Thailand
Cambodia: Business cluster to boost economy
The $30 million Worldbridge SME (small and medium enterprise) Cluster will break ground next month, according to a senior executive of Worldbridge Industrial Developments, the company behind the Industry 4.0 infrastructure.
The cluster, located in Takhmao city of Kandal province opposite an affordable housing project and near the new planned Phnom Penh International Airport and Ring Road 3, is seen as an innovative and strategic solution for SMEs and industrial development in Cambodia.
Unlike special economic zones, industrial parks or traditional SME clusters, the Industry 4.0 SME Cluster is an innovative solution which supports the government’s objectives under the Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025 and serves as a vehicle in which government policies supporting skills-based employment, SME development, agro-processing expansion and industrial diversification can be easily achieved. Most importantly, it brings a new future for SMEs, entrepreneurs, the information communications technology (ICT) sector and manufacturing investment in the Kingdom by bringing them together into complete value chains.
During a welcome to the site, Mean Sophea, secretary of state at the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation (MISTI), Charles Esterhoy, chief executive officer of Worldbridge Industrial Developments, said the solution needed to bridge the gaps between manufacturing foreign direct investment and local SMEs was to create and locate complete value chains inside a flexible and responsive ecosystem of facilities, services and ICT platforms.
He added that using the Industry 4.0 technologies and integrating active management techniques, these value chains and their ecosystems can be linked together to enable the production of higher value outputs for both domestic and overseas markets.
“The construction of this first cluster will start in October and is planned to open in April 2021 for the first phase,” he added.
Heightened by the ongoing COVID-19 situation and the partial withdrawal of its Everything but Arms trade status with the European Union, now, more than ever, Cambodia needs to accelerate its implementation of industrial diversification and SME development strategies to enable self-reliance and to sustain its economic growth.
Its unique Industry 4.0 based ecosystem will elevate Cambodia’s manufacturing capabilities and enable it to leapfrog from today’s Industry 2.0 environment.
Te Taing Por, president of the Federation Association for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (Fasmec), welcomed the initiative. He said when there is an SME cluster, we will invite the SMEs to join because now they operate their businesses separately at home, so it affects the environment, and social order and is difficult for them to access finance and technical knowledge from government and development partners.
“If the rent is affordable, we can attract the SMEs to the cluster,” he added.
Sear Rithy, chairman of the Worldbridge Group, said that for this SME cluster, the company will spend around $28 million to $30 million, excluding the price of the land land.
“The area of the SME cluster will take up six hectares of land. However, we will expand if demand grows, but we want to build more SME clusters across the country. In fact, what we are doing is building the cluster to serve the existing SMEs to have a proper place to increase their production and productivity and also attract foreign SMEs to connect with local SMEs. This is a model and the first SME cluster. We will build more SME clusters that process raw materials,” he added.
Rithy added that the SME Cluster will not only create employment and business opportunities for people living on its housing estate next door, but it will also act as a job-training and skill-development centre that can benefit the whole community.
“Similarly, the residential and commercial areas as well as the landscaped parks and other public amenities of the housing estate will serve its own residents as well as workers in the SME cluster,” Rithy said.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50762433/business-cluster-to-boost-economy/