The China Sichuan and Hubei Commodities Exhibition and Trade Conference opened in Phnom Penh Friday. 

More than 20 companies display their products at the fair: food products, textile, clothing, cycles, electrical appliance, locomotive, hardware, seeds and chemical fertilizer.  

Cambodian Commerce Ministry official Keo Sok Nay said Cambodia would welcome more enterprises of China to do business and invest in Cambodia.

In the first nine months of this year, the projected investment from Chinese mainland peaked at about US$380 million. China has become the fourth-largest foreign investors in Cambodia.

From January to October 2003, bilateral trade between them reached US$267 million, up 15.4 percent compared with the same period last year. 

Both sides believe that the implementation of a new zero tariff agreement on the trade of 297 agricultural products between them on January 1, 2004, would greatly promote their economic ties.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2003)