Cambodia seeks economic reset after Thailand border war batters trade and remittances
Shuttered borders have choked trade and sent migrant workers home, forcing Phnom Penh to seek new partners and markets
Prime Minister Hun Manet is travelling to the United States and Europe this week seeking to diversify markets and secure new investment, part of a broader effort to reduce Cambodia’s reliance on Thailand after the fighting forced supply chains to be diverted and slashed remittance flows.
Months of border fighting in the second half of last year killed at least 149 people on both sides and brought the closure of land crossings that had handled about US$5.6 billion in trade.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul made the conflict and the border closure a feature of stump speeches during his election-winning campaign this month. While his win remains to be ratified by election authorities, the border remains closed and a touchstone issue for nationalists on both sides.
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Hundreds of thousands displaced as fighting rages along Thai-Cambodian border
An estimated 900,000 of the 1.2 million Cambodians working in Thai construction sites, fields and factories have returned home so far, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).