Cambodia sees big rise in tourism investments in first 4 months

PHNOM PENH, June 01 (Xinhua) -- The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Wednesday reported that the domestic and foreign investments in Cambodia in the first four months of this year hit 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, 176 percent rise from 907 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year.
   Of the figure, only two approved investment projects in tourism are worth up to 2.1 billion U.S. dollars, it’s a big jump if compared to the same period last year of only 17 million U.S. dollars.
   A CDC’s official said Wednesday that the investors have been putting their money to tap the country’s tourism potentials.
   “There has been a huge surge in tourism investments since the start of this year,” Yuon Heng, director of the CDC’s Evaluation and Incentive Department.
   “This reflects the investors’ trust in the country’s cultural and natural tourism,” he added before declining to give the details.
   Besides tourism investments, the report recorded 204 million U.S. dollar investments in garment factories and other industries, 192 million U.S. dollars in services and telecommunications, and 4 million U.S. dollars in agriculture.
   Domestic investors are leading the investments with 1.23 billion U.S. dollars, following by China and the United States of America with 1.09 billion U.S. dollars and 94 million U.S. dollars respectively.
   In 2010, Cambodia approved the investment projects worth 2.69 billion U.S. dollars.  Enditem (Nguon Sovan)