Since mid-2009, the number of Vietnam-invested projects in Cambodia has doubled with a total amount of capital rising five times compared to the period before 2009.

The information was released at a meeting in Hanoi on March 29 between the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, (SBV) Nguyen Van Binh and Vietnamese investors in Cambodia.

In his speech, Binh affirmed the Vietnamese Government always creates favourable conditions for businesses to invest in Cambodia. The SBV, for its part, will allow more commercial banks to open their branches in Cambodia to provide payment and capital support for Vietnamese investors.

According to a report from the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Cambodia, by the end of 2011, Vietnam had invested in 98 projects in Cambodia with a total capitalization of USD2.4 billion.

Last year, Vietnamese businesses poured more capital into such areas as banking, securities, energy, tourism, hotel and transportation apart from telecommunications and aviation. Currently, Vietnam has five large banks operating in Cambodia with total registered capital of more than USD116 million.

Vietnam now ranks fourth among foreign investors in Cambodia after China, the Republic of Korea and Australia.

The Government of Vietnam has recently approved a USD800 million project to build Ha Se-san 2 hydroelectric power plant in Cambodia and is prepared to inaugurate the first rice processing plant in Cambodia with a design capacity of over 100,000 tonnes per year. A fertilizer plant funded by the Investment and Development Joint Stock Company of Cambodia (IDCC) will be inaugurated and put into operation this year.