5th ASEAN Inclusive Business Summit to kick off in Siem Reap
5th ASEAN Inclusive Business Summit to kick off in Siem Reap
The Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation will host the fifth ASEAN Inclusive Business (IB) Summit for two days in Siem Reap province. The winners of the ASEAN Inclusive Business Awards 2022 – to promote an enabling environment for inclusive business among the ASEAN bloc – will be announced at the summit.
Inclusive businesses are commercially viable private sector businesses that create systemic scaled-up, innovative and systemic solutions to the income and living standards problems of low-income people.
According to a press release from the Ministry, the summit will be held in a hybrid format on October 26 and 27 under the motto “Together ASEAN IBee”.
“The event will review the progress made in promoting a better enabling environment for IB enabling environment in the ASEAN nations and globally, and discuss suggestions for regional collaboration on IB promotion,” said the ministry.
The summit was established in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN), the OECD and Oxfam.
Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister and Minister of Industry, Science, Technology & Innovation, will preside over the opening of the summit. Stakeholders from government agencies, business associations, impact investors, companies with IB business lines, business facilitators, and development partners from ASEAN countries and beyond will participate.
“At the same time, the ASEAN Inclusive Business Awards 2022 will be organised with the aim of promoting IB in ASEAN member countries that adhere to the principles of good inclusive business,” the ministry added.
According to the summit’s agenda, meetings will review the progress made in promoting a better enabling environment for IB in the various ASEAN countries and globally, and discuss suggestions for regional collaboration on IB promotion.
Parties will discuss opportunities for collaborating on policy promotion instruments such as IB business coaching, IB accreditation, IB financing; learn how certain IB businesses deliberately promote women’s economic empowerment and climate adaptation as well as environmental solutions; provide the opportunity to discuss innovative business examples of private sector companies having created commercially viable solutions for low-income population groups.
The ministry will facilitate a south-south exchange on IB with countries from South and Central Asia as well as Africa.
In 2019, the government, though the innovation ministry, cooperated with UNESCAP and iBAN to prepare a report on inclusive business in Cambodia.
In 2020, the ministry supported the strategic guidance of an Inclusive Business Market Report in Cambodia and developed Cambodia’s Inclusive Business Strategy.
