Cambodian PM heads to China for Boao Forum

PHNOM PENH - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, accompanied by a group of senior government officials and businesspeople, on Saturday left for China to attend the 2013 Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province and for an official visit.

According to the schedule, the Prime Minister will deliver a speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2013 on Sunday, Sry Thamarong, minister attached to Prime Minister Hun Sen, told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport before the departure. After that, he will pay a courtesy call on Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On the sidelines of the forum, Hun Sen will also meet with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

After the forum, Prime Minister Hun Sen will head to Beijing for an official visit on April 8. In Beijing, the premier will hold an official talk with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

"Eight documents will be signed by the two sides, focusing on cooperation in banking, social and economic development, infrastructure development, irrigation system development, and education," Sry Thamarong said.

He said two important agreements among the eight documents are the action plan on the implementation of the China-Cambodia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation and the Memorandum of Understanding on the 5 million tons oil refinery project among China Development Bank, China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, China Perfect Machinery Industry Corporation and Cambodian Petrochemical Company in the investment amount of $1.67 billion.

At the end of the visit, both sides will agree to mark the year 2013 as the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between China and Cambodia and the "China-Cambodia Friendship Year".

In Beijing, Hun Sen will also pay separate courtesy calls on Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, and former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said Sry Thamarong.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua last week, Hun Sen said that Cambodia-China friendly relations of cooperation had rapidly grown over the last decade and predicted that the ties would become stronger and deeper under new Chinese leadership.

"In the last decade, the ties have grown very quickly in politics and in all fields including trade," he said, recalling that in 2012, during the visit of former President Hu Jintao to Cambodia, the two nations agreed to boost the bilateral trade volume to $5 billion by 2017.

Now, he said, the two nations are in the new stage of further strengthening and promoting this relationship to a deeper and stronger level.

"Under the new term of Chinese leadership, I hope that the Sino-Cambodian relations will be more solid," Hun Sen said. "My forthcoming visit to the People's Republic of China will clearly show the continuation of promoting the bilateral relation to a deeper level."