A road to hope

A Cambodian proverb says, "Where there is a road, there is hope."

In May 2024, a road in Phnom Penh was named Xi Jinping Boulevard by the Royal Government of Cambodia to honor the Chinese leader's historic contributions to the country's development. In 1965, the late King Father Sihanouk similarly named a road after Chairman Mao Zedong.

At the naming ceremony, Hun Manet highlighted that, under the leadership and joint efforts of Xi and Cambodian leaders, bilateral ties have entered their best period in history.

Since 2013, the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership has continued to strengthen thanks to flourishing practical cooperation across various fields. The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Xi, has played a significant role in fostering common development and shared benefits for both sides.

Situated along the ancient Maritime Silk Road, Cambodia was among the first countries to join the Belt and Road cooperative effort.

Over the years, key BRI projects in Cambodia have reaped fruitful results: the Sihanoukville Special Economy Zone has attracted over 200 international enterprises and institutions, generating 32,000 jobs; Cambodia's first expressway, the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, has reduced travel time between the two cities from over five hours to less than two; and the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport has helped Cambodia's tourism take off, operating 17 routes by the end of last year.

"The SSEZ, along with other flagship BRI projects, has played a crucial role in helping Cambodia achieve its ambitious targets of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income nation by 2050," said Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center.

Bilateral trade and commerce have also thrived. China has been Cambodia's largest foreign investor and trading partner for several consecutive years. Over the past decade, bilateral trade has nearly quadrupled, official data shows. The Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership have facilitated exports of Cambodian products such as rice, bananas, longan and Basa fish to Chinese markets.

Xi advocates for a comprehensive approach to China-Cambodia cooperation. This is why he has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the bilateral "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework, which covers six major areas: politics, production capacity, agriculture, energy, security and people-to-people exchanges.

These efforts have provided new impetus for building a high-quality, high-level and high-standard Cambodia-China community with a shared future in the new era, a vision pledged by both nations' leaders, noted Thong Mengdavid, a lecturer at the Institute for International Studies and Public Policy at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.