Cambodia's trade with ASEAN exceeds 12 bln USD in first 9 months of 2025

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's trade volume with its fellow ASEAN member states hit 12.28 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 4.78 percent, said an official report on Wednesday.

The country exported products worth 4.47 billion dollars to other ASEAN countries during the January-September period this year, up 17.5 percent year-on-year, while its total import amounted to 7.81 billion dollars, down 1.35 percent, said the report compiled by the Ministry of Commerce.

Cambodia's trade volume with the ASEAN accounted for 25.6 percent of the kingdom's total trade volume of 47.89 billion dollars in the first nine months of 2025, the report said.

The kingdom's top five trading partners in ASEAN were Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the report added.

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's Secretary of State and Spokesperson Penn Sovicheat said main products the country exported to ASEAN included garments, shoes, travel goods, bags, solar panels, car tires, electronics, and agricultural products such as rice, cashew nuts, rubber latex, cassava, durians and bananas.

Thong Mengdavid, a lecturer at the Institute for International Studies and Public Policy of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, said the continued rise in Cambodia's trade with ASEAN reflected the deepening regional economic integration under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and ASEAN Free Trade Area frameworks.

"This highlights resilient intra-ASEAN supply chains, driven by rising demand for agricultural and manufactured goods and technological innovation," he told Xinhua.

Mengdavid said moving forward, Cambodia's ASEAN trade will likely expand further as connectivity improves through logistics, energy, green business, e-finance, and digital infrastructure projects.

"However, competitiveness and standards restriction remain key challenges to sustain export growth within the region," he said. ■