Doing Business in Cambodia

Foreword from Mr Bill Longhurst, British Ambassador to Cambodia

Cambodia has made a remarkable recovery from its darkest years under the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. The country still faces development challenges, including relatively high electricity and logistics costs, coupled with election-related uncertainty. However, two decades of growth at 7.6%, 1994 to 2015, led to the Asian Development Bank describing Cambodia as “Asia’s New Tiger” in 2016, after the Kingdom became ranked by the World Bank as a lower middle income country. The high rate of growth and ongoing drive towards diversification of the economy presents a myriad of opportunities for British companies.

Cambodia’s growth has been fuelled by expanding exports of garments and footwear in addition to a rise in diversified exports, such as machinery, auto parts and equipment, together with rapidly accelerating tourism and financial sectors.  

Bilateral trade of goods with the UK in 2016 is valued at $1.3 billion USD albeit heavily weighted in favour of Cambodian exports of which roughly 90% were textiles, clothing and footwear valued at $1.17 billion USD. 

The UK is committed to developing trade with Cambodia and assistance for UK companies looking to enter the market can be offered by the Department for International Trade, in partnership with the British Chamber of Commerce, based in Phnom Penh.

ASEAN is projected to become the world’s 4^th biggest economy by 2030 with Cambodia playing its part. Having enjoyed the highest GDP growth rate of all ASEAN nations (7% in 2016) why not explore its opportunities?

Mr Bill Longhurst
British Ambassador to Cambodia
https://www.gov.uk/world/organisations/british-embassy-phnom-penh