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IMPLEMENTING
THE INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK
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| • Home • Introduction to MOC • Functional Structure • Trade Statistics • Economic Integration • Cambodia's Exporters • Cambodia's Imports • MOC Links • MOC Contacts • Legal • Licensing & Registration • Activities • Seminar • Pro-Poor Trade Sector Strategy • Integrated Framework (IF) • Speeches • Trade Directory • IPR |
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Presented
by the Ministry of Commerce, Royal Government of Cambodia to the 6th
Consultative Group (CG) Meeting, EFFECTIVE
MECHANISMS FOR BUILDING DOMESTIC CONSTITUENCY
Cambodia’s partnership mechanisms for consultation among key stakeholdersLessons
from other developing countries suggest that implementation of a national
trade sector strategy is unlikely to be very successful unless that
strategy and its supporting plan of action have received a large measure
of support from all key stakeholders: government policy-makers, business
sector actors, development partners, and civil society.
To achieve such support requires a process of strategy formulation
that engages the three key partners directly into the formulation process
itself. It is only in this
manner that stakeholders can identify realistic goals, take full measure
of their respective commitments, and become true “owners” of the
strategy. Learning
from the experiences of other countries with similar characteristics,
Cambodia has sought to design
its trade policy framework with the following elements:
Cambodia
believes that identifying key issues and broad approaches to trade sector
strategy is not necessarily the most difficult part of the exercise.
What is likely to be more demanding is the formulation of a plan of
action that is the result of a true process of consultation among all
three stakeholders, one in which each partner is able to contribute ideas
and inputs. Cambodia
ensures that country ownership is secured through effective coordination
across ministries in government, partnership between the government and
private sector, and partnership between the government and donor agencies.
The partnership framework builds upon existing mechanisms established by
the Government which include:
the IF Steering Committee (IFSC), the inter-ministerial Council for Social
Development (CSD), the Government-Private Sector Forum, and the
Consultative Group (CG) process.
In
order to follow-up on the Pro-poor Trade Sector Strategy, the Government
has designated MoC as the focal point for the implementation of the
IF program in Cambodia. The MoC has established an IF Steering Committee
to guide and monitor formulation and implementation of a
“mainstreamed” trade sector strategy.
The group includes representatives from Government (Ministry of
Planning, Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Council of Ministers), the
business community, and the local donor community. The
Council for Social Development is the Government’s agency mandated with
poverty focused policy and programme design, and monitoring of
implementation. The CSD is composed of representatives from economic and
line ministries. The work of
the CSD is central in steering the preparation of the national Poverty
Reduction Strategy (i.e. SEDP II and PRSP), and the monitoring of process,
inputs, intermediary outputs and outcomes in close co-ordination with
sectoral and local level monitoring systems.
The work of the CSD includes ex-ante impact assessment of major
policy reforms (macroeconomics,
sectoral and budgetary). The IF work on Cambodia trade sector reforms will
closely co-ordinate with the work of the CSD, by providing critical
policy-level sector inputs in preparation of the PRS and programme level
performance data. Government
and private sector partnership
Institutionalizing
systematic consultations between private and public sector institutions
can have positive, long-term effects.
In addition to promoting a self-regulated private sector, these
partnerships can assist government institutions, which in Cambodia
generally lack experience in competitive markets, to understand the
interconnections between good governance and economic growth.
Cambodia is considered to have one of the most favorable policy
approaches towards the private sector. It has a formalized procedure
through which the Government and private sector are able to hold dialogue.
Importantly, the private sector believes that action does result
from their participation in the fora. At the peak is the
Government–Private Sector Forum chaired by the Prime Minister, five
sessions of which have been held in Phnom Penh over the last two years.
Seven business-government sectoral working groups have been formed to
address sector-specific problems on an ongoing basis, namely:
Each
sectoral working group is run by a committee including ten members: six
from the business community and four from the government. The fora do
provide opportunities for IF related leadership dialogue involving the
Government and the business sector. The secretariat of the Government
Private Sector Forum is currently receiving some assistance from the IFC.
