Event Info:

  • Thu 23 February, 2017
  • 11:30
  • Phnom Penh
  • EuroCham Event

Details

Thank you for attending the Luncheon with our guest speaker Miguel Eduardo Sánchez. Below you will find the PowerPoint Presentation.

Please click on the PDF icon to download the presentation. 

 

Cambodia as a Lower Middle-Income Economy: Challenges and the Way ahead

EuroCham Luncheons are high-level talks given by senior experts who share economic and policy insights with Cambodia's top executives. On February 23, Senior Economist Miguel Eduardo Sánchez of the World Bank will share his expertise on:

  • To what extent Cambodia can remain competitive with its new status
  • What is needed to move up the value chain as a production base
  • How to diversify and attract more investments
  • Strategies to further expand the economy after two decades of growth
  • Policies that can enable the above

A MESSAGE FROM WORLD BANK ECONOMIST  

  • Cambodia's first economic success story of rapid GDP growth has already lasted twenty years.
  • Cambodia's growth model must adapt to see its "next success story". This must be done with decisive policy making.

WHAT WILL BE COVERED

Over the past two decades, Cambodia has been the seventh fastest growing economy in the world, ranking second in terms of exports of goods and services. Success has been driven by a combination of preferential trade treatment, large foreign aid and foreign direct investment inflows, reliance on cheap unskilled labor and, for a few years, price boom in agriculture.

Going forward, Cambodia may not be able to rely on the drivers that spurred growth in the past: commodity prices are down, US dollar appreciation and rising wages are compressing profit margins, and a progressive decline in trade preferences and donor financing is expected now as a lower middle income economy. In this changing landscape, firms will be seeking increasing value addition and diversification. To facilitate the arrival of a new generation of enterprises, a series of reforms to reduce the cost of firm establishment and operation, to foster investment in machinery and infrastructure, and to boost learning outcomes and skills, would be needed.

This Luncheon will give an overview of Cambodia's business landscape, provide updates on its competitors (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam) and offer data to predict future opportunities. It will also pinpoint some concrete policy measures proposed in conversation with public and private stakeholders (e.g. mainstreaming procedures to opening a business, Public Investment Management reform).

EVENT DETAILS:

Location: Sofitel Phnom Penh Hotel
Date: February 23, 2017
Time: 11:30am - 02:00pm
EuroCham Member price: USD $35
Non-member price:  USD $45

 

AGENDA

11:30 Registration
12:00 Opening Remarks
12:15 Lunch
12:45 Keynote Presentation
01:30 Q&A

 

 

SPEAKER

Miguel Eduardo Sánchez is Senior Economist at the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice of the World Bank, experienced in economic policy dialogue in a number of Latin American and South East Asian countries. He previously worked as trade and investment analyst at the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade.

He holds an MsC in Political Economy of Development from the University of London, SOAS, and a PhD in Economics from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His research interests on developing economies include sub-national fiscal policies, political economy, FDI and foreign trade, and he has been published in the European Journal of Political Economy.