The Ministry of Public Works and Transport has been organising a second workshop to share knowledge on capacity building and institutional strengthening to develop a framework for monitoring and evaluation of the logistics sector and logistics data in Cambodia and in the context of Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam cooperative efforts.

The first logistics workshop took place in Preah Sihanouk province in April and this was a follow-up to it.

The workshop was organised by the General Department of Logistics through the Technical Cooperation Project of the Mekong-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund from May 25-27 with in-person participation and live video links from a total of 60 officials.

Among the participants were representatives from Vietnam’s and Laos’ transport ministries, the Mekong Institute, national and international experts in logistics, officials from the relevant general departments under Cambodia’s transport ministry, as well as officials from the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port. Also in attendance were members of the Cambodia Logistics Association (CLA) and Cambodia Trucking Association.

Chheang Pich – head of the ministry’s General Directorate of Logistics who presided over the opening ceremony – highlighted the importance of the workshop in providing logistics management knowledge and for the preparation of statistics on the logistics sectors in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in order to strengthen cooperation of the three countries to jointly build a database of information.

“At this three-day workshop, participants will get practical knowledge and experience sharing from international logistics experts from Europe and Asia,” he said.

Pich thanked all of the participants who actively participated in discussions or shared experiences and knowledge about collecting, compiling and managing data on transport and logistics, both in person and via video links.

CLA president Sin Chanthy said that organising this workshop was an important step towards making the logistics and transportation sector more competitive with knowledge, software and hardware.

He said this was a good initiative that makes the public and private sectors better understand the frameworks of the field of logistics and that although the logistics sector in Cambodia was improving, there were still some challenges that need to be addressed related to technology and structural integration.

The first logistics workshop in Preah Sihanouk province focused on key issues including global logistics implementation indices, measuring and monitoring logistics implementation along transport corridors, forecasting and designing prototype solutions for the flow of goods and containers, along with practical exercises and group discussions of case study examples from Asian countries.