Second Consultation Workshop on “Export-Related Issues and Challenges of Businesses in Battambang Province”

The Battambang Chamber of Commerce (BCC), in partnership with ARISE Plus Cambodia, organized the 2nd consultation workshop on “Export-Related Issues and Challenges of Businesses in Battambang Province”. The event took place on 8th December 2022 at the President Hotel in Battambang province. There were approximately 38 participants, who are SMEs in various sectors, such as agri-food, agribusiness, light manufacturing, service sector, food processing, etc.  

This second consultation workshop had two main objectives: First objective was to revisit currently established Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) in Cambodia and the Government-Private Sector Forum (G-PSF) mechanism. This includes an expansion plan to accelerate and strengthen the existing structure of the Public-Private Dialogue at the provincial level; in other words, “Provincial” Public Private Dialogue or (P)PPD. The second objective was to review and update the status of the 19 issues collected in the 1consultation workshop back in April 2022. Furthermore, new issues were also collected.

Issues raised by SMEs included following:

1). Lack of information regarding supporting government policies, such as tax incentives/exemption, etc.

2). Fertilizer manufacturers are required to comply with different laboratory standards set by various governmental entities, such as Provincial Department of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation (PDISTI) and Provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PDAFF). They suggested consolidating the laboratory certification process, for example establishing a one-stop governmental laboratory service

3). Loans from the SME Bank Battambang Branch are practically unavailable for SMEs. Lack of access to finance via the formal finance sector continues to be a serious constraint for SMEs.

4). Poor transparency, complex and expensive formal business registration procedures, such as product certification, laboratory testing results, etc.  

These issues will be documented, screened and forwarded to different G-PSF working groups for finding resolutions as the next step of the (P)PPD process.

Co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the ARISE Plus Cambodia project supports this initiative as part of its activities to promote Public Private Dialogue (PPD) between the Cambodian Government and the business sector on issues related to enhancing the prosperity and growth of the private sector, especially related to SMEs and exports.

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For more information, please contact:

Mr. Youssey LAK, Trade Information and Advocacy –Advisor

E-mail: youssey.lak@gopa.de