Cambodia is among the world’s fastest growing countries. It’s also one of the most accessible frontier markets to foreign investors.
Generally unexplored, and certainly undervalued, multinational firms including Samsung and Nike and have just recently started investing in Cambodia themselves.
Likewise, foreign investors are entering Cambodia’s property market where city-center apartments in the nation’s capital of Phnom Penh are sometimes priced at only US$1,000 per square meter. Foreigners can own real estate in Cambodia on a freehold basis.
Many international investors are buying stocks and property in more prominent destinations such as Thailand, thinking they’ve successfully diversified abroad. These people are missing better opportunities right next door in Cambodia though.
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy Thailand and spend a decent part of my time there every year. But their annual GDP growth rate is among Southeast Asia’s weakest.
We’re talking about a pace barely higher than in the United States… and slower than Malaysia, its slightly-more-developed neighbor.
Thailand’s economy depends heavily on foreign capital, whether through tourism or FDI. People often might assume that an emerging Asian market would be resilient to a financial crisis originating in Europe or the Americas. Yet that would be incorrect.
As a comparison, Cambodia is growing by over 7% annually. While almost every other country is normally revising their GDP projections downward, Cambodia raises it upwards and exceeds already high expectations.
Cambodia is less correlated with western economies because it’s a frontier market. And diversification is crucial for wealth preservation.
That’s why I recommend investing in Cambodia. It skipped the Asian Financial Crisis during the 1990s, missed the tech bubble of the early 2000s, and outgrew the recession in 2008. In fact, it hasn’t faced a recession for nearly three decades.
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