Chinese president Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with PM Samdech HUn Sen at Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on March 31 before bilateral talks ( Photo By Khem Sovanra)
PHNOM PENH: (March 31) China has pledged to help 450 million yuan to Cambodia during Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit. The announcement was made after the meeting between Camboida’s Prime Minister Samdech PM Hun Sen and Hu at Peace Building in Phnom Penh.
“The amount of 250 million yuan finance is grant aid and another 200 million yuan is concession loan with very low interest rate, Sry Thamarong, adviser to PM Hun Sen told media after the meeting. Both sides also inked 10 agreements of cooperation which ranked from counter-terrorism, to agricultural cooperation, and exchange of visit of governmental officials and party levels.
“China fully supports Cambodia as non-permanent member of UN Security Council, Sry said, adding that both sides also discussed about the issues of South China Sea. And urged to deal in ASEAN and it should not be internationalized. China supports role of Cambodia as mediators of the issues. Cambodia and China will boost bilateral trade to 5 billion US dollars in 2017 while currently it was worth about 2.5 billion US dollars. Cambodian side asked 300-500 million US dollar loan from china to boost development of infrastructure .###
