Publication: Benefiting from the Digital Economy: Cambodia Policy Note
Loading...
Published
2018-07
ISSN
Date
2018-12-03
Editor(s)
Abstract
While Cambodia has achieved stellar growth and poverty reduction over the last two decades, the next wave of growth is anticipated to come from increasing value-added as well as nurturing new sectors such as the Digital Economy. Over the past two decades, facilitated by preferential trade treatment and strong foreign direct investment inflows, growth and job creation have been taking place in activities with relatively limited value added, such as garment manufacturing, rice cropping, and construction. In recent years, Cambodian authorities have issued several policy documents relevant to digital development. Overall, the objectives and high-level program goals are generally consistent with international good practice, and envisage partnerships between the Government and the private sector at multiple levels. The Rectangular Strategy Phase III 2013-2018 highlights the need to further develop e-Government and encourage the private sector to invest in technology. This was followed in 2014 by the approval of the Cambodia ICT Master Plan 2020 which aims to improve ICT industry and human resources development, internet connectivity, cybersecurity, and government e-services—and in 2016 by the Telecoms and ICT Policy which outlines policy measures and associated targets to expand ICT infrastructure and develop ICT human capacity. In addition, a draft Cambodia e-Government Master Plan 2017-2022 has been drafted, although not yet adopted. The draft outlines programs to provide quality information and digital services, in collaboration with prospective beneficiaries; connect with people on public policies and decisions, in particular through social media; and increase government efficiency by establishing basic foundations for digital government (e.g. cloud, enterprise architecture, intensive staff capacity building) and a government portal on which ministries can host their services. Numerous institutions across Government are tasked with the implementation of these policies and strategies. This policy note responds to a request from the Royal Government of Cambodia for the World Bank to assess the current state of its Digital Economy and identify policies to further develop it.The Policy Note applies the analytical framework presented in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends, to identify challenges and suitable policy options, and it is intended to inform the preparation of the upcoming Rectangular Strategy Phase IV (2018—2023).
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Beschorner, Natasha; Neumann, James; Sanchez Martin, Miguel Eduardo; Larson, Bradley. 2018. Benefiting from the Digital Economy: Cambodia Policy Note. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30926 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication ICT Indicators and Implications for Methods for Assessing Socioeconomic Impact of ICT(Washington, DC, 2012)This report is being delivered pursuant to the agreement (Agreement) between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Arab Republic of Egypt (MCIT) and the World Bank (Bank) for the provision by the Bank of technical assistance (RTA) to MCIT and certain of its affiliates. One of those affiliates is the Information Technology Industry Development Authority (ITIDA). When it comes to designing and implementing ICT policies, the availability of proper indicators is key to efficiency and effectiveness. However, the indicators should go further, and should help policymakers also to measure how well the sector or projects are performing, provide an assessment over time on the status of a project, program, or policy, promote credibility and public confidence by reporting on the results of programs, provide in-depth information about public sector performance, help formulate and justify budget requests, and identify potentially promising programs or practices for duplication or scalability. Thus, this report is composed of the following sections: (i) a discussion of indicator types, in particular impact indicators and their constraints; (ii) an overview of the institutional setup of ICT data in Egypt; (iii) ICT data categories and methodologies used by major international indices and reports, including an analysis of Egypt's strong and weak results in the indices; (iv) a mapping and gap analysis between the indices' indicators and those currently collected by Egypt; (v) a set of recommendations for Egypt and (vi) implications of this work with respect to analyzing the socioeconomic impact of ICTs on investment, trade, growth and education in Egypt.Publication Good Urban Governance through ICT(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)Africa is currently experiencing the world's fastest urbanization rate at 3.5 percent annually-placing increasing pressure on resource-constrained local governments to maintain and improve livability standards of their cities. But simultaneously, an 'Information and Communication Technologies' (ICT) revolution has swept across the continent-as evidenced by vastly improved telecommunications and internet infrastructure, leapfrogging mobile communications penetration rates, and emergence of a successful homegrown IT applications industry. This report aims to: 1) synthesize the role currently played by ICT towards improved governance, management and accountability of urban service providers in Africa as well as other regions, 2) explore current ICT initiatives that are relevant to the World Bank's thematic concerns, 3) reconcile existing deficiencies/barriers towards potential for replication, and 4) develop a roadmap to render easy strategy implementation by project teams. Section one outlines evolving trends in urban governance and presents ICT as a potential tool in the environment of modern governance. Section two discusses the role of ICT in some of the Bank's core areas of urban focus, namely: local governance and economic development; intergovernmental fiscal relations and municipal finance; urban poverty and slum upgrading; urban planning, land and housing; urban environment and climate change; and water and sanitation service delivery. An analysis of fundamental ICT methodologies employed is discussed in section three. Section four, in conclusion, suggests an action-plan for enhancing ICT initiatives as a component of the Bank's lending activities.Publication Reforming Business Registration : A Toolkit for the Practitioners(Washington, DC, 2013-01)The private sector, through investment and job creation, plays a crucial role in a country's fight against poverty. Where an effective private sector is lacking, business registration reform has been shown to be one of the essential first steps toward fostering private-sector growth. The easier, faster, and cheaper the business registration process becomes, the higher the number of businesses in an economy. A number