PHNOM PENH, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had issued licenses to 164 domestic and foreign investment projects worth 7.01 billion U. S. dollars last year, a 160 percent rise from 2.69 billion U.S. dollars with 102 projects in a year earlier, showed the government reports on Wednesday.

The reports, recorded by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), said that in 2011, England was the largest investor here with the two projects in the total promised investment of 2.24 billion U.S. dollars. The projects are a nitrogen chemical and fertilizer plant and a garment factory.

The domestic investors came at the second with 31 projects in a total investment of 1.93 billion U.S. dollars, and China at third with 22 projects worth 1.19 billion U.S. dollars.

It added that Vietnam and China's Hong Kong stood at number 4 and 5 with 631 million U.S. dollars and 330 million U.S. dollars respectively.

The reports noted that Cambodian investors put their ventures in rubber processing plants, construction material factories, telecommunication tower development and maintenance, real estate development, hotel and tourism, granite processing factory, metal ore exploitation, garment and footwear factories, and beer and soft drink manufacturing industry.

Whilst China had invested in the sectors of property development, mineral business and processing plants, motorcycle assembly factories, gold mining, rice mill and garment factories.