Govt pushes for use of financial services to informal businesses
Govt pushes for use of financial services to informal businesses
Hem Vanndy, Minister of Industry, Science, Technology & Innovation (MISTI) and Chea Serey, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) Thursday discussed ways to effectively implement the national strategy by promoting the use of digital banking system and financial services to the informal economy.
This came as the NBC Governor and the Minister presided over a meeting on ‘Promoting the Implementation of the National Strategy on Informal Economic Development’ in Phnom Penh on July 18.
Presiding over the meeting, Vanndy, also Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Developing the Informal Economic (CCDIE), said that the accessibility to official financial services remains a challenge for informal business owners due to a lack of compliance with policies, regulations and requirements to the community.
Vanndy told the NBC Governor that the development of the large-scale informal economy is a major factor that could push to achieve the vision of becoming a middle-income country in 2030 and a high-income country in 2050.
He said, “CCDIE is preparing a digital nursery for informal economy registration and requested the NBC to expand accessibility to official banking and financial institutions for all informal business owners who have been recognised in this online registration system.”
The NBC Governor welcomed the initiative and committed to supporting the programme, suggesting the working group to continue study in detail and collaborate closely with the technical staff aimed at effectively implementing the project.
Serey underlined that NBC has done many works that are in line with the National Strategy for Informal Economic Development (NS-IED) such as raising financial literacy to citizens through activities to reach out to the public community and integrating financial lessons into the general education curriculum.
She asked all informal business owners to open savings accounts and use formal financial services, develop payment systems that are convenient, cost-effective and efficient while also promoting the use of women’s financial services.
The Minister praised the progress of the work of NBC which has developed well in line with the national strategy.
He went on to inform that the CCIED has cooperated with the relevant ministries and institutions to monitor the progress and review the action plan of the project to achieve the targets set in the national strategy.
Based on the NBC announcement, the meeting was conducted to discuss and review the progress of NBC in implementing the national strategy for developing the informal economy to promote the use of formal banking and financial services.
Speaking to Khmer Times, Dr Tan Monivann, Vice President of Mong Reththy Group Co Ltd said, “Generally, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country operated the businesses as the startup company and maintained the same concept over years which is not a good practice.”
He said that the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) created several mechanisms to promote the ecosystems supply chain and the agro-industry sector by offering incentive packages plus special export tax fees, especially to the local community at the grassroots level as they played a major role in the national economy development.
It may be recalled that on October 10 last year, RGC launched the NS-IED 2023-2028 under the presidency of Prime Minister Hun Manet aimed at promoting capacity building, productivity and resilience of the informal economy.
The NS-IED 2023-2028 was set out with the vision of developing the informal economy to access the official systems and become a driving force in achieving maximum productivity for sustainable development and a resilient environment nationwide.
