Long Kemvichet – ambassador and representative of the Permanent Mission of Cambodia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other international organisations – has received support in his role with a major UN conference.

Kemvichet was appointed vice-chair of the 6th meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-Commerce and the Digital Economy of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The conference, scheduled for May 10-12, was held under the them “How to Make Data Work for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

During the opening of the conference, the Permanent Mission issued a statement outlining the Kingdom’s vision of becoming a digital economy and society by 2035 through the implementation of the Digital Economic and Social Strategy Framework 2021-2035, as well as through participation in the development of data governance rules through the regional and bilateral agreements to which Cambodia is a member.

The Mission reminded all members of the challenges facing Cambodia and other least developed countries (LDC) and called on the international community to support the digital transformation of LDCs so they can benefit from e-commerce and the digital economy.

As vice-chair, Kemvichet acted as facilitator in two sessions: one on “prerequisites for a more equitable distribution of gains from the digital economy” and one that discussed “shaping the data governance debate to maximise the development potential of data”.

During the two sessions, the participants discussed issues such as the fragmentation of data governance in the global framework and the UN’s role in establishing a multilateral forum for discussion on this issue, data protection and privacy, artificial intelligence (AI), taxation in the digital economy, challenges of developed countries and other related topics.