PHNOM PENH: The Minister of Commerce, Pan Sosak, received a visit from the Ambassador of Australia to Cambodia, Pablo Kang, and his colleagues on Thursday at the Ministry of Commerce, where the two exchanged comments and held a discussion on the progress of bilateral and regional cooperation in the field of economy and trade between Cambodia and Australia.

Minister Pan Sosak welcomed the Ambassador and his colleagues and also extended his thanks to the Australian Minister of Commerce, Dan Tehan, for his full support of Cambodia assuming the 2022 ASEAN Chairmanship.

As the Chair of the ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting, Minister Pan Sosak informed the Australian Ambassador about progress surrounding the negotiations on the upgrade of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), which is one of Cambodia's priority economic achievements for 2022 under the fourth key strategic goal of ASEAN globalization for growth and development. He stressed the need to accelerate and speed up negotiations on the remaining issues in order to complete the negotiations and upgrade the AANZFTA in a timely manner as planned.

He also briefed the Ambassador on the progress of Timor-Leste's application for ASEAN membership and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In response, the Australian Ambassador expressed his appreciation for Cambodia’s proposed economic priorities that reflect a response to global developments, particularly the conclusion of negotiations around the upgrade of the AANZFTA, which he said is a main priority for cooperation between ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand in 2022.

The Ambassador also reaffirmed Australia's continued support for Cambodia as the rotating chair of ASEAN in 2022 and pledged to continue working closely with the Kingdom to achieve Cambodia's priority achievements to build a sustainable and resilient ASEAN community.

He further informed the Minister of Commerce about the excellent progress made on cooperation in the field of competition and consumer protection, in which he reaffirmed Australia will continue to support capacity building and technical assistance to Ministry of Commerce officials, as it is an important contribution to improving the business and investment environment in Cambodia.

Concluding the meeting, both sides noted the growth of bilateral trade between Cambodia and Australia and pledged to continue boosting trade and investment, and strengthening cooperation efforts to rehabilitate all sectors and industries in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis.