Cambodia seeks effective ways to spread key information to SMEs

Participants from Cambodian public and private sectors Thursday discussed effective strategies to spread information about key developments in the business environment to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The Cambodian government is currently undertaking significant reform measures to improve the business environment and in particular creating a more enabling environment for SMEs, which constitute well over 90 percent of all of Cambodia's business enterprises, a press release said.

Discussions focused on how to get information about new commercial laws, the streamlined business registration process, the decentralized business registration initiative in Battambang, the SME Subcommittee's new business licensing hotline, and the financial accounting template for SMEs, it said.

The participants noted the different strategies required to disseminate information to SMEs and local government officials, and they exchanged experiences on what works well in Cambodia and elsewhere, it added.

"There have been extensive improvements made by the government to facilitate the development of SMEs over the past two years, but we need to improve awareness of these reforms among the small business community and local government officials," said Keo Rottanak, Secretary of the SME Subcommittee.

"By getting more information about the reforms out to SMEs and local government officials, enterprises will be able to take advantage of the improved legal and regulatory framework for business," he added.

The meeting was hosted by the SME Secretariat and the Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) through support of the Asian development Bank's technical assistance under the Cambodia SME Development Program, the press release said.

Source: Xinhua