PHNOM PENH: China and Cambodia have vowed to promote their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era, according to a joint communique released after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang concluded his visit to Cambodia on Thursday. The two countries vowed to cement high-level exchanges and strategic communication and make full play of the role of China-Cambodia Inter-Governmental Coordination Committee to guide bilateral cooperation in various areas, said the communique. The two sides decided to accelerate the effective alignment of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and China’s 13th Five-Year Plan with Cambodia’s national development strategy and Industrial Development Policy (2015-2025), while promoting cooperation in production capacity and investment, said the communique. The committees on economic and trade cooperation of the two governments should guide enterprises of the two countries to carry out long-term win-win cooperation in various forms, it said, adding that bilateral trade should be promoted to reach the goal of 6 billion US dollars in 2020. China will expand its imports from Cambodia, said the communique. “China welcomes the Cambodian government and enterprises to participate in the first China International Import Expo,” it said. The expo will be held in November 2018 in Shanghai. China welcomes more Cambodian agricultural products that meet China’s inspection and quarantine standards and consumers’ demands to enter the Chinese market, it said. China will help Cambodia realize development in traffic engineering, hydraulic engineering, mine clearance, education and health, it said, adding that China will actively promote the construction of projects such as Cambodia-China Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital and Tboung Khmum Provincial Hospital. Published in Daily Times, January 12th 2018.