Launching ODC’s new profile page on Foreign Investment in Cambodia
On 23 February 2022, Open Development Cambodia (ODC) launched its new profile page on Foreign Investment in Cambodia. The event was held at Sunway Hotel Phnom Penh in a hybrid format, in line with prevailing public health measures. A total of 58 participants joined the event, 22 in-person and 36 through a livestream Zoom meeting. The backgrounds of participants were diverse, including representatives from international and local NGOs, development partners, educational institutions, research centers, Indigenous Peoples’ communities, news agencies and private companies.
The profile page currently covers 111 major foreign investment projects in the Kingdom, ranging from agriculture, agro-industry, commerce, power energy, infrastructure, finance and tourism. A recently added dataset expands the information regarding the projects’ budget size and location along with the existing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports. All the data is publicly accessible on the ODC platform in a variety of formats.
The launch event had four main objectives. First, to present the most recent improvements on the ODC platform and raise awareness about how the new content might be used by relevant stakeholders. Second, to showcase ODC’s new profile page on Foreign Investment in Cambodia and the dataset on the Major Foreign Investment Project in Cambodia. Third, to share the challenges and limitations encountered in the data collection and page design phases, lessons learned and best practices. And fourth, to call for increased data collaboration and gather feedback from data users in order to enhance the website.
The event started with the welcoming remarks by Mr. Thy Try, Executive Director of ODC. He acknowledged the hard work and dedication of the ODC team in researching and compiling such a large amount of information to produce the new profile page. He provided an overview of all the work behind the profile page. He said that notably, a new functionality has been added to the profile page, which allows users to filter and search information of the top major development projects based by their locations and background details. Mr. Try took this opportunity to explain that the ODC team will continue to work on this profile page and encouraged stakeholders to use and share relevant data.
“The 111 investment projects that are available on the foreign investment profile page are just the beginning. I hope that all relevant stakeholders will partake in disseminating many other foreign investment data to us” – Mr. Thy Try, Executive Director of ODC
Ms. Catherine Cecil, Country Representative of the East West Management Institute (EWMI), stressed the vital role of open data in Cambodia’s socio-economic development and the key contributions of ODC in maintaining up-to-date publicly accessible data over the past few years. She encouraged participants to exchange ideas and to provide feedback to ODC to enable it to improve the website.
Mr. Hang Visith, Investment Data Research Officer at ODC, presented the data collecting process, methods, limitations, and challenges. He demonstrated links to original data/information sources as well as to other relevant ODC pages.
Mr. Chi Lymeng – Economics Editor Researcher at ODC – then walked participants through the ODC website. With a focus on the datahub and interactive maps, he showed the available content and functions, and provided tips on navigating the website. Mr. Lymeng emphasized the importance of the digitalization work conducted by ODC, as it enables users to search in the data catalog and to share map locations.
Mr. Y Puthearly, Data Research and GIS Officer at ODC, presented the new profile page in more detail. He reviewed all the core elements of the profile page, along with their purpose. He briefed the audience on the 15 columns of detailed information for the 111 records of development projects in the “Major Foreign Investment Projects in Cambodia” dataset. He explained that the datasets are available in Khmer and English and accessible in three different formats, namely SQLite, DB table, and WMS.
During a Q&A discussion, participants’ active and dynamic participation reflected their strong interest. Most questions posed by participants focused on the selection criteria of the data collected by ODC (provided the multiplicity of data sources), the strategies used to maintain the data up-to-date, and the scope of the data contained in the new dataset.
In her closing remarks, Mrs. Siv Vatana, Research and Web Content Manager at ODC, thanked participants for their active engagement. She stated that she firmly believes that this profile page will benefit those seeking reliable and trustworthy datasets related to foreign investment in the country. The new profile page will be a key source of reliable data open to all and free of charge. She encouraged all stakeholders, including national and international development partners, local communities, journalists, youth, women, Indigenous Peoples and researchers, to get involved in the management of natural resources and the environment. In her speech, Ms. Vatana congratulated each of the members of the ODC team for their effort and contributions, and their capacity to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“ODC hopes that the launching of this profile page will promote the country’s data transparency and enhance the open data ecosystem for foreign investment at both national and regional levels”. – Mrs. Siv Vatana, Research and Web Content Manager at ODC
By building on the ODC data, all stakeholders can play a key role in shaping a sustainable socioeconomic and environmental development. ODC hopes that the open datasets and information on foreign investment in Cambodia will help promote data transparency and expand the open data ecosystem at both the national and regional levels. Likewise, ODC will continue to promote open dialogues and call for information-sharing between relevant actors, including government, civil society and the private sector.
