Cambodia earned $96.9 million worth of exports of bicycle and electric bicycles to foreign markets in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 43 percent from $170 million recorded in the same period last year.

The main markets for the Kingdom’s bicycles are the US, Germany, UK, Japan, China, Asean countries, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Czech, Italy, Columbia, South Korea, Spain, Slovenia, and Canada.

Bicycles are assembled only in the special economic zones located in Bavet city, Svay Rieng province, which shares a border with Vietnam.

Currently, five companies assemble bicycles for export. They are Evergrand Bicycle (Cambodia), Speedtech Industrial Co Ltd, Smart Tech (Cambodia) Co Ltd, A and J (Cambodia) Co Ltd and XDS Bicycle (Cambodia) Co Ltd.

Lingrich Bicycle (Cambodia) Co., Ltd has been approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia for a project to establish a factory for the production of bicycles, electric bicycles, and bicycle components, located in the Tai Seng Bavet Special Economic Zone, Svay Rieng Province. The company invests some $7.2 million, creating 6,250 jobs.

Industrial product diversification is being made as demand and orders of non-garment products have been on the rise, said Heng Sokkung, Secretary of State and spokesman of the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation.

“The bicycle manufacturing industry is one of the country’s potential exporting products to the European Union countries, where made-in-Cambodia bicycles are popular,” Sokkung told Khmer Times.

The country is diversifying some technology-based industrial products and the export is also on the high growth, Sokkung said.

Bicycles became one of Cambodia’s main manufacturing products with clothes, footwear, travel goods, electronic components, and agricultural products.

Bicycles are exported under free trade agreements, other trade deals, the Generalised System of Preferences and Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) schemes.

• Tags: Bicycle exports