Cambodia's foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges increased sharply in the first half of 2006, local media reported on Thursday.

More than 1.1 billion U.S. dollars of FDI has been pledged, up from 449 million dollars in the same period of 2005, according to the figures released by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Wednesday.

When domestic investment is included, some 2.3 billion has been committed, more than double the 1.1 billion dollars pledged in all of 2005.

This year, however, the increase of the figures are heavily dependent on a single construction project, according to The Cambodia Daily. Ninety percent of the FDI, or 988 million dollars, comes from one South Korean company that has promised to build a new satellite city in Phnom Penh's Pong Peay lake.

The new statistics also reveal that pledges of investment in agriculture projects have overtaken garments.

In all of 2005, there were pledges of 118 million dollars in the garment sector and only 17 million dollars for agriculture. For the first half of 2006, 185 million dollars has been pledged in agriculture and only 37 million dollars pledged in garment and textiles.

Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun was quoted as saying that the trend reflects growing foreign interest in agro-industry, driven in part by the demand for bio-fuels to replace high-priced petroleum.

Economists have long noted that pledges made to the CDC do not always translate into actual investment.

Source: Xinhua