Cambodian PM to visit China to strengthen bilateral ties

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that he will pay an official visit to Beijing in April in order to meet with new Chinese leadership. "If there is no any change, I will pay an official visit to China in April in order to meet with new Chinese leaders as current Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao will get retired in March, so there will be a new Chinese government," he said during the inauguration of a China-invested hydropower plant in Sre Ambel district in Southwestern Koh Kong province. He said that to date, Sino-Cambodian relationship has reached a new high level, recalling that during his visit to China in 2010 and during the separate visits of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to Cambodia in 2012, both sides, Cambodia and China, agreed to raise the level of cooperation to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation. "In the forthcoming meetings with new Chinese leaders, there can be a talk to promote the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation between Cambodia and China," he said. "We will intensify our bilateral cooperation in economics, trade, investment, and other fields, especially tourism." The premier said that more and more Chinese have visited Cambodia, making China the 3rd largest tourist arrival group to Cambodia. According to Cambodia's tourism report, some 333,900 Chinese tourists visited Cambodia last year, a 35 percent rise year-on- year.