Dept. of Good Practice in Doing Business

An effective way to address concerns of the private sector in Cambodia

The government of Cambodia has an interesting and innovative method of identifying issues of concern from the private sector and addressing them– directly communicating through the Government Private Sector Forum...

The forum is important because of the resulting decisions. The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides financial and technical support for the secretariat of the forum, conducted an evaluation (pdf) last year that showed very high returns to their support. It is also important because of the forum it provides for discussion. In one instance last week, there was a healthy exchange of ideas about the marked slowdown of economic growth in Cambodia. I think the meeting is also important for the private sector to hold the government accountable for its past decisions and to work toward a better investment climate.