PHNOM PENH: Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has affirmed high demand for local rubber as there are currently three tyre factories in Cambodia, one of which has decided to expand its investment capital.

“There is no need to export Cambodian rubber to foreign markets anymore,” stressed the Premier while presiding over the 19th Government-Private Sector Forum (G-PSF) at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh this morning.

The Royal Government does not want to export raw material (rubber) anymore, but to make finished products in order to promote the rubber crop to the level of agro-industry, he added.

Samdech Thipadei requested the relevant institutions as well as the private sector and the Cambodian Rubber Association to establish a mechanism to coordinate technical problem resolution and cultivation issues to ensure the production chain from growers to producers to supply enough local rubber.

In the first nine months of this year, Cambodia exported 242,304 tonnes of dry rubber, mainly to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, and China, earning US$320 million, according to a report from the General Directorate of Rubber.

Rubber plantations cover a total land area of 404,578 hectares, of which 315,332, or 78 percent, are old enough to be tapped, the report pointed out.