Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Hun Sen co-chaired the second Vietnam-Cambodia Investment Promotion Conference in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

“The second Vietnam-Cambodia Investment Promotion Conference is significant and necessary for the current period as the event will serve as a channel for regular information exchange between the two countries and business circles,” Dung said.

Dung, who was on a two-day visit to Cambodia that wrapped up Sunday, praised the outcomes of economic and trade cooperation attained by the two countries after the first conference, describing them as the foundation for the two sides to further cooperation and tap their potential effectively.

“The Vietnamese government resolves on encouraging and creating favorable conditions for its businesses to invest in other countries in general, and in Cambodia in particular,” Dung told the participants, who also included 200 businesses from both countries.

Taking the floor, Cambodian PM Hun Sen underlined the importance and significance of the conference.

He pledged the creation of a profit-making environment, noting the Cambodian government is pressing ahead with reforms in several areas to facilitate trade and investment in the fields it boasts high potential, such as telecom, rubber tree planting, mining, and hydropower.

Representatives from the Development Council and the Chamber of Commerce of Cambodia introduced to the conference their country’s economic development strategy together with its key areas and investment promotion policies and repeated the Development Council’s commitments to Vietnamese investors in Cambodia.

Over the past years, the friendship and all-sided cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia has been deepened.

The two countries have signed over 60 legal documents on bilateral cooperation in almost all fields and created necessary cooperative mechanisms to fit their current development requirements.

As a result, economic and trade ties between the two countries have grown steadfastly. The two-way trade value has increased year on year, from US$950 million in 2006 to hit over $1.8 billion in 2010.

Realizing their advantages and disadvantages, the two sides have also proactively discussed measures to boost economic and trade cooperation, including the opening and upgrade of several border economic zones and border markets.

Vietnam has to date had 87 invested projects with a total capital of over $2 billion in Cambodia, ranking third among foreign investors there.

These projects are mostly engaged in telecom, aviation, agriculture, rubber tree planting, energy, hydropower, mining and banking.

At the end of the conference, the two PMs witnessed the signing of memorandums of understanding on investment promotion and management between the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam and the Development Council of Cambodia.

They also witnessed the hand-over of investment licenses to the Lower Se San 2 hydropower project and the iron ore mining project between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining.

Earlier, the two PMs cut the ribbons to launch the Vietnam-Cambodia Securities Company.