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The Epidemic Survival: Three Key Strategies for Businesses in Cambodia to ‘Break the Game’

By Sivann

February 20, 2022

The Epidemic Survival: three key strategies for businesses in Cambodia to “break the game”. As per the latest forecast by the Cambodian Ministry of Finance and Economics, Cambodia’s economic growth rate will reach 5.8% in 2022, while the world economic growth rate will recover to 4.4%. Judging by the current business environment and the circumstance in Cambodia, there is both an opportunity and a challenge for major companies. There are three key strategies to “break the game” and rise against the trend of the epidemic.

The Current Circumstance at a Glance: According to the latest statistical report by the Ministry of Finance and Economics, 42,000 Chinese tourists will enter Cambodia in 2021, a decrease of 86.9% compared with the same period in 2020, in which the number of Chinese in Cambodia has dropped significantly.

Doubled with China’s challenging entry and exit inspection, some investors face inconvenience. Due to the need for epidemic prevention and control. Meanwhile, Cambodia has not yet resumed the visa-on-arrival policy. In addition, some investors chose to leave Cambodia temporarily because of the epidemic.

The vaccination rate has increased along with the continuous advancement of the government’s epidemic prevention work in Cambodia. Since November last year, the government has launched an entry-free quarantine policy and encouraged investors to invest in Cambodia to promote economic recovery.

In short, the impact on Cambodia’s macroeconomy during the epidemic, the foreign-funded enterprises in Cambodia were also greatly affected. However, there are still many enterprises actively seeking development under the epidemic.

Looking for key development opportunities in the current situation of your business has to challenge.

Despite the epidemic’s impact, various companies in Cambodia are actively seeking development opportunities. Nowadays, the local e-commerce market in Cambodia is still in its infancy, and there is no such big company as Amazon or Alibaba. However, its demographic structure, logistics development, and the popularity of the Internet all indicate that the general trend of e-commerce has arrived. It’s an excellent time to get started investing in the field.

For instance, there is an excellent opportunity to provide more comfortable online shopping services during the epidemic situation. Online and offline will be adopted, and offline stores will be opened in various communities. Customers only need to place an order and enjoy delivery instantly or in a short period. Door-to-door service commodities include vegetables, meat, groceries, alcohol, etc. Furthermore, the increment of the delivery apps in Cambodia, especially in daily consumption products, including foods such as Food Panda, Nham24, E-Get, and others, provide a good environment and circumstance for local businesses to grow with them.

Seeing this growing trend of the local delivery service and the excellent internet environment in Cambodia, it’s a perfect chance to look for crucial development opportunities in the current situation your business has to challenge. Save your time and resize your target group in the domestic and refine your value to contribute there, package it and go relevant to the circumstance and grow. Don’t wait.

Keep existing resources maintained, maintain stability control, and then seek growth.

According to the Ministry of Finance and Economics data, Cambodia’s economic growth rate will be negative in 2020. As predicted, in 2021, the economic growth rate will increase again. Yet, the community epidemic continuously severely affected it, and the growth rate was only lower than that of the 2020 burden.

The epidemic has hit the world economy in the past two years, and Cambodia is no exception. As the epidemic continues repeatedly, the economic impact on Cambodia continues.

For example, in the tourism sector, China is the largest source of investment and tourists in Cambodia. Due to the epidemic’s impact, the number of Chinese people in Cambodia has dropped significantly. Therefore, companies still in Cambodia are beginning to seek localized development and transformation.

Today, enterprises’ business environment in Cambodia faces challenges such as epidemics and public security. It is recommended that enterprises seek stable development by maintaining existing resources, stability control, and growth in 2022. Thus, as we concluded in the previous point, they have to seek development opportunities with all parties actively.

In brief, based on existing resources and the company’s current capabilities, make adjustments and optimization preparations and invest in localized development strategies, which can also be combined with business goals.

Human Capital: Investing in local people if – for it – or when you want to keep your business on the right track in localization development.

Due to the epidemic’s impact, most companies are transforming to seek localized development. However, this is not a simple matter. Most of the above two strategies have not sufficiently promoted localization development. The following is the last strategy to assist companies to be more sustainable in Cambodia, accumulate and grow their human capital.

So far, foreign companies are expanding into Cambodia. The key to their success is left to human resources and management methods. It’s not a new concept that many experts in business management and leadership, consultation, especially investors, understand the importance of human resources rolling in the company and accelerating growth in domestics. In addition, there are various methods of hiring and managing human resources depending on the country or region, and multinational companies have to deal with them because they are unique to each location.

Moreover, many companies are being forced to cut their employees due to the unavoidable impact of the epidemic. However, this is only a temporary solution and not a long-term strategy. If we look further, it is even more necessary to select appropriate talents for the current situation, prepare for talent cultivation; likewise, plan before rain and storm, pave the way for the healthy development of the enterprise, and do a good job in the implementation of sufficient localization development in the future.

To conclude, human resources are the most important to the survival of how to ‘break the game’ for all time, limited to only during today’s epidemic. Judging on-trend to figure out your business growth opportunity and keep your stability in domestic marketing is good. Still, it’s great to have a team of talent who will fulfill the potential to make your business perform well and sustain. Considering this, the basis of existing resources and the company’s current capabilities, make adjustments and optimization preparations, and invest in localized development strategies, which can also be combined with business goals. Your people are your strong backbones.