Interviewed Mr.Christoph Janensch, outgoing GIZ Business Scout at EuroCham Cambodia
This week, Communications Officer Ms.Vosumtey SENG, interviewed Mr.Christoph Janensch,outgoing GIZ Business Scout at EuroCham Cambodia. Mr. Janensch shared his thoughts on the past years spent in Cambodia, including fostering business ties between Cambodia and Germany, promoting Cambodia as an investment destination, and publishing valuable resources for stakeholders, and the new opportunities ahead.
Sumtey: Having been seconded to EuroCham Cambodia as a Business Scout by GIZ for almost four years, what have been your personal highlights and key achievements working in the country?
Janensch: The past four years have been a very rewarding professional experience, and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to support fostering sustainable business practices in Cambodia. When I assumed the position of Business Scout back in 2021, program activities for the year were already in full swing, and I worked with local SMEs almost directly from day one. Thanks to the seamless integration of the position within German Business Cambodia and EuroCham, I also quickly gained access to the local European business community.
During my time in Cambodia I (co-) organised two company delegation trips from Cambodia to Germany and vice versa, which were absolute personal highlights to me. Supporting numerous other delegation trips also provided valuable insights and opportunities to promote Cambodia's potential.
I also took great joy in organizing and contributing to ca. 50 physical and online events. They primarily focused on promoting private sector support programs and showcasing Cambodia as an attractive investment destination and sourcing market. This often led to follow-up engagements with companies seeking joint projects or further advice. As a third pillar of my role, funding and producing numerous publications on Cambodia was greatly satisfying. This included, for example, the publication series “Sourcing from Cambodia” and “Sector Briefs Cambodia” which provided valuable free resources for stakeholders.
Finally, I would say Cambodia itself with its vibrant culture and dynamic business environment has been a personal highlight for me, and I consider the past four years as some of the most interesting, rewarding, and multifaceted years of my career thus far.
Sumtey: Working at the intersection of development cooperation and the private sector, what has been the most challenging aspect of your role, and how did you overcome it? What key lessons have you taken away from this experience?
Janensch: Aligning the interests of development cooperation and the private sector can be challenging, and admittedly not all ideas and proposals for cooperation can be translated into formalized joint projects. German development cooperation is increasingly focusing on leveraging the funding it provides to companies by requiring them to make equal financial or in-kind contributions to joint projects. Especially for smaller local companies this can be challenging.
However, at the same time, there is a multitude of best practice examples where these interests have been perfectly aligned, e.g. through the develoPPP program. These projects effectively balance private sector goals with community development for mutual benefit, such as increased product quality and improved local livelihoods.
Other challenges have been the relatively small size of the Cambodian market and its low visibility for European businesses compared to neighbouring countries. This contributes to low German and European investments in the country and underscores the importance of promoting business opportunities here, e.g. as a feasible Vietnam or Thailand Plus One destination.
Overcoming some of these challenges takes patience, but I have learned first-hand how important private sector contributions are to our work and how essential it is to coordinate with company initiatives to achieve the largest impact.
Sumtey: As you transition out of this position, what opportunities or goals are you most excited to pursue in the next stage of your career?
Janensch: Since the Business Scout position at EuroCham is being discontinued permanently, it feels a bit unfortunate to see this kind of close engagement with GIZ come to end. After all, there has been a Business Scout at EuroCham consecutively for the past 6.5 years. Nevertheless, I am excited about the next chapter of my career, which will take me to Ho Chi Minh City next year where I will work as Business Scout in Vietnam. I look forward to continuing to foster business relations between Cambodia and Vietnam and working with German companies, many of which I had the pleasure of collaborating with during my time in Cambodia already.
As I prepare to leave, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to EuroCham Chairman Tassilo Brinzer for his kind support and guidance, based on decades of rich experience here in Cambodia. My sincere thanks also go to Executive Director Martin Brisson for the wonderful cooperation working on joint projects, and finally I also want to thank all the hardworking EuroCham and GIZ colleagues for making my stay here so enjoyable.
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