Cambodia
13. Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign Portfolio Investment Statistics
There has been a surge in FDI inflows to Cambodia in recent years. Though FDI goes primarily to infrastructure, including commercial and residential real estate projects, it has also recently favored investments in manufacturing and agro-processing. Cambodia reports its total stock of FDI reached USD 7.1 billion in 2018, up from USD 6.8 billion in 2017.
Investment into Cambodia is dominated by China, and the level of investment from China has surged especially in the last five years. Cambodia reports that its FDI from China reached USD 1.6 billion (year-end 2018), while fixed asset investment from China reached USD 15.3 billion. Taiwan and Hong Kong are also major sources of investment in Cambodia, accounting for USD 614 million and USD 376 million of FDI, respectively, through 2018.
Cambodian investments into other countries are still quite small. Through 2017, the IMF reports a total of USD 367 million of Cambodian investments, with most going to China and Singapore.
NOTE: Discrepancies exists between IMF counterpart country data and the investment figures reported by Cambodia’s official source, the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). In some cases, counterpart country data reports much larger FDI stocks in Cambodia than reported by CDC. In other cases, the data from the Cambodia government is the only source available. Many of Cambodia’s key FDI partners (notably China, Taiwan and Hong Kong) do not report FDI figures to the IMF.
There are also discrepancies in the reported total stock of U.S. FDI in Cambodia. For FDI through 2017, the U.S. government (BEA) reports USD 151 million, the IMF reports USD 110 million, and Cambodia reports only USD 100 million.
Table 2: Key Macroeconomic Data, U.S. FDI in Host Country/Economy
| Host Country Statistical Source* | USG or International Statistical Source | USG or International Source of Data: BEA; IMF; Eurostat; UNCTAD, Other |
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| Economic Data | Year | Amount | Year | Amount | |
| Host Country Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ($M USD) | 2018 | $24,400 | 2017 | $22,158 | https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=KH |
| Foreign Direct Investment | Host Country Statistical Source* | USG or International Statistical Source | USG or International Source of Data: BEA; IMF; Eurostat; UNCTAD, Other |
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| U.S. FDI in partner country ($M USD, stock positions) | 2017 | $100 | 2017 | $151 | https://apps.bea.gov/international/factsheet/factsheet.cfm?Area=607 |
| Host country’s FDI in the United States ($M USD, stock positions) | N/A | N/A | 2017 | $5 | https://apps.bea.gov/international/factsheet/factsheet.cfm?Area=607 |
| Total inbound stock of FDI as % host GDP | 2018 | 29% | 2017 | 99.2% | https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DIAE/World%20Investment%20Report/Country-Fact-Sheets.aspx |
* Source for Host Country Data: The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) provides official government data on investment in Cambodia, but not all data is published online. See: www.cambodiainvestment.gov.kh/why-invest-in-cambodia/investment-environment/investment-trend.html
Table 3: Sources and Destination of FDI
| Direct Investment From/in Counterpart Economy Data (Through 2017) | |||||
| From Top Five Sources/To Top Five Destinations (US Dollars, Millions) | |||||
| Inward Direct Investment | Outward Direct Investment | ||||
| Total Inward | $6,254 | 100% | Total Outward | $367 | 100% |
| Netherlands | $1,487 | 23.8% | China | $189 | 51.5% |
| Korea, Republic of | $1,479 | 23.6% | Singapore | $160 | 43.6% |
| Thailand | $1,186 | 19.0% | Philippines | $21 | 5.7% |
| Malaysia | $1,085 | 17.3% | Myanmar | $10 | 2.7% |
| France | $428 | 6.8% | India | $6 | 1.6% |
| “0” reflects amounts rounded to +/- USD 500,000. | |||||
Data retrieved from IMF’s Coordinated Direct Investment Survey database (mirror data, as reported by counterpart economies) presents a much different picture of FDI into Cambodia as compared to that provided by the Cambodian government. For example, Cambodia reports USD 6.8 billion total FDI through year-end 2017 (USD 7.1 through year-end 2018), while the IMF reports only USD 2.8 billion.
Table 4: Sources of Portfolio Investment
N/A – IMF CPIS Data for Cambodia is not available.