Cambodia’s SMEs prosper

PHNOM PENH  Federation of Association for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of Cambodia says the country’s SMEs earned USD1.9 billion in revenue, last year, mainly in the tourism sector.

Phnom Penh Post quoted the federation president, Te Taing Por, saying promotional events such as the Agri-Tourism Exhibition and the Sea and River Festival were big revenue generators for Cambodian SMEs.

“We make a lot of profit from exhibitions and other events, which means the tourism sector greatly helps SMEs,” he said.

 “We expect revenues to continue to increase business this year, even though neighbouring product exhibitions from Thailand or Vietnam will have a negative impact on attendance at our shows…we are trying to develop solutions with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Commerce to minimise this impact.”

Tourism Minister Thong Khon said that the ministry creates special events for SMEs to sell and advertise their products in areas that struggle to attract more local and international tourists.

“Most tourists buy local products at  events, which we believe helps our SMEs,” he said.

Last year, the kingdom received 4.77 million international tourists increasing 6.1% from 4.50 million in 2014.

The top 10 supply markets were Vietnam, China, Laos, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and France.