September 2-5, 2020 - The Asia Foundation hosted an online-offline blended workshop at Daejeon, Korea from September 2 to 5, 2020 under the theme, “International Development Cooperation and Inclusive Economic Growth: MSMEs and Women’s Enterprises in Cambodia” in support of the KDI School of Public Policy and Management. Korean development practitioners from a governmental organization, NGOs, international organizations, and graduate schools participated in the workshop to have an in-depth experience that focused on the current challenges of MSMEs and Women’s Enterprises in Cambodia. Due to Covid-19, this year’s International Development Cooperation Capacity Building Program was conducted in a blended format, a combination of offline, face-to-face discussions among Korean participants, and joint online sessions for Cambodian participants.

During the four-day workshop, the participants interacted with a wide range of actors interested in supporting Cambodia’s MSMEs and Women’s Enterprises. Participants included the government officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance Cambodia and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs Cambodia and professionals from the National Bank of Cambodia, Future Forum, an independent think tank in Cambodia, SHE Investments, a Cambodian social enterprise supporting women’s SMEs, and the female CEO of the Red Scissors, a Cambodian handicraft women’s MSME, and Workingna.com, a recruiting firm in Cambodia.

Through this workshop, the participants better understood the challenges of MSMEs and women’s enterprises in accessing finance, the market, and information. They came up with some concrete ideas to improve the social ecosystem of Cambodia. Six teams, three each from Korea and Cambodia, presented their project concept notes, proposing creative project plans that MSMEs and Women’s Enterprises in Cambodia could adopt. “I believe Cambodian participants’ concept presentations and their candid feedback on our concepts are practical benefits nowhere to be found amid the outbreak of Covid-19,” said a Korean participant. At the closing session, the Cambodian Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, LONG Dimanche, gave congratulatory remarks.