Cambodia's total trade worth 2.7 bln USD in first 2 months, up 28 pct

PHNOM PENH, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's import and export trade volume had amounted to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, up 28 percent compared to the 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year, the statistics of the Commerce Ministry showed Friday. 

During the January-February period this year, the country had imported goods in the total value of 1.58 billion U.S. dollars, up 37 percent. At the meantime, it had exported items in equivalent to 1.13 billion U.S. dollars, up 18 percent.

Main products Cambodia imported are garment and textile raw materials, petroleum, construction materials, automobiles and motorcycles, consuming items, food and soft drinks, pharmaceutical products and cosmetics, while it exported garments and footwear, rubber latex, milled rice, corn and cassava.

Kong Puththeara, chief of the Commerce Ministry's statistics department, attributed the growth to better economies--either locally or globally--and Cambodia's efforts in diversifying exports.

Cambodia's main foreign trading partners are the United States, European countries, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Last year, the country's total trade volume was 13.63 billion U.S. dollars, up 19 percent year-on-year, according to the Commerce Ministry.