May 9, 2024
PHNOM PENH – Prime Minister Hun Manet has explained that Cambodia’s national single window service will facilitate trade in the Kingdom more effectively by switching from paper to a paperless system. He added that the new mechanism is connected to the ASEAN single window portal, meaning it will be capable of exchanging data with the bloc’s other member countries.
During the May 7 launch of the new system in Phnom Penh, he noted that the implantation of the initiative will make an important contribution to improving the business environment and promoting business activities across the Kingdom.
The window aims to improve the quality, transparency, efficiency, and credibility of investors and businesses. It will bring public services closer to consumers through the use of automated and technological platforms, in order to facilitate procedures and reduce the amount of time taken to access services.
“The national one-stop-shop window is connected to the ASEAN single window. It will exchange data with other ASEAN nations and streamline the procedures for applying for licenses, permits, certificates, and other legal documents.
“In the past, businessmen and women had to submit paperwork to different ministries and institutions, sometimes several times. Now they can apply at a single place, at a single time, electronically.
“The one-stop-shop window, together with the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), will facilitate trade in Cambodia by changing the way of working from paper-based to paperless,” said Manet.
He noted that the single window will become a key player in the Kingdom’s digital ecology, making trade facilitation more efficient and connecting businesses in the region and the world.
“This achievement is a continuation of ongoing reforms and modernisation of the tax administration. This will increase the efficiency of revenue management and create fair competition in business and investment, while reducing the cost of fulfilling tax obligations and procedures,” the prime minister added.
He expressed strong hopes that the new system would become another example of joint efforts by ministries and other government institutions to overcome difficulties in coordinating their work.
Manet said this “successful” collaboration has also benefited the private sector via the national single window, which has saved time and money and reduced the amount of paperwork needed to do business.
Aun Pornmoniroth, Minister of Economy and Finance, also addressed the event.
He said that in addition to digital technology that supports each technical function, his ministry has developed interconnected technological platforms that allow various information technology systems from his ministry and other government institutions to interface into a single cluster.
“The launch of key digital platforms, such as the Cambodia Data Exchange (CamDX), has opened up opportunities for other systems to work together and interconnect, creating new digital services which are easier to access and more efficient,” he noted.
“The information technology business registration system that connects the chain from one information technology system to 21 ministries and institutions allows businesses to register a business in just eight working days,” he added.
In the almost four years since the mid-2020 launch of CamDX, 35,755 companies with a combined capital of $10.73 billion have successfully registered in the ecosystem, according to Pornmoniroth.