In closing the Cabinet’s meeting on 24 July 2026 at the Peace Palace, Prime Minister Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet made the following statement regarding the Royal Government’s effort to speed up procedural reforms of the SMEs registration:
[…] To make the economy grow, we must strengthen ourselves. In this sense, we are working on two reforms – firstly, the reform of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), and we have evaluated, prepared, and are going to amend the (relevant) laws; and secondly, increase the efficiency of the CDC. That means increasing its weight of implementation. Certain procedures need to be done. Right now, people carry documents and run to institutions. Soon, people will not be carrying documents to run to institutions anymore. People will come to a single location and the documents will run to the institutions themselves online or via other systems […] We need strengthening, connectivity, procedure adjustments, and the creation of some SOPs to make it easy for all institutions […]
I just want to clarify that much, but moving forward, the second task for SMEs must be done urgently. (As a consequence of) war and border closures — we want domestic products to grow quickly. (Therefore, we must promote) registration and (related) things so that it goes smoothly and receives support to a certain degree. We have a lot of work to do, however, the first task to address, I think, is the registration or listing of SMEs. Regarding this registration, His Excellency the Deputy Prime Minister (and Minister of Economy and Finance) has already out it to test. We will pilot the soap product project to be issued within 6 days. This means that previously, s/he (the project owner) had to run to the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MISTI) to get a license (and then) had to run to the Ministry of Health and other places […]
I asked to examine the products. We must clearly divide between high-risk products, medium-risk products, and low-risk products. This product is not high risk. But if it is food or a product with chemical skin contact, that is high risk and must go through (proper procedures); do not cut it (the procedures), but each of those procedures must be fast. Yesterday, I met […] and received information] that for those products, just let them sell first, and we will check afterwards. It is not like that. If they are dangerous products, please do not let them sell first. If one pill poison someone, and then it is said that the government allowed it to be sold without checking, that cannot be allowed. We must inspect, but we set a timeframe.
If it is just pots and pans, there is no need to apply for advertising licenses and whatnot; let them do it first. Sometimes, a product is already made, but they still had to apply for advertising licenses and other things. Advertising license management is to ensure that the advertising is not false. So, which products require (advertising control). Do not let a normal medicine be advertised as taking it could rejuvenate 20 years. That won’t work. It is not right. But if it is a plate or something, we can let it out and apply later. Where can we completely cut out (the procedure) …
We are testing this area to make it work, and ministries and institutions must definitely do this work. Let me clarify that so far, I have rolled up my sleeves to work on two things – (1) solving border issues and (2) scams. Now, for this SME matter, I have also rolled up my sleeves. (This issue) affects the people. We have committed (to doing this work already), and we must make it happen to help facilitate for them, solve problems for the common interest, and for credibility. If it were to be solved anyway, don’t wait anymore. I will step in to help push and increase (the momentum). Rolling up my sleeves does not mean I am going to do it on their behalf. It means I am here (as a backup) to help and push the units responsible.
We will organize a unit under the CDC or under some (institutions) […] to act as a general coordination unit. Right now, we have one unit called CamDX, but there are no people. CamDX is a technology platform that, when implemented, helps facilitate work to some extent. But if there are no people to monitor and solve problems, it cannot work. We will create a unit responsible for problem-solving. This is the procedure that must be done. In the future, license applicants will come to submit (applications) at this single location. This unit has the duty to (forward documents) whether through CamDX or document submission. Sometimes they have had to submit soap samples or the like to be sent to MISTI, which has a laboratory, without having to run to the ministry itself. They just submit it at one place.
