• Economics

PM Pushes for Small and Medium Enterprise Development

• By Te Chhaysinh
• April 12, 2023 10:48 AM

PHNOM PENH – Prime Minister Hun Sen has encouraged the competitive development of SMEs, which play an important role in growing the economy.

He met small and medium business owners on April 10 and said small and medium enterprises had increased employment and were the backbone of the national economy.

“SMEs and handicraft entrepreneurs in Cambodia increased their capacity to strengthen their competitiveness,” he said.

The PM encouraged ministries and institutions to work harder to solve challenges as well as reduce the cost of doing business to promote productivity and competitiveness.

“The Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation and the Ministry of Commerce should work with the Federation of Associations for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia, Samdech Techo Foundation Association for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises in Cambodia to develop training programs to enhance the capacity of entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises, and institutions to increase the efficiency and resilience of the business,” he said.

The PM also urged the Ministry of Commerce to coordinate the establishment of joint ministries to promote trade facilitation to reduce trade costs and to promote exports, especially agro-industrial products, to countries with free trade agreements with Cambodia, and promote the expansion of the domestic market.

The government was working hard to develop various policies to support SMEs, he said.

In 2020, the government established a Small and Medium Enterprise Bank with a mechanism to support SMEs during COVID-19. The bank has provided $400 million in loans to 3085 enterprise accounts.

The government had developed the law and regulations to provide a tax incentive to the voluntary SME that have registered the priority areas, and tax and customs policy mechanisms had been developed to reduce production costs and increase the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises.

Hun Sen said the efficiency of small and medium enterprises through online business registration, online payment systems, and online tax declaration systems had been promoted by the government.

Cambodia has about 700,000 small and medium enterprises and handicrafts, accounting for more than 90% of business operations. Of these, 40,000 are in the manufacturing sector, accounting for about 7%, and about 80% are in the food processing industry, the large industry with nearly 2,000 businesses.