Project Achievements reported by

1. Project Achievementsreported by Mr. Diep Leng Deputy Director General & Project Manager Phnom Penh/ Cambodia Chamber of Commerce

2. Content • General Overview of Cambodia • Chamber of Commerce and its responsibility. • SMEs Situation in Cambodia. • Opportunities and Difficulties of SMEs • Project Reports/ Achievements

3. General Overview Of Cambodia • Cambodia is situated in southwestern part of the Indochina peninsula and occupies the area of 181 035 square kilometers. • Cambodia’s population so far, is estimated around 14 million people. • Cambodia’s people worship the Buddhism Religion and it has been classified and acknowledged as the national religion. • Cambodia ‘s temperature is about 27 Degree Celsius in average.

4. Chambers of Commerce • There are ten municipal/provincial chambers of commerce in Cambodia so far; including Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce, the biggest one of them and play the vital roles in Cambodia for private sector.

5. Presently, Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce also acts as the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce and awaiting for the sub degree of establishing the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce. • All provincial chambers of commerce should be concerned with Phnom Penh/Cambodia Chamber of Commerce for the benefits of upgrading their chambers.

6. Roles and Responsibilities Chamber of Commerce is in charge of: • To communicate with local and international information in order to exploit data for developing enterprises. • To enhance enterprises’ production abilities for the benefits of the commercial, industrial, agricultural and service sector. • To acts as the representative of commercial, industrial, agricultural, and service sector for coordinating problems with state authorities.

7. Roles and Responsibilities • To provide and mention the government and relevant authorities the information and facing issues relevant to private sector for settlement all of them. • To be an arbitrator in business dispute coordination and settlement.

8. Small and Medium Enterprises • SMEs are the major part for developing the country. • Most of SMEs are so small and operated under and by the family’s members. • SMEs presently are booming and upgrading remarkably in Cambodia. • The Royal Government of Cambodia is focusing on this sectors because it can lead and ensure standard living of people.

9. Opportunities Of SMEs • Facilitation from the Royal Government of Cambodia through low starting cost with one window services and others. • Labor Cost is cheap • Received General System of Preference (GSP) from EU and USA for textile industry sector.

10. Opportunities of SMEs • Got short-term training and other seminars from many foreign donors to strengthen their capacity for benefits of their products. • Encouragement from foreign countries for export (available markets), so that it will lead them to upgrade their products for export. • Others…..

11. Difficulties/Challenges of SMEs • Most of SMEs still use traditional ways for producing their products; it lead them unable to compete with other foreign products especially, Thailand and Vietnam. • SMEs ignore the International Communication Technology (ICT) and don’t know how to use it also. • Electricity/power supply is limited to use, and the cost is also high.

12. Difficulties/Challenges of SMEs • Banking system is not reliable and affordable for their finance; the interest rate is so high that lead them unable to expand their businesses and competitions. • Cambodian people (behavior) have not supported own products but they have got only the foreign products. • Legal and judicial systems are not reliable and satisfaction. • Transportation Infrastructure is inadequate and some of them can’t be access able especially to remote area.

13. Project Reports/ Achievements

14. E-business Development for SMEs in Cambodia • Because of the above mentioned difficulties, this project has been established with support from UNESCAP under the project on E-business development for SMEs in Cambodia. • It was officially signed in March 22, 2006 for implementation.

15. Objectives • Raising the awareness of E-business and its benefits to ESAs and SMEs. • Targeting to the seven provincial chambers of commerce including Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce and selected SMEs. • Promoting all SMEs in Cambodia understand its benefits and applying it in their businesses through the national road show, launching event, and media broadcasting.

16. Activities • Activity 1: • Upgrading Software and hardware for the website. • Development the new websites for six provincial chambers of commerce excluding Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce. • Activity 2: • Phnom Penh/ Cambodia Chamber of Commerce will organize a short term training (two days) to raise the awareness on the e-business and to build the capacity of the SMEs especially provincial chamber of commerce to utilize e-business services through the new websites. • Activity 3: • PPCC will organize an event and promote through local media in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to promote the Cambodia Chambers of Commerce including the six provincial chambers of commerce, websites and its new services.

17. Original Timeframe

18. Original Time Frame (Con’t) Later, because of delay of implementation by both party_ UNESCAP and PPCC, as discussion with Mr. Naylin Oo, associate officer in this project, we had decided to postpone the schedule until 14 July, 2006. That means that we will finish this project with launching event in 14 July, 2006.

19. Detailed Budget

20. Monitoring/ Evaluation • so far, we have upgrade hardware and software for website already for provincial chambers of commerce such as equipping four computers for four provincial chambers of commerce and other necessary hard ware and software for all provincial chambers of commerce. • Website Installation for six provincial chambers of commerce already and awaiting for web hosting.

21. Monitoring/ Evaluation (con’t) • Thus, we can summarize and evaluate the project implementation as following: • we nearly complete the activity 1 of the project_ just awaiting for web hosting and put added information inside. • According to the target schedule, we are behind the date due to: • delay of the payment and long time procedure for converting into cash. • absence of the present during that time; so that, I cannot pull out the money from account due to the rule of the chamber of commerce until getting signature from the president.

22. Monitoring/ Evaluation (Con’t) • I was in hospital for two weeks due to health problem and my assistant, Mr. Tan Boroth, at that time, was in line with mission to the provinces. • Complicated procedure for web hosting_ as rule, we spend only three day for web hosting but for the complex procedure, we spend many days for summit document, sub decree, and others that let us spending for long time with it.

23. Expectation • After coming back to Cambodia, I hope that provincial website will be hosted and then I will implement the second activity, training ESAs and selected SMEs to raise the awareness of E-business. Finally, the launching event will be held to promote the chambers of commerce, websites and their new services. • Mr. Tan Boroth and I will try my best to complete this project as soon as possible for the benefits of helping SMEs for the whole country.

24. THE END Thank for your attention