It is 9pm in Phnom Penh and well past dinner time for most in the Cambodian capital. But 30 members of a trade delegation from Yunnan are still going strong at the Emperors of China, one of the city's best dim sum restaurants.
Downing bottles of red wine and gobbling succulent marble goby fish, the delegates are excited by business opportunities in this increasingly popular destination for Chinese investors.
At another table, managers of a Hong Kong-owned factory are deep in conversation, in Cantonese and Putonghua, with their business partners.
Hong Kong manufacturers are joining a growing crowd of mainland investors tapping a relatively abundant supply of cheap labour and business-friendly policies. As costs rise relentlessly on the mainland, factories are migrating, either to remoter areas of China or to Southeast Asia.
Dick Wong King-man, managing director of Emperors of China, said the number of business visitors from the mainland and Hong Kong had jumped markedly at his restaurant this year.
'Some are on fact-finding trips and others are investors,' said Wong, a Hongkonger who landed in the capital three years ago. 'The country is more open and is not as mysterious as it appeared to be.'
