Longer Visas for Chinese, Koreans

KHMER TIMES
SOK CHAN

Chinese tourists in Phnom Penh during their president’s visit. Reuters

The government will offer three-year, multiple-entry visas to Chinese and South Korean investors in an effort to make doing business easier and increase investment in the Kingdom, the premier said during the first Cambodia-China Business and Financial Development Forum in Phnom Penh yesterday.

Speaking to about 300 Chinese and local businesspeople, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that Chinese and South Korean investors would no longer have to obtain a new visa for every trip to the Kingdom.

Instead, with the new extended visa, they will only get their passports stamped when they arrive and depart the country.

“I offer Chinese and [South] Korean investors a multiple-entry visa for three years to walk in and out of Cambodia,” Mr. Hun Sen told the forum.

“They can enter Cambodia and go back to their country without asking for a new visa for three years, but they have to have their passports stamped on every entry and exit.”

Sear Rithy, the chairman of WorldBridge International (Cambodia), told Khmer Times it was a smart initiative by the government to offer the new visas. He said most of his Chinese partners complained about having to frequently apply for a visa to Cambodia, adding that it was only a minor irritation.

“Now when the government offers this, Chinese and [South] Korean investors will no longer be bothered. When it’s convenient traveling to Cambodia and there’s a favorable investment law, they will invest in Cambodia,” Mr. Rithy said.

“This is good news for them. I will inform my foreign partners to let them know that this is the new government policy.”

Acleda Bank president Inn Channy welcomed the move, saying it was good to have an extended visa for Chinese and South Korean investors, some of whom came in and out of the country regularly.

He added that previously it was time-consuming for investors to apply for a visa every year.

“The three-year, multiple-entry visa will be convenient for Chinese and [South] Korean investors who are investing in Cambodia and will push more investors to come to Cambodia,” he said.

Mr. Hun Sen said China was the biggest injector of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Cambodia. He added that the two countries were pushing for $5 billion in trade this year.

Trade between Cambodia and China was $4.3 billion last year, he said, an increase of about 15.19 percent from the $3.8 billion in 2014. Mr. Hun Sen added that last year, the Kingdom exported about $405 million worth of goods to China and imported about $3.9 billion from China.

He said that FDI from China in the first 10 months of this year was $720 million with about 84 ongoing projects with most investment going to agriculture, the agro-industry, the manufacturing industry, tourism, energy, construction and real estate and the financial industry.

According to a report from the Council for the Development of Cambodia, China is the largest foreign investor in Cambodia with an accumulated investment of more than $14 billion between 1994 and October this year.