Prime Minister Hun Sen visits a booth selling locally-made products during the River Festival in Kampong Thom province in March. FB
Prime Minister Hun Sen made a public appeal to the officials working in relevant ministries and institutions to find ways to promote local production and processing of all manner of goods.
He also requested that more work be done on finding markets for farmers to sell their produce and he encouraged all Cambodians to buy local products, in line with the “One Village, One Product Movement” (OVOP).
April 9 is designated as the national day to celebrate Cambodian-made products with this year’s theme being “Buy Local to Create Jobs for Cambodians”.
Hun Sen, who is also honorary chairman of the national committee responsible for the promotion of OVOP, said this year’s event aimed to raise awareness across the Kingdom of the need to support local businesses.
In order to develop into a high middle-income country by 2030, he said Cambodia has become a country that manufactures products for its own and for exports. These factors require the government to form the basis, including physical infrastructure, human resources and techniques, for helping support development in a globalisation era.
“May this event become a wake-up call for all Cambodians to strive to produce and use Khmer products. All producers also have to strive to enhance the quality of their products to be able to increase prices while meeting market needs at home and abroad,” he said.
Keo Mom, CEO of Ly Ly Food Industry, said that as the head of a local business, she thanked the prime minister for his words in support of Khmer products as well as the Ministry of Commerce for always working hard to raise the profile of Khmer businesses at exhibitions in the Kingdom and abroad.
Mom pointed out that today there are many Khmer businesses manufacturing high-quality goods that can easily compete with foreign products both in Cambodia and elsewhere, but the big challenge that remains is the lack of a processing industry.
“The problem with industry at home is our limited processing capacity, so exports of our products are small in volume and our costs are high, which makes it hard to compete in even the local markets and even harder for international markets,” she said.
“However, with the financial support of the government it should be possible to boost domestic products by doing things like starting an industrial credit programme to offer loans to businesses willing to invest the money in expanding processing,” she added.
