Cambodian businessmen are bullish on establishing trade ties with both big and small enterprises, especially in the field of agriculture, according to ASEAN Business Advisory Council Chair and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion.

He said several expansion and export opportunities in Cambodia for Philippine companies were explored during the CEO Roundtable meeting held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh last 10 November, attended by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Aside from agriculture, other priority areas of cooperation include housing, digitalization, food security, hospitality, garments manufacturing, business process outsourcing, and micro, small and medium enterprises development.

Agriculture, in particular, turned out to be a promising area of cooperation between the two countries, as Cambodia produces rice, but Vietnam — which is a major exporter of rice to the Philippines — has the biggest production by hectare.

"Cambodia is a big exporter of rice, but it goes through Vietnam for processing," said Concepcion. "Our suggestion is to import so that the Philippine companies can process the rice," he said.

Concepcion shared that the Cambodian businessmen were receptive to the idea, and even offered technology exchange between the two countries.

"Cambodia is very good at growing rice, and we could learn from them," he said.