Cambodia exported 90,153 tonnes of milled rice to international markets in the first two months of 2024, down 7.2 percent from 97,153 tonnes in the same period of 2023, said a report from the Cambodia Rice Federation. The country earned a total revenue of US$65.4 million from the rice export during the January-February period, a year-on-year decrease of 9.9 percent, it added. The Kingdom's rice was shipped to 50 countries and regions around the world by 40 exporters, stated the report. Exported milled rice varieties included premium aromatic rice, fragrant rice, long grain white rice, parboiled rice, and organic rice. Cambodia exported 51,333 tonnes of milled rice worth US$38.37 million to the EU market; 18,753 tonnes others to ASEAN members, generating a revenue of US$13.36 million; 11,083 tonnes to China, earning US$6.81 million, and 8,984 tonnes to other destinations, bagging US$6.90 million as revenue, the report pointed out. The Kingdom also earned US$395 million in revenue from cross-border traded paddy rice of some 1.37 million tonnes during the two-month period. In 2023, Cambodia exported more than 656,000 tonnes of milled rice worth US$466 million, marking a three percent growth in volume and 13 percent in value compared with 2022. The Cambodia Rice Federation has set an ambitious goal to export at least a million tonnes of milled rice by 2025. Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse Tokyo: A delegation from the Finance Ministry led by Minister Ho Duc Phoc on March 11 had a working session with Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and representatives from Japanese partners to promote bilateral financial cooperation. At the event, the two ministers expressed their delight to see the increasingly strong development of the two countries' relations, especially the upgrade of the ties to the Vietnam - Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World last November. They discussed the two countries' financial cooperation in several areas, such as taxes, customs, loans, aid, and use of official development assistance (ODA), while sharing experience and solutions to improve management capacity and professional operations of functional units. Phoc said that Vietnam's public debt is currently about 37% of GDP, lower than the set target of 60%. This is an advantage for Vietnam to attract capital from foreign countries to invest in infrastructure as well as socio-economic development. The Vietnamese minister informed the host of Vietnam's North-South high-speed railway project, that has an estimated investment of 67 billion USD and will be implemented in 2027. Vietnam expects to mobilise 30% of the investment from foreign capital. Therefore, Vietnam hopes that Japan will participate in providing capital for this project. In addition, the two ministers expressed support for each other in multilateral financial cooperation such as within the ASEAN 3 framework, focusing on areas such as the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) and Disaster Risk Finance (DRF) to enhance regional financial stability and resilience. For his part, Japanese Minister Shunichi Suzuki highly appreciated the Vietnamese Government's efforts in creating favourable conditions for Japanese businesses and banks to cooperate and invest in Vietnam. He also expressed his willingness to join the North-South High-Speed Railway project as well as other infrastructure projects that Vi etnam is set to carry out. On the same day, Minister Phoc and the Vietnamese delegation met with President and Chief Executive Officer of Mizuho Bank Masahiko Kato. At the meeting, Phoc said Vietnam needs a huge amount of capital for development, including the mobilisation of domestic and foreign financial sources to achieve socioeconomic development goals, particularly the financial resources to realise its commitments to net-zero emissions by 2050. Masahiko Kato said that Vietnam is one of Mizuho's strategic markets through investment cooperation with Vietcombank. Currently, many Japanese businesses wish to expand their investment scale in Vietnam, and Mizuho always accompanies and supports capital for these businesses. He also said that his bank stands ready and will work with Vietcombank so as to provide green credit according to environmental -social - governance (ESG) standards. Earlier, Phoc and the delegation visited the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), and worked with the President of the Japan Finan cial Services Agency (JFSA) and the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)./. Source: Vietnam News Agency