UAE : mulling investment in halal food, rice in Cambodia

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considering investing in halal food production and rice milling in Cambodia, visiting UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi said here on Tuesday. Speaking in a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace, Sheikha Lubna said her visit was to seek Cambodia's potential for investment. The UAE minister, who also held a talk with her Cambodian counterpart Cham Prasidh on Monday, said Dubai will prepare specific plans to investment in Cambodia in halal food production and rice milling, and the products will be exported to her country. Sheikha Lubna said her delegation will come back to Cambodia again in May next year with the specific investment plans. Trade volume between the UAE and Cambodia stood at 89 million U. S. dollars last year, up 121 percent year-on-year. While giving his full support for Dubai's investment plans, Hun Sen expressed the belief that the trade volume would be growing fast in the future with continuous improvements in bilateral relations. The premier said Cambodia is rich in raw materials for halal food production, adding that the project will create jobs for the Muslim community in the country. On the rice side, he said the country produced some 8.25 million tons of paddy rice last year, but it is short of sophisticated post-harvesting technologies to process rice for exports.