That place is responsible for running (documents) and doing the work. They are the ones who must go work with ministries and institutions. There could be two stages, (one of which is) we leave all existing regulations as they are for now. Do not complicate things yet. Let the connection work first. In some places, work overlaps. Firstly, we connect. Like right now, they run to the Ministry of Health, they run to MISTI, carrying documents to. There could be some information overlaps. We let them follow that, but set a timeframe (such as) MISTI must give an answer within 24 hours, and where testing takes longer, give how much time (needed) […]
In summary, give how many days. We will do that work. Therefore, each relevant ministry must prepare its workforce. The department that has had to solve (this task) must prepare its workforce and means. If something is missing, tell them in advance to (find a way) to do it, and have that person ready to facilitate. We cannot have (project owners) submit documents there, and the official (responsible for checking) at that place goes to a meeting in France (instead, for instance). They are not going anywhere and how must they respond? Get it (the procedure) ready.
We already have the procedures. The problem now is hooking up data to this CamDX. We announced about CamDX since 2020. Now, coming to 2026, it has been 6 years, and only 200 services have been (registered). We have 1,500 national-level services that need to be (registered) and 1,400 sub-national services that need to be registered. We are not talking about the sub-national level; we are only talking about the national level. Relevant ministries that must integrate to serve SMEs must finish (interlinkages with CamDX) by the end of September (2026). Do not wait until 2028. How many services remain, we will get them done by the end of this year 2026. I am monitoring [this work] directly. Ministers who have problems connecting to (CamDX) must report to the technical ministry about what is missing.
We need to cooperate. There are two choices. Firstly, ministries that have their own systems can hook up to CamDX and enter. We coordinate technically to be consistent with each other. Secondly, ministries that lack the capacity […] the Ministry of Economy and Finance can help hook it up for them; templates are already available. Therefore, please ask the Ministry of Economy and Finance to organize a working group led by H.E. Kong Marry to work with relevant ministries and institutions to hook up to CamDX. Relevant ministries must finish all SME-serving services by the end of September (2026). Please have ministries and institutions assign their expert working groups to prepare to work on this.
Let me clarify, we have 15 ministries that must […] If they do not connect to CamDX, do not think that services helping SMEs or the CDC can happen. No matter how you want to reform, it won’t work. People will still carry documents and walk to individual ministries as before. When reforming the CDC, we had two choices.
Choice 1: Like in some countries, such as Rwanda, it is called the “One Roof” system. Previously, Rwanda had a messy problem like us. The President created a 9-story building, brought the departments related to the decisions of ministries and institutions into that building, and delegated authority without needing to go through ministers. The President sits directly above to help facilitate and clear things. Approve only business matters. Other matters can go (according to existing procedures). That is the first choice.
Choice 2: Which is what we chose, is to leave the rights to ministries, institutions, and ministers as they are, without needing to send officials over; we just put a system in this place, leaving it to the officials here (to do the job), but each ministry must create a working group. How to pass internal procedures […] use existing ones, or reduce them, to pass the minister or through the hierarchy somehow, I do not know, but just make sure it gets done within the timeframe we set.
Applicants will not overlap at the respective ministry. If you want something, ask this place. Want to sample soap? No need to ride a motorbike to take it to the lab. Bring it to this shared place. The shared place will ride a motorbike to take it. This is setting reform directions; it is not on paper, it must be done directly. I think inter-institutional work needs weight. Because of this, I rolled up my sleeves to come down and [work] together. But I am not doing it on their behalf. The unit is the one doing it and must be responsible.
Regarding registration, please make sure there are no more problems. Submitting an SME application means submitting it in just one place. Definitely we dare to promise the citizens that we can do it. We must do that task. Why do we need to do SME work urgently? Because this is what we want. Domestic products replacing foreign goods. Right? We shout (about this desire) but execution fails. We must look at why? Part of it is helping the domestic sector. Issues of resources, laws, taxes, we will think about them further, but the main thing is to solve this (registration procedure) issue first. Let us solve that one issue and get it out. Use this matter to win the trust of the people.
It is like how we launch the SCAM suppression campaign. Doing certain work like that. Solving that (task) will help us strengthen ourselves. We want (investment to increase), but first we have had to clean our house properly. If we want (increased investment), the private sector must function, and when the private sector functions, it creates jobs and pays taxes to the state […]./.