Mainland China, Vietnam and Thailand accounted for $7.259 billion or 71.81 per cent of Cambodia’s total goods imports in the first five months of 2023, which amounted to $10.109 billion, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia (GDCE).

These three destinations were the Kingdom’s largest import sources for the five-month period. The corresponding trio of figures for the year-ago and semester-ago periods were as thus: January-May 2022 ($7.611B; 58.29%; $13.057B) and July-November 2022 ($7.367B; 62.00%; $11.882B).

Cambodia’s total imports for January-May 2023 marked decreases of 22.58 per cent year-on-year and 14.92 per cent half-on-half, while inbound merchandise shipments from just the three aforementioned markets represented far smaller drops of 4.63 per cent year-on-year and 1.47 per cent half-on-half.

Mainland China retained its position as the Kingdom’s top import source at 44.39 per cent of the total, or $4.488 billion, up 0.38 per cent year-on-year and up 9.57 per cent half-on-half. Next on the list were Vietnam (15.30%; $1.547B; down 9.57% y-o-y; up 1.04% h-o-h) and Thailand (12.12%; $1.225B; down 14.38% y-o-y; down 29.64% h-o-h).

The next two were Indonesia (4.55%; $459.980M; up 16.61% y-o-y; up 33.4% h-o-h) and Singapore (3.12%; $315.567M; down 81.07% y-o-y; down 72.63% h-o-h) – the latter of which had been the number-three import source in January-May 2022, with $1.667 billion.

Cambodia Chamber of Commerce vice-president Lim Heng told The Post on July 2 that most of the Kingdom’s imports are raw materials or inputs used in export-oriented processing operations. He noted that a fair share of construction materials and furniture have also been shipped in to support development in the local building-construction segment.

He predicted that mainland China, Vietnam and Thailand will remain key economic growth drivers for Cambodia.

“The continuous growth of domestic production capacity has prompted Cambodia to purchase more raw materials from overseas markets that it lacks, to process for export,” he said.

Heng claimed that the majority of Cambodia’s imports from the three aforementioned markets are related to textiles, construction, machinery, and electrical and electronic equipment.

When the state of the world economy improves, products from these jurisdictions will be available in larger quantities domestically, he predicted, adding that Cambodia has recently experienced a pick-up in export growth momentum as of late.

Royal Academy of Cambodia economist Hong Vanak commented that, for at least two decades, Cambodia has been a significant consumer of commodities from the three markets, including nearly everything from fruits and vegetables, industrial raw materials, energy, fuel, advanced technologies, construction materials and heavy machinery.

He also praised Cambodia’s diplomatic and trade relations with the three nations and territories, asserting that the quantity, quality and pricing of products brought in from these markets are in line with the needs of domestic manufacturing enterprises.

Vanak expects the volume of merchandise exchanged between Cambodia and the three markets to return to and remain on an uptrend for the foreseeable future, underpinned by the bilateral Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) – which took effect on January 1, 2022.

For reference, Cambodian trade with mainland China, Vietnam and Thailand rose by 4.67 per cent on a monthly basis to $1.975 billion in May, following a 19.47 per cent month-on-month drop in April, according to the GDCE.

In 2022, imports from the three markets – the top three import sources for that year – totalled $18.245 billion, making up 60.94 per cent of Cambodia’s total import value of $29.942 billion.

The corresponding figures for previous years were: 2021 ($16.291B; 56.76%; $28.703B), 2020 ($12.615B; 66.05%; $19.100B), 2019 ($13.499B; 66.92%; $20.172B), 2018 ($11.465B; 66.41%; $17.265B), 2017 ($9.377B; 65.94%; $14.220B), 2016 ($7.809B; 63.77%; $12.245B) and 2015 ($6.420B; 60.64%; $10.588B).