60% of women in Cambodia are business owners

Speaking at a virtual meeting with the ministry’s women civil servants ahead of the 111th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8, Samheng said this rate is three times higher than that in the US.

“Currently, further development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has become a stumbling block. SMEs should become a source of long-term economic growth and job creation,” he said.

He added that the challenge for inclusive and sustainable business development was to ensure that businesswomen have the opportunity to not only recover their businesses, but also to develop their resilience.

“We must consider this while we introduce means and measures to support SMEs – in the digital age and in response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.

Women are more negatively impacted by the pandemic than men, both economically and socially – especially those in developing countries because the former are more likely to work in the service sector or the informal economy, Samheng said.

READ: Cambodia provides financial support to SMEs and the agriculture sector

As such, “the government has put measures in place that directly benefit women and vulnerable groups, especially through social protection policies and social assistance interventions. These measures include increasing the budget allocated to helping workers whose work has been suspended and social enterprise programmes to help rehabilitate and promote SMEs,” he said, according to The Phnom Penh Post.