‘Missing Digital Link’ to deliver e-commerce boost for small businesses in Cambodia

‘Missing Digital Link’ to deliver e-commerce boost for small businesses in Cambodia

Online portal will speed shipments, open export markets. It will provide a lift for Cambodia’s MSMEs, which account for only 10 percent of its total exports despite a dominant role in the economy. That figure trails the 30 percent share of exports reached by MSMEs in other regional economies

Expanding into new global markets will soon be easier for Cambodian businesses thanks to a project launched today by the Cambodian government and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, which will digitalise paper-based customs clearing processes for small packages sent through the post.

Cambodia’s General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE) and Cambodia Post already have established electronic systems for handling small package clearances but lack a digital link that would allow them to realise their full potential. So instead, customs declarations are still filled in and processed manually and only at or after the arrival of shipment.

Through its implementing partner Swisscontact, the Alliance is clearing that roadblock with this new project, which will develop the missing digital link between the two systems. That link will enable faster clearance of parcels, end the dependence on burdensome paper processes, and allow shipping information to be transmitted before a package arrives at its destination country.

The Alliance is also working with the Cambodian Women’s Entrepreneur Association (CWEA) to ensure that micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), many of them women-led, can take full advantage of these improvements. To this end, the project will be establishing a new online portal to act as an e-trade ‘one-stop’ service point for MSMEs to ship goods internationally and upscale their export capabilities.

Once implemented, the project will provide a lift for Cambodia’s MSMEs, which account for only 10 percent of its total exports despite a dominant role in the economy. That figure trails the 30 percent share of exports reached by MSMEs in other regional economies. Getting up to that level could potentially add USD3.2 billion in exports to Cambodia’s economy. Khmer Times