Senior Cambodian and Qatari officials met on Tuesday to discuss an economic cooperation and trade agreement which would seek to protect their mutual investments, the Ministry of Commerce announced.

In a meeting on Tuesday between Qatar’s Ambassador to Vietnam, Mohamed bin Ismail al-Emadi, and Acting Minister of Commerce Khem Sython, both sides pushed to finalise the agreement.

The Ministry of Commerce said there are two draft agreements – one concerning economic cooperation and trade and another technical agreement on the protection of mutual investments. Both are aimed at strengthening the countries’ bilateral relationship.

“Qatar would like to import more agricultural products from Cambodia,” al-Emadi said.

He said Qatar will invite senior officials from the Kingdom to join a meeting of the Qatar-Cambodia Committee which is planned to take place on September 11-12 in Qatar.

Acting Minister Sython said Cambodian officials had requested that Qatar increase its rice imports from the Kingdom.

“We urged Qatar to expand its import of Cambodian agricultural products, especially rice.​​ We also requested that Qatar encourages the Qatari people to come and visit Cambodia in order to discover the Kingdom’s economic, tourism and cultural potential,” Sython said.

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Qatar reached over $2 million in the three years since 2016.