On 12 October 2025, Secretary General Shi Zhongjun of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), met with H.E. Hong Narit, Under Secretary of State of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia and H.E. Ing Kimleang, Deputy Governor of Siem Reap Province in Zhengzhou of Henan Province. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 2025 ASEAN-China (Henan) Cooperation and Development Conference on Food and Agriculture co-hosted by the ACC and the Henan Provincial Government.

Shi Zhongjun extended a warm welcome to the Cambodian delegation. He specifically noted that Under Secretary of State Hong Narit’s attendance at the Conference for two consecutive years fully demonstrates Cambodia’s strong commitment to Cambodia-China and ASEAN-China agricultural cooperation. He said that China attaches great importance to agricultural development, and most ASEAN countries are agricultural nations, leaving enormous potential for cooperation between the two sides. As a major agricultural province in China with a consumer market of over 100 million people, Henan enjoys strong complementary advantages in agriculture with ASEAN. He pledged that the ACC will continue to serve as a bridge, using the Conference and other platforms to help Cambodian and other ASEAN farm products enter the Chinese market and to deepen collaboration on agricultural technology and trade facilitation. The ACC will also support Henan and Siem Reap in expanding joint work on trade, investment and cultural tourism, injecting new impetus into the comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and Cambodia.

Hong Narit spoke highly of the ACC’s role in advancing agricultural cooperation between ASEAN and China. He stated that Cambodia is rich in agricultural resources and produces characteristic agricultural products such as cashew nuts, cassava, and pepper, but still faces bottlenecks in logistics, storage and deep processing. Cambodia looks forward to closer cooperation with China in digital agriculture and smart farm machinery and hopes to attract more Chinese investment so that Cambodian goods can reach Chinese consumers more efficiently. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries stands ready to work with the ACC to chart a sustainable growth path for the sector.

Ing Kimleang recalled that Siem Reap and Henan became sister provinces in 2016 and have since deepened cooperation in agriculture and trade. Looking ahead, Siem Reap hopes to broaden collaboration with Henan and other Chinese localities in tourism, capitalizing on its world-famous cultural heritage to promote integrated development of agriculture and tourism and further enrich bilateral ties.