New investment law to attract more investments

The New investment law is expected to make Cambodia an attractive destination for new investment and to improve the investment environment to keep the existing investments in the country.

The law is currently in drafting stage and is expected to go online within this year, said Phan Phalla, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The law is designed with an aim to solve the problems faced by investors and make better investment environment which can attract more investments to the Kingdom, he said.

The new investment law will provide incentive to new industry for the long term, he continued, stressing that what Cambodia needs to do is to improve competitiveness and eliminate trade barriers.

“The new investment law will improve investment environment, keep existing investments and attract more new investments,” he said. “It will be soon put into use because it is considered as urgent work to attract more investments, especially to timely respond to the ongoing trend of investment relocation.”

The new draft law on investment is currently 95 percent complete, Mr Phalla pointed out.

The government started drafting the new investment law in the last few years by gathering inputs from the private sector and development partners to make the country a more attractive destination for foreign investments.

The new investment law is scheduled to be launched at the same time when Cambodia is accelerating the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with trade partner countries including China, South Korea, India, and Eurasian Economic Union. 

Mr Phalla explained that the new investment law will be more attractive and absorb more investors as Cambodia and China are going to sign their FTA soon and the FTA negotiations with South Korea are scheduled to begin soon.

Cambodia adopted its first investment law in 1993 and it was revised in 2003 to adjust to the progress of investment. AKP