Cambodia
is in the process of formalizing its networks of trade support
institutions capable of providing five kinds of services to exporters:
trade policy information and commercial intelligence; export promotion and
marketing; product development; financial services; and training. This
network is a departure from the traditional approach, in which the
Ministry of Commerce has attempted to meet most of the trade support
service needs of exporters. A wide range of entities, both from the
private and public sector, capable of providing trade support services
have been brought together, although still at the informal level and on an
ad hoc basis, including: consulting firms, packaging design consultants,
freight forwarders and shippers, commercial banks and other financial
institutions that offer trade credits and guarantees, chambers of
commerce, training institutions (universities and business schools),
investment promotion agency, small business development agencies, research
and development organizations, overseas commercial representatives,
enterprises and professional associations (manufacturer, exporter, and
product sector associations), and sector-specific export councils. Examples
of successful trade support institutions have begun to appear in Cambodia,
like the National Codex Committee which was created to help enterprises
meet technical standards and packaging requirements of export market, the
formation of Enterprise Development Cambodia (EDC) which supports private
sector development via the development of the Provincial Rice Millers’
Associations and the National Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers’
Associations, the Brick and Tile Manufacturers, and the Rural Electricity
enterprises, and other business development services. Sector-specific
private business associations have also been formed like farmer producing
and marketing associations for tobacco, fragrant rice, bananas, soybeans,
and castor seed production. In the tourism sector the Tour Guide
Association in Siem Reap, the Hotel Owners Association, and the Cambodian
Association of Travel Agents were also established. Government and Donors’ PartnershipCambodia
has developed a fairly intensive system of consultations with donors –
especially when compared to other developing countries.
This includes the formal Consultative Group (CG) meetings and the
bi-annual post CG consultations. The CG process includes working groups
involving donors and government and focusing on specific reform areas
(e.g. fiscal reform, social
sectors, public sector reforms, demobilization, governance including legal
and judiciary reform, and natural resources management). These mechanisms
are critical in ensuring that national stakeholders and donors at all
times develop and work from a shared vision of objectives and goals.
The CG has formally integrated the IF in its work process. BUILDING
CONSENSUS ….. Since
the adoption of the IF, a number of actions have been taken at the
country-level, principally to explain and build consensus around the
concept of a pro-poor trade sector strategy. By way of illustration, the
MoC has held several meetings of the IF Steering Committee and made
substantive presentation of the pro-poor trade strategy at various fora to
engage the dialogue and to seek the views and solutions from key
stakeholders: Private Sector
Civil Society StakeholdersIn
parallel an extensive awareness campaign with other civil society
stakeholders was initiated, including the holding of international
conferences, seminars and special condensed lectures within the national
academic circles. These initial efforts are impressive and provide a basis
for deepening the synergies thus far developed among trade sector
stakeholders under the leadership of the MoC.
……
among key international stakeholders A
parallel campaign to involve donors in the process was also undertaken and
has culminated in the pledge, and commitment, of support from key donors. Sharing
the "Cambodian Experiences" at:
* * * * * TRADE
STRATEGY IN CAMBODIA "Tokyo
Road Map: A
coherent trade strategy
Cambodia
conceptualized its preliminary trade policy needs assessment in 1998
followed by a Preliminary Concept Trade Sector Strategy Paper which was
tabled at the mid-term Government Meeting held in Phnom Penh on 29 January
2001. A document entitled the
Tokyo Road Map was presented at the Fifth annual Consultative Group (CG)
meeting in Tokyo, June 2001 essentially describing what Cambodia needed to
do to prepare all the inputs required to formulate a robust pro-poor trade
sector strategy which can become a critical cornerstone of the country’s
poverty reduction strategy. The trade strategy built upon an early
assessment of the incidence and nature of poverty using Cambodian poverty
surveys and identified the importance of reducing impediments to trade for
rural household production in areas such as diversified agriculture,
fisheries, handicrafts and labor services. Three Concepts for a Pro-Poor Trade Sector Strategy
Following
the Tokyo Road Map, the Government and the 6 IF core agencies undertook
and completed a diagnostic trade integration study called “CAMBODIA:
Integration and Competitiveness Study” with funding secured from the IF
Trust Fund. The study which was undertaken in-country with support from
the six core agencies with the World Bank as lead task manager looked at a
number of issues including establishing the link between trade development
on the one hand and poverty reduction on the other, and the impact of
trade reform on economic growth and development in the country. It also
identified obstacles and institutional development needs to address the
demands of increased engagement in the international economy facing
Cambodian households and firms and assessed market access issues. The
study provided the basis for the formulation of operational advice to
improve export performance and support broad based welfare gains leading
to the development of a matrix of prioritized trade-related capacity
building and
technical
assistance needs that are linked to the country’s overall development
strategy.
Role
of Diagnostic Study
Outline
of “Cambodia: Integration and Competitiveness Study”
A
review of the investment climate was conducted under separate contract
with the government, involving extensive stakeholder discussions. Sector
analysis focused on what must be done to strengthen and develop a number
of product-sectors for exports, including: rice, diversified agriculture,
handicrafts, fisheries, and garments, tourism, and labor services. Tables
1 to 6 summarize the main issues and suggestions. Box
1: Main Issues on Market Access Firm
survey evidence shows the significance of barriers to export as follows: 1.
Delay in customs and unofficial payments
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