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Cambodia: Visa, Mastercard to develop technology in Kingdom
The US payment service providers Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc will develop their payment technology and financial literacy programs to support small and medium enterprises in Cambodia that are expected to have business interactions with multinational companies from the world’s largest economy in the future, said a senior official of a leading business chamber.
The development plans were disclosed on Tuesday during a meeting between Prime Minister Hun Sen and the US-ASEAN Business Council delegation led by Michael Michalak, Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director of the council at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, said the official of Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC).
Lim Socheat, Vice President of CCC, told Khmer Times yesterday that VISA and Master Card would invest more in the development of their technologies in Cambodia for small and mediums are able to transact their payments and manage their financial system more efficiently and effectively.
“For example, when such big companies come to our country, they would need supplies from our small companies such as food and spare parts and hence they need to be developed. They want to see these smaller businesses more developed and modernised so that they would be able to increase their competitiveness in the regional and international markets,” said Socheat.
The Vice President of CCC also pointed out that the RMA Group has built facilities in Cambodia and thus it would have small sections that need supplies from local small and medium enterprises that are the backbone of the country’s economy. “These companies investing or plan to invest in our country also look at the development of these small businesses,” he added.
“However, I am not quite sure about the technical details in terms of their payment technology development,” said Socheat, who took part in the meeting in person, adding that the US firms also would develop programs to provide financial literacy to small and medium enterprises by working with the central bank and other financial institutions in the country.
Prime Minister Hun Sen appreciated American business houses saying that Cambodia-US relation is at their peak, said a release.
Acknowledging the trade volume between the two countries has grown remarkably, Mr Hun Sen said that people in the US consume products that are produced in Cambodia thus creating jobs for Cambodian people. “This is what we will push forward,” he told the delegates during the meeting that was also attended by senior officials from the public and private sectors.
Michalak said the delegation has paid a visit to Cambodia this time to express their support for the post-pandemic economic recovery plan by exploring ways to uplift small and medium enterprises and industrial enterprises in the Kingdom.
Top officials of other firms that the members of the US-ASEAN Business Council who took part in the meeting include Abbott Laboratories, ConocoPhillips, Ford Motor Company, Pfizer Inc, and Vriens & Partners.
Abbott Laboratories, an American multinational, engaged in producing medical devices is based in Abbott Park in Illinois. ConocoPhillips is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.
Similarly, Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, while Pfizer Inc is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City and Vriens & Partners is Southeast Asia’s leading government affairs consultancy.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501247698/visa-mastercard-to-develop-technology-in-kingdom/