The ASEAN Summits and Related Summits the country is hosting in Phnom Penh have turned the attention of the world to Cambodia, thereby bringing hope to its tourism sector as well.

Hosting the summits is a great national pride as it is an occasion to showcase the potential of Cambodia before the world.

Hundreds of journalists from different parts of the world have already reached Phnom Penh to cover the summits and Cambodia will surely steal the limelight for the coming several days.

The reopening of the country in November 2021 and the hosting of the ASEAN Summits are opportunities for Cambodià to demonstrate its readiness “to do business with the world,” Puy Kea, journalist and ASEAN expert, who heads the Office of the Japanese News Agency Kyodo Cambodia told Khmer Times.

This is an opportunity for Cambodia to fast-forward its economy, especially in the fields of tourism, hotels and hospitality that were severely affected by Covid-19.

Prime Minister Hun Sen recently stressed that an ASEAN tourism plan is key to recovery of the region from Covid-19.

Post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery, security issues, and rising global inflation are expected to be high on the agenda during the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits, a Cambodian government official said.

The 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits are to be held from Nov 11 to 13 in the Cambodian capital.

Kao Kim Hourn, minister attached to the prime minister of Cambodia, said the summits will be strategically important, not only for Cambodia as the ASEAN chair for 2022, but also for the whole of ASEAN as well as its dialogue partners.

Kim Hourn, who will take over the post of ASEAN secretary-general from January 2023, told Xinhua in a recent interview that post-pandemic economic recovery efforts, security issues such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Korean Peninsula, rising global oil and food prices, and climate change, among others, will be discussed during the summits.

“This is a very critical time because Cambodia will be not just on the regional map, but also on the global map, as we steer and navigate all of these challenges,” he said.

Puy Kea said that international issues such as the Myanmar crisis, the South China Sea, North Korea, Taiwan, and the Russia-Ukraine war are expected to be widely discussed by leaders during the summits.