Cambodia hosts a regional meeting of officials and stakeholders from the four new members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday to discuss how to improve the economic status in the region.
The one-day meeting is co-organized by Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce and Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) with the support from Economic Research Institute for the ASEAN and East Asia.
Prince Norodom Sirivudh, founder and chairman of CICP said the meeting was necessary to seek ways on how to curb with the impact of global economic
crisis.
He said the four countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, are the new members of the ASEAN and are still poor.
He added that the economic downturn has affected economic growth, tourism and the garment sector.
At the forum, Pan Sorasak, secretary of state of Ministry of Commerce said that the Cambodian government is now working with the United States to
open more markets for Cambodian products.
He said that agriculture is another potential resource for Cambodia to help boost the country's economy. But at the same time, the government is
not ignoring its capacity building and the human resource development.