodia agreed to open the O Neng-Banbaray crossing, while with Laos, the Kingdom agreed to open the crossing between Preah Vihear and Pakse on the Laotian side.