The two types of foreign investors in Cambodia

Cambodians can only receive the basic salary. Cambodian workers have no chance of reaching management level, as these positions are reserved for nationals of these investors. They always say that Cambodians do not have enough capabilities, even though some of them are actually educated and trained in their country.

They always say that the Cambodian market is too small; the salary is too high; people have low skills and productivity; the cost of electricity is high; no local inputs can be obtained for their production; too many public holidays; too many unofficial fees; too much troubles caused by the corrupt practices of local officials; the logistics cost is high; etc.

The Cambodians who work for them still find themselves making ends meet.

Cambodian investors or partners doing business with them will always have the smallest margin possible.

Complainer-type investors often milk all the profits like sugar cane, taking all the sweet juice, and leave only the exhausted and dry sugar cane for local businessmen, which has no use other than to burn to ashes. There is no more sweetness from leftover sugar cane.

No Cambodian investor will ever get rich doing business with them.

No Cambodian worker can escape poverty by working under them.

Talking to them makes you feel desperate, and hopeless, and that you will remain stupid and poor for the rest of your life.

When we talk to them, they always make us feel that Cambodia has no future.

These are the common characteristics of the Complainer type foreign investors.

The second type is the Doer.

They are the ones who take risks. They don’t complain much about the situation. They think that wherever they are, in any country, they will always face problems in one way or another. They have a self-reliant, market-oriented attitude, and they simply try to solve whatever problems they face without complaining.

They know that Cambodia has a good strategic location; people can be trained and have a strong willingness to absorb new skills; their businesses can send money home quickly, even with their own national banks; Cambodia is a dollarized economy with low foreign exchange risk; it has many attractive market accesses without customs duties; people are generally nice and kind, and of course, like in every other country, there are also Cambodian cheaters that they should avoid; Cambodia has a lot of good food, good tropical fruits; no earthquakes, no volcanoes, no forest fires; you can wear a T-shirt all year round; the price is reasonable; many good local places and ecotourism sites to take a vacation; etc.

They always find positive things in Cambodia.

For businesses, they know how to work the magic of market power. They know how to make the supply chain that Cambodia is connected to more efficient.

Some of them teach local Cambodians how to do business; sometimes they provide seed funds and support the growth of businesses created by Cambodians, allowing them to use their business network.

Cambodians who work with them or do business with them would become rich and well-off. Cambodian workers have chances of becoming managers. Cambodian investors and partners have chances of becoming millionaires.

So, these are the two types of foreign investors that we always meet and listen to in Cambodia.

Indeed, we are not talking about emotions, romanticism and sentimentalism.

We are absolutely clear that there is no charity in business; and businesses cannot survive without profits.

Even though we may receive the hard feeling, we must always listen to the Complainer as a reflection of Cambodia’s weaknesses and to avoid corrupt practices. But we never let their excessive pessimism obscure Cambodia’s dreams, possibilities, potential and future.

Do not ignore our faults while we should never lose our self-esteem and our nation’s self-esteem and bury ourselves in negativity and excessive pessimism.

Never lose hope and confidence in our motherland.

In the meantime, we must always take the greatest care of the Doer, as they are the ones who share their profits and growth with the Cambodian people. They also enrich the Cambodian people; they train Cambodians in higher skills; and they help prepare and provide opportunities for Cambodians to occupy leadership positions.

What we need to do is to continue to improve ourselves constantly, create an efficient, clean and convenient system for doing business; building a good reputation, good regulations and reliable law enforcement; creating a level playing field; increase market access for products made in Cambodia and create attractive networks for businesses to prosper in Cambodia.
Those who don’t come will find a million reasons not to come.

Those who stay will only need two reasons to come and stay in Cambodia.

One reason is that Cambodia fits well into the production and supply chain of their companies. The second reason is simply because they love Cambodia. Other things don’t matter. Other issues will not cloud their decisions once they understand the chances of making profits in Cambodia.

When dealing with foreign investors, trust in Cambodia should be the backbone and the core of our principle because we must always believe that “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”.

Source:Khmer Times