中文
By Wang Wentian
In February, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen paid an official visit to China. He braved adverse conditions to visit the country three years ago and stood firmly with the Chinese in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after its outbreak. This year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia. It's also the "China-Cambodia Friendship Year." The two nations' leaders pledged to establish a community of a shared future three years ago and took their first steps towards realizing this vision during this Chinese New Year.
The unshakable bond between China and Cambodia, nurtured by our predecessors over the past 65 years, has become a shining example of a new paradigm in international relations. Given the profound changes unseen in a century, the strategic significance of China-Cambodia relations has only grown stronger.
With the strategic leadership of President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Hun Sen, the cooperation in various sectors between China and Cambodia has made tremendous strides in recent years. Bilateral trade has reached a historic high; investment cooperation has grown rapidly; and infrastructure cooperation has made solid progress, delivering tangible benefits to the people of both countries.
China remains committed to working alongside Cambodia to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen strategic coordination, jointly promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), deepen trade and investment cooperation through various means, expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and promote regional and multilateral cooperation, all in the pursuit of building a community of a shared future between both nations.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi's proposal of the BRI. Cambodia's "Rectangular Strategy" for national economic development does align closely with the BRI.
Over the past decade, China and Cambodia have cooperated in various fields under the framework of jointly building the Belt and Road, yielding fruitful results that serve as a model for Belt and Road cooperation and an exemplar of building a community with a shared future for mankind and constructing a new type of international relations in the new era.
The Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia, October 28, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]
Within the BRI cooperation framework, China has provided Cambodia with concessional loans and preferential export buyer's credits to jointly implement infrastructure projects such as highways, bridges, water conservancy and power transmission.
Nearly 3,000 kilometers of roads have been newly built or upgraded; eight super-large bridges have been constructed; and water conservancy projects covering an irrigated area of about 456,000 hectares have been completed. The national and rural power grids of Cambodia have seen the construction of more than 8,000 kilometers of power transmission lines.
The flagship BRI cooperation project between China and Cambodia, the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, has been steadily advancing, with many companies settling down in the park and creating more than 30,000 job opportunities, thereby contributing to Cambodia's economic and social development.
Both sides will accelerate the high-quality cooperation under the BRI, promote the construction of major projects such as the new airport in Siem Reap, improve project-related livelihood projects, bringing continuous benefits to both countries and peoples.
This year marks the beginning of China's comprehensive implementation of the the guiding principles from the 20th CPC National Congress. It is also the 70th anniversary of Cambodia's independence, the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and "China-Cambodia Friendship Year."
These milestones have presented new historic opportunities for bilateral ties. The leaders of both countries have charted the course and painted a blueprint. As the saying goes in China, "vision is 10 percent, implementation the rest." The key is to transform this blueprint into reality, step by step.
The Chinese Embassy in Cambodia will leverage its bridging role and coordinate with relevant departments of both sides to ensure high-level visits are translated into tangible outcomes.
The goal is to build the China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era, with the "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework as the main structure, using the "Industrial Development Corridor" and "Fish and Rice Corridor" as the focus areas, and advancing pragmatic cooperation in various fields such as politics, capacity building, agriculture, energy, security and culture.
By implementing the various plans of the "China-Cambodia Friendship Year," we aim to build a high-quality, high-level and high-standard community with a shared future between both great nations.
Wang Wentian is China's ambassador to Cambodia.
