Pilot project to boost e-commerce for Kingdom’s SMEs

Go4eCam, a pilot project that aims to realise the benefit of e-commerce SMEs launched last week. Ministry of Commerc

The project costs approximately $2.5 million for three months and is slated to begin implementation in the middle of this month.

It is jointly piloted and funded by international development partners and the government and is called the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), a multi-donor trust fund that provides financial and technical support to build trade capacity in all 48 least-developed countries, a list that includes Cambodia, and is a major fund supporter of the project. Providing approximately $1.5 million in grant aid to the project, with the remaining contribution from the UN Development Programme and the Cambodian government.

Speaking at the launch in Phnom Penh last Friday, Pan Sorasak, Minister Commerce Ministry said the project is a new initiative, aimed at  benefiting the Kingdom’s SME sector, enabling it to catch up with global markets and a wider range of consumers through the use of technology. “Helping them to engage with an e-commerce platform, this, of course, will increase sales and allow for business expansion that will also lead to job creation,” Pan said.

He also noted that the project is part of the Trade Integration Strategy (CTIS) 2019-2023, in what the minister claimed will allow the Kingdom to transform to a digital economy and to become a country that will be driven by the 4.0 revolution.

“The Go4eCAM project is launching at the right time, coinciding with the approval of e-commerce law. The project will provide many other benefits, including increasing productivity, innovation, business expansion and job creation in Cambodia,” Pan explained.

Cambodia has more than 500,000 SMEs, of which 150,000 process raw agricultural material to food products, according to the Federation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia, which estimated only 10 percent export of raw agricultural businesses export to foreign markets. Source from Khmertimes.