Russia sees Cambodia as a promising market for Sukhoi Superjet aircraft, RIA Novosti reports with reference to head of Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, Nikolai Nikiforov (he is the co-Chairman of Russian-Cambodian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation).

“I see Cambodia as a promising market for Sukhoi Superjet aircraft. Its economy is growing, passenger traffic of Southeast Asia is increasing dramatically and performance demonstrated by Sukhoi Superjet aircraft confirms that the liner is well-suited for this country,” Nikiforov said after a meeting of the commission.

Moreover, the parties discussed investments in development of MRO network for KamAZ trucks, their upgrade and the possibilities for delivering more new KamAZ trucks, which are among the most popular ones in Cambodia. The parties also discussed other areas of cooperation, including high-tech equipment.

Speaking of possibility of Russian and Cambodian businessmen making payments in rubles, Deputy prime minister of Cambodia, co-Chairman of the Russian-Cambodian intergovernmental commission Hor Namhong, said that he sees no obstacles for it, but this matter must be discussed by the businessmen. “When Russian businessmen visit Cambodia, they may discuss this matter with their Cambodian colleagues,” he said.

At the same time Nikiforov noted that this kind of payments is possible, when there is a balance between imports and exports of both parties. “Today Russia is importing a lot of products from Cambodia and exports only a few products there,” Nikiforov said. According to him, the sales turnover between the countries for 2014 was $130 million.

Nikiforov believes that Cambodia is a very promising market for Russian business and its potential has not been unlocked yet. “Of course it is wrong to assess the market potential from the state’s point of view, nevertheless, as a co-Chairman of the intergovernmental commission, after having studied a number of projects, I can tell you that the estimated potential reaches billions of dollars,” Nikiforov added.