Sharon Hu, journalist for Southern Finance Omnimedia Corp (SFC)

China has been Cambodia's largest trading partner for years. The simultaneous entry into force of the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has pushed China-Cambodia trade to a new level.

According to statistics from China's General Administration of Customs, in the first quarter of 2025, China's imports and exports with Cambodia reached 33.33 billion yuan, maintaining growth for six consecutive quarters, with a year-on-year increase of 13.1%, 6 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate with ASEAN. The import and export volume hit a record high for the same period in history.

Bilateral trade between China and Cambodia has been growing year by year, but there remains a relatively large trade deficit between the two countries. Recently, Cambodian Senior Minister H.E. SOK Siphana stated that the trade deficit between Cambodia and China will continue to exist, which also indicates that the two countries have strong industrial complementarity. "We need to import raw materials and semi-finished products from China so that we can manufacture products and export them to other countries,"he said.

Siphana said that although Cambodia is not as strong as China in manufacturing, the two sides can form a good combination in the industrial chain and ultimately create a win-win situation.

H.E. SOK Siphana is a senior advisor to the Cambodian government. Previously, he served as the Secretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and played an important role in Cambodia's negotiations for accession to the WTO.