Dec 13, 2010
DPA
Beijing - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met Chinese leaders on Monday as the two nations signed several cooperation agreements.
President Hu Jintao hosted an official welcome ceremony for Hun Sen at Beijing's great Hall of the People before the Cambodian leader held his main talks with Premier Wen Jiabao, state radio said.
Wen and Hun Sen attended the signing of several agreements the broadcaster reported, without giving details.
Before the talks, Hun Sen said the two sides planned to sign 14 or 15 agreements during his five-day visit to China.
The deals would cover several infrastructure projects in Cambodia, including Chinese financial assistance to construct a canal and a 300-kilometre national road to Chhumkiri district in Kampot province, China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Hun Sen as saying in Sunday.
Other agreements would be signed to construct two bridges in Phnom Penh and the Takhmao district of Kandal province, and the building of a coal-fired power plant in Preah Sihanouk province, he said.
Hun Sen said Cambodia also hoped to sign an agreement on exports of cassava and possibly corn to China, following an earlier deal for rice exports.
'Our farmers will make use of rice and cassava exports because Chinese market is very big,' the agency quoted him as saying.
Hun Sen said his visit would 'further strengthen the friendship' between the two nations.
Officials including the Cambodian ministers of foreign affairs and commerce were scheduled to accompany him, the agency said.
Hun Sen was also scheduled to meet former Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk, who is under medical treatment in Beijing, Cambodian officials said.
He will also travel to the Chinese cities of Tianjin, Wuxi, Suzhou and Nanjing, reports said.
China has growing business and strategic interests in Cambodia, and is Phnom Penh's most important investor.
In the past four years Cambodia has approved more than 6 billion dollars of Chinese investment. Much of that is in infrastructure, particularly hydropower dams.
The investment figure excludes 880 million dollars in Chinese grants and aid during that period.
It also excludes 1.2 billion dollars in economic assistance awarded by China immediately after Cambodia expelled 20 Uighur asylum-seekers in December 2009 at Beijing's request, drawing strong criticism from the United States and international rights groups.
0 comments:
Post a Comment