Observations

Type of action

Agencies responsible/ external support

Time frame

Improve budgetary performance through revenue mobilization.

Increase access to credit and lower its cost.

Strengthen macroeconomic management capabilities.

Develop sound banking and payments systems.

Establish a financial market relying on government securities and other riel denominated assets.

Ministry of Economy and Finance

National Bank of Cambodia
World Bank

IMF

UNDP

ADB and several donors

Long-term

Support WTO accession.

Continue ongoing assistance with Cambodia’s legislative reform under WTO accession.

Establish WTO consistent valuation procedures.

Strengthen and institutionalize trade protection measurement and trade policy review (see below).

Ministry of Commerce

Japan, Canada, Singapore

ESCAP

German Technical Cooperation (GTZ)

Medium-term

Build institutional capacity.

Advise on techniques for measuring levels and impacts of trade protection and taxation.

Advice and training for trade policy evaluation and reporting.

Assist specific reviews  (for example, the cascading tariff), export controls and taxes, implications of binding at different levels.

Review export marketing arrangements for relevant sector studies.

Strengthen the IF Steering Committee.

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Economy and Finance

Affected sector Ministries

IF Steering Committee

Affected sector Ministries

Bilateral & Multilateral Donors

WTO

International Trade Centre

Immediate

Technical assistance matrix (continued)

Observations

Type of action

Agencies responsible/ external support

Time frame

Reduce the degree of unofficial interventions and increase transparency, to enhance customs efficiency.

Reduce institutional duplication.

Introduce equitable enforcement of the law.

Strengthen capacity in customs administration and improve incentives for staff.

Simplify the tariff and associated arrangements including trade preferences and duty exemptions.

Support computerization and automation of procedures and information systems.

Clarify the roles and responsibilities of the several overlapping agencies involved in border inspection.

Support the establishment of an independent appeals office on custom matters.

Support professionalization of officials with appropriate rewards, accountability and recruitment of young computer literate people.

Support computerisation in related agencies.

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Finance

Council of Ministers

WTO

IMF

JICA

ADB

ESCAP

Immediate

Medium-term

Long-term

Immediate

Reduce the cost of transport by improving quality and reducing unofficial fees and charges

Examine options for road use charges (i.e. examine the implications of fund raising and fund sharing at local levels of road funds raised by way of fuel taxes, property taxes and concessions for toll road operations).

Review models of port management.

Determine how unofficial fees and charges are used.  Do they go to private use or are they used for semi public activities? What services, if any, flow from these charges?  Does the incidence vary across regions and provinces? Do such facilitation fees support provincial government activities?

Assess how customs services should be designed and delivered in a zone situation.

Identify the management model to be followed, pricing for land and access to the zone, who should supply power, telecommunications etc and pricing for these services, and investment incentives.

JICA

ADB

World Bank

IMF

JICA

Immediate

Immediate

Immediate

Immediate

immediate

Make the trade support network operational by, amongst other things building capacity of trade support network stake holders.

Limited information among producers about methods of production and market.

Complete the national and provincial resources data bank as a support tool for promoting trade and investment.

Disseminate information to key stake holders.

Ministry of Commerce

Immediate

Lack of institutional arrangements for producers to gather and share information about technology and markets.

Foster the formation of and capacity building in producer organizations and federations at the national and provincial level.

Barriers to agriculture diversification and  international market access include access to capital and technology, poor information flow, inadequate infrastructure (transport, energy, communications) ineffective regulatory institutions, lack of modern business skills, and rudimentary private sector institutional base.

Cambodian agro-industry is overwhelmingly micro to small enterprise.  Production  itself is mostly small-holder based.

Establish ‘agro-enterprise support program (incubator Project)’ to nurture cooperation on production, markets, technology and information and the development of international market oriented business skills.  Identify and provide technical assistance to private sector groups in the form of business development services, to assess the structure and opportunities of existing Cambodian agro-processing enterprises, develop industry associations, and pilot new export-oriented ventures in the private sector

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Agriculture

Cambodia Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI)

International Trade Centre

World Bank , IMF-MPDF

DFID, SIDA, Danida, GTZ, CIDA, JICA

Immediate

Private sector organisation in the Agriculture and agribusiness sector is only just emerging (Rice Millers’ Associations)

Build social capital in form of private sector organizations capable of resource mobilisation, self regulation, and partnering with Government as civil society institutions

Private Sector Associations

NGOs

Donors

Medium term

Observations

Type of action

Agencies responsible/external support

Time frame

Rice has been the focus of R&D and extension .  Identify opportunities to break into new ‘niche’ products.

Assess comparative and competitive advantage in existing and new products such as spices herbs, essential oils , oil-seeds, and processed vegetables

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Agriculture

ITC, Bilateral Donors,

Private Sector

Strengthen infrastructure

Strengthen markets for key assets: credit and land.

Identify specific infrastructural needs that are likely to have high pay-offs in transport, energy and communications, and develop proposals for targeted infrastructure investment

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications

ADB, WB, ILO,

Ministry of Finance

Immediate

Improve information base and information flow

Explore other means of building information bases and enabling information flow, especially through IT approaches.

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Agriculture

Immediate

Information is lacking on market opportunities for Cambodian goods.

Develop a series of senior official trade missions to identify market opportunities and to enable working relations with counterpart officials in potential trade partner countries

Japan, IFC, ADB,

Bilaterals

WTO

Medium-term

Effective implementation of new land law is crucial.

Identify ‘success’ models of Cambodian agro-enterprises and build on them.

