Santo Darmosumarto (fourth left), Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia and Dalton Wong (third right), President of the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce Cambodia, along with others at the networking event on Thursday. IndoCham
Over 100 people, including business personalities and representatives of various industries from Indonesia and business chambers in Cambodia, attended a cocktail networking pre-event in conjunction with ‘Sousdey Indonesia,’ at Morgan Tower, Koh Pich, on Thursday afternoon.
The networking event, organised by the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce Cambodia (IndoCham), was presided over by Santo Darmosumarto, the Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia.
Mirza Nurhidayat, Director of Southeast Asia Affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, was also present.
Sousdey Indonesia is an expo organized by the Indonesian Embassy in Cambodia to promote bilateral trade, culture and educational opportunities for Cambodian students. The expo will be held at the Diamond Island Exhibition and Convention Center in Phnom Penh on September 13 and 14.
Meanwhile, the networking event allowed representatives of businesses from both countries to exchange views and business ideas.
According to Ambassador Darmosumarto, the two-day expo would be participated by around 70 businesses from Indonesia.
“This pre-event helped these businesses coming from Indonesia to meet others, especially Indonesians who are already here and get to know each other,” the Ambassador told Khmer Times.
While giving his opening remarks,Nurhidayat said that there was remarkable growth in trade between Indonesia and Cambodia last year as the bilateral trade witnessed a growth of 10.9 percent in 2023 over the previous year.
According to Nurhidayat, Indonesia was also the sixth-largest trading partner of Cambodia in 2023 and the third-largest in ASEAN after Vietnam and Thailand.
Recalling the 65 years long diplomatic ties between Cambodia and Indonesia, he said that there are new and emerging opportunities for Indonesian businesses in Cambodia, including in agriculture and health sectors, and urged the Indonesian businesses to seize those opportunities.
The challenges in Cambodia include high electricity prices and inadequate infrastructure.
In his remarks, Dalton Wong, President of the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce Cambodia, encouraged the participants to exchange views and support the participants of Sousdey Indonesia 2024. He also urged the participants to explore collaborations in business and trade in Cambodia.
It may be noted that Cambodia is also keen to promote economic ties with Indonesia. In June, during a meeting, Senate President Hun Sen had asked Ambassador Darmosumarto to encourage Indonesians to invest in Cambodia’s rice sector.
The proposal was raised when Mr Hun Sen received a courtesy call from the Indonesian Ambassador.
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