Sectoral consultation workshop on the enhancement of dataset and the profile page on Foreign Investment in Cambodia

On 01 August 2022, Open Development Cambodia (ODC) conducted a Sectoral Consultation Workshop on the Enhancement of Dataset and the Profile Page on Foreign Investment in Cambodia at Sunway Hotel Phnom Penh. Thirty-two participants (11 females), including civil societies, researchers, indigenous NGOs, and university students working on extractive industrial revenue, economic land concessions, environmental and natural resources, urban development and housing rights, human and indigenous peoples rights, attended the sectoral consultation workshop.

The workshop has three main objectives such as presenting the new dataset and profile page about the foreign investment on the ODC platform, seeking inputs and suggestions from key stakeholders on any relevant topics or context for ODC’s focus for future data research on foreign investment, and gathering user feedback for the enhancement of the profile page, functionality, and collaboration on data and research sharing.

Mr. Thy Try, Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief of ODC, began the workshop by welcoming the participants and emphasizing the importance of the profile page on Foreign Investment in Cambodia and the main goals of conducting the workshop. A brief introduction on Cambodia’s economy and the Law on Investment of the Kingdom of Cambodia was also shared to bring attention to the workshop since not many NGOs are aware of the law. 

“The group discussion in this workshop helps to understand the participants’ experiences of searching for data, exploring the investment projects on ODC’s website, and giving feedback.” – Mr. Thy Try, Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief of ODC.

Ms. Catherine Cecil, Country Representative of East-West Management Institute (EWMI), also appreciated the ODC team for gathering a lot of datasets on the Major Foreign Investment Project in Cambodia in her opening remarks.

The workshop continued with the presentation on Cambodia’s economy by Ms. Kuoch Layheng, Economics Editor-Researcher of ODC. According to the Asian Development Bank, the GDP growth rate in Cambodia significantly grew from -3.1% (2020), 3.0% (2021), 5.3% (2022 forecast), and 6.5% (2023 forecast). Based on the Council for the Development of Cambodia, there are six priority sectors: agri-food, automotive, electronics, textile and apparel, bike and parts, and furniture and plywood. At the same time, the reasons to invest in Cambodia include the conducive investor climate, competitive workforce, connected trade infrastructure, and consistent and sustainable growth.

Mrs. Sin Kimsean, Board Member of ODC, carried out the workshop with her presentation on Law on Investment of the Kingdom of Cambodia. She mainly stressed (1) the background of the law on investment in 1994, 2003, and 2021, (2) opportunities to increase investment governance in Cambodia, focusing on screening and due diligence and nullification of an investment project, and (3) other sources of law, such as domestic law, international and regional law, investment project, domestic law (foreign investors’ countries), contracts, and principles and standards.

A participant from Transparency International Cambodia (TI Cambodia) stated that the case of dispute mostly goes to the commercial court based in other countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.). Another participant from the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) shared his challenge in finding the data and information on Economic Land Concession since the last several years when he did the research, for example, the contract/agreement of the concession. People might not be aware of the modification related to the contract duration that changed from 99 years to only 50 years.

There was also a demonstration of ODC’s website regarding how to access the profile page on foreign investment in Cambodia by Mr. Hang Visith, Investment Data Research Officer of ODC, and the dataset of major foreign investment projects in Cambodia by Mr. Y Puthealy, Data Research and GIS Officer of ODC. The demonstration guided the participants on how to use the profile page, highlighted the ODC Data hub where the dataset is also accessible, indicated the dataset structure and contents, and clarified the term of use in each dataset element for specific users.

Another critical agenda was the group discussion, which was classified into three main parts and divided the participants into four groups to intensely discuss and give feedback to enhance the profile page. The first part of the discussion was to understand the participants’ experiences finding information and data by asking them to discuss four questions related to their experiences searching for information on big foreign investment projects. The second part allowed the participants to explore the profile page and ODC’s website by searching for any foreign investment projects operating in the target area of ​​their projects, communities, or provinces. The participants were then asked to provide feedback on their experiences and impression as the last part of the group discussion. In addition to the most positive feedback from participants, the ODC team also collected input as helpful in improving its data set.

The workshop ended with the closing remarks by Mrs. Siv Vatana, Research and Web Content Manager at ODC. The input from the workshop is really important for ODC to enhance the profile page and data with up-to-date, convenient, and reliable information. She hoped that the open data on foreign investment projects that ODC has been working on would contribute to research, awareness, and public participation of local communities and drive evidence-based policymakers’ decisions. She finished her remarks and the workshop by stressing that “ODC will commit to continue its mission, collaborate with all stakeholders to continue constructive discussions on this topic, and share information and data with each other for better access to information on foreign investment in Cambodia.”