Clarify barriers to trade in rice and other goods as a basis for their eventual dismantling.

Cambodian handicrafts are of increasingly high quality based on cottage industry skills.  They are not well known in international markets

Encourage investment and interest in the fisheries industry through provincial level business development marketing workshops.

Dismantle barriers to entry into export marketing.

Encourage the formation of a marine fisheries industry for Cambodia through partnerships with export and import private sector firms and public sector information sharing.

Assist in forming working groups and encouraging fisheries industry participants to actively share problems and concerns.

Encourage market development of Cambodia-based markets, rather than having markets located directly across the borders.

Take fisheries participants to visit regional market countries where they can interact with fisheries importers and exporters.

Assist industry working groups to begin assembling data on fish catches – varieties, quantities, and qualities – so that discussions with regional traders are informed.

Immediate

Institutional infrastructure to support handicrafts is very weak at the production level, and as yet not coordinated at the Government level

Develop coordination mechanisms among Ministries

Ministries of : Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs; Commerce; Industry Mines and Energy; Social Affairs, Labour, and Vocational Training; Planning; Tourism; and Culture. 

Ministry of Commerce as focal point

JICA, WTO

Medium term

Information about potential markets and required standards for design and production quality is not available to handicraft producers

Access to working capital for producers is very limited

Establish a National Handicraft Trading Facility, to support development of independent producer associations and a National Handicraft Producers’ Federation, develop information base  to match market demand with Cambodian handicraft production capacity, promote quality assurance mechanisms for Cambodian product identity, and broker commercialisation of products

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Tourism

MSALVY

Japan, UNESCO, ADB

ITC Artisanal Enterprise Network

Bilaterals

Immediate

Freshwater fisheries

Sub-optimal fisheries marketing and distribution due to current single exporter arrangement

Encourage investment and interest in the fisheries industry through provincial level business development marketing workshops.

Dismantle barriers to entry into export marketing.

Encourage the formation of a marine fisheries industry for Cambodia through partnerships with export and import private sector firms and public sector information sharing.

Assist in forming working groups and encouraging fisheries industry participants to actively share problems and concerns.

Encourage market development of Cambodia-based markets, rather than having markets located directly across the borders.

Take fisheries participants to visit regional market countries where they can interact with fisheries importers and exporters.

Assist industry working groups to begin assembling data on fish catches – varieties, quantities, and qualities – so that discussions with regional traders are informed.

Ministry of Fisheries

Ministry of Commerce

ADB

ESCAP

FACT

USAID Competitive Initiative

Ministry of Commerce 

ASEAN Working Groups and regional chambers of commerce and industry associations

Denmark and Norway

Technical assistance matrix (continued)

Observations

Type of action

Agencies responsible/ external support

Time frame

Various jurisdictions are involved in determining the collection and allocation of the fisheries resource.

The Cambodian fisheries market is recognized regionally and internationally.  Reasons for lack of investment include a lack of information on available products, excessive export taxes, inefficient and expensive customs and shipping agencies, and too few participants, which indicate an immature market.

Build on emerging IT data management capacity to develop information systems into households on markets and production.

Determine the value of an interministerial working group or other legislation with MoC taking a neutral role and brokering agreements on taxation and enforcement.

Evaluate of the 10 per cent export tax, the 4 per cent distribution tax and the fishing export licensing fee, production and marketing decisions in fish exports and the impact of having a sole exporter.  Assess effect on formal versus informal activities and implications for government revenue and exporting.

Develop a program to encourage technology upgrades through demonstration projects, such as investment in packaging machinery and upgrading of hygiene standards.

Encourage a different form of taxation based on reduced tax fees for value added productive uses and processing technology investments.

Assess the impact on incentives for short-term exploitation of extending lease periods longer than  to four years.

Investigate the extent and impacts of the allocation of fisheries access by non-transparent methods.

Build private sector capacity for meeting health and quarantine standards for fish exports into developed country markets.

Facilitate development of private sector organizations and support education and development of industry networks.

Technical assistance matrix (continued)

Increase understanding of the true competitive advantage of garments.

Overcome existing tariff and quota restrictions (e.g. on local content requirements and product standards).

Achieve a more efficient and equitable distribution of quota rents.

Increase labor market flexibility in garments sector.

Determine the capacity of Cambodian producers to compete post 2005, compare costs and quotas facing main competitors and assess prospects for productivity gains.

Assess the impacts of existing preferential arrangements on Cambodia’s cost structure.

Increase capacity to analyze impact of market access restrictions and to negotiate better.

Determine the distribution of benefits/rents arising from the existing system and develop alternative options.

Explore alternative profit-sharing system such as flexible year-end bonuses instead of minimum wage.

Examine role of small and medium firms.

Examine options for promotions of Cambodian product.

Conduct analysis of EBA initiative and GSP access.

Provide assistance with quality and standards.

Examine options for saving on wastage in production.

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Social Welfare, Labor and Veteran Affairs

Council for the Development of Cambodia.

IMF Resident Customs Adviser.

Develop a strategic vision based on empirical data and which takes into account the fact that many inputs into tourism are sourced from foreign supplies

Support the collection of international industry statistics and their analysis to determine, strategically where resources should best be focused.

Examine of the net benefits of tourism to Cambodia to focus resources on the areas with greatest long term potential

Assess tourism’s potential and develop a tourism strategy through a multi-ministerial working group.

Ministry of Tourism

Ministry of Interior

Ministry of Health

Environmental Planning

Ministry of Public Work

ADB

Ministry of Commerce

Bilateral donors

ASEAN