Forum held in Cambodia to promote China-ASEAN business ties

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation between Chinese and ASEAN entrepreneurs is crucial to boosting regional development and shared prosperity, Cambodian officials and experts said on Tuesday at a forum.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the China-ASEAN business leaders' summit, Chea Vuthy, secretary-general of the Cambodian Investment Board under the Council for the Development of Cambodia, said even as the world faces mounting uncertainty, geopolitical shifts, conflicts, and supply chain reorganizations, vast opportunities for cooperation among China-ASEAN entrepreneurs remain.

"Over the past three decades, ASEAN-China relations have matured from initial talks into a critical partnership driving regional development and shared prosperity," he told more than 300 entrepreneurs, industry representatives, and think-tank experts from China and ASEAN member states.

Thong Mengdavid, deputy director of the China-ASEAN Studies Center at the Cambodia University of Technology and Science, said that entrepreneur-led cooperation serves as the primary engine for implementing the Cambodian government's Pentagonal Strategy.

"While the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 open up markets, it is joint ventures that transform these trade agreements into real industrial opportunities," he told Xinhua.