of recent studies have found that simpler registration processes translate into advantages for workers and employers, including greater employment opportunities, more productive jobs, and higher total factor productivity. In addition, society as a whole benefits from registration reform. Business registration reform also has the potential to reduce both informality and gender disparity in entrepreneurship. This toolkit provides a systematic analysis of various reform options and is meant to serve as a guide for policy makers and practitioners implementing business registration reform. The toolkit thus displays the fundamentals of international good practice that can be adapted to specific country contexts in a coherent, consistent, and sustainable way.Publication E-Development from Excitement to Effectiveness(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)This volume examines a wide range of issues related to e-development, with a focus on the requirements and realities of using ICTs to advance development goals. The report does not attempt to present a comprehensive overview of e-development. Rather, it highlights key issues that have immediate relevance to policy makers in developing nations who make decisions on investments and development goals. It highlights two issues in particular, e-government and e-education, because ICT applications in these areas can lead to significant development outcomes and can also be successfully deployed through public-private partnerships, leveraging limited government funding to achieve greater impact.Publication Forest Governance 2.0 : A Primer on ICTs and Governance(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-07)In this report, the authors study the experiences and lessons learned on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote good forest governance, and identify ways modern technology can be applied to meet the challenges of improving forest governance and achieving sustainable forest management. The authors believe that countries and their development partners can make their forest governance reforms more effective and inclusive through the use of information management and technology. The main focus in the report is on institutions how they interact with stakeholders and how their performance can be strengthened. The authors are trying to fill the gap in which experiences from various forest governance pilots are not widely shared. They do not cover forest inventories or technical resource assessment; extensive literature on these topics is available from various national and international research institutions and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). They do not present all possibilities and current uses of ICT in forest governance. Their goal is to demonstrate the range and diversity of approaches, and the feasibility of using technology to promote forest governance. The report covers both 'small' and 'big' ICT. Small and more affordable ICT applications are often based on consumer devices for which the underlying technology is available ready-made from commercial sources. These devices can be used to interact with the public and in professional applications. The big ICT dimension includes professional applications that are tailor-made and often system-based and expensive. The report does not try to provide solutions for specific problems, but it demonstrates the extent to which information management is an essential part of sector reform. Development professionals dealing with forest governance can use their findings in consultations with partner countries and to help plan interventions. The report begins with a discussion of recent developments in the governance discourse to set the stage and show how the definition of forest governance has evolved. The authors then describe recent developments in access to ICT services, particularly in rural areas, and how information is used in the forest sector. There has been much concern about in-country digital divides; while they still exist, the past few years have seen an unprecedented increase in access to technology in rural areas.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The World Bank Group in Georgia, 2014-23(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-30)This Country Program Evaluation assesses the performance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s support to Georgia in achieving the country’s development objectives. In the decade leading up to the evaluation period, Georgia pursued economic reforms to attract critical investments for becoming a regional trade and transport hub. Ambitious economic reforms went hand in hand with efforts to improve human development and strengthening social protection systems. Growing geopolitical tensions and internal political polarization have challenged Georgia’s reform progress in recent years. The Bank Group’s strategy adapted well to Georgia’s development needs and was well coordinated with other development partners. It successfully employed a range of instruments to help increase competitiveness, growth, and job creation, and effectively contributed to improved infrastructure and increased trade by using programmatic and innovative approaches. The Bank Group’s regular investments in analytical work and the switch to results-based programmatic support helped improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education and health care systems. The IEG offers the following lessons based on the evidence and analysis in the Country Program Evaluation: (i) Prioritizing Bank Group support around the move towards deeper regional integration was an effective anchor for key economic reforms for economic convergence. (ii) Pursuing a selective and adaptive approach in a country with high implementation capacity and institutions, strong coordination among development partners, and access to a wide range of external resources can allow the Bank Group to exercise significant influence in areas of comparative advantage and global expertise. (iii) A stronger focus on outcome-based programmatic approaches helped to build local capacity and crowd-in partner financing.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication The World Bank Group in Tanzania, Fiscal Years 2012–22(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-22)This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group's support to Tanzania between Fiscal Years 2012 and 2022. Over the past decade, Tanzania has experienced resilient growth, with an average annual per capita GDP increase of 2.2%. However, poverty remains widespread and slow to decline, underscoring the need for more inclusive growth. The report examines the Bank Group's strategic and operational approaches during this period, which were aligned with Tanzania's development priorities and focused on industrialization, human development, and public sector reforms. The evaluation includes thematic chapters on the Bank Group's support for private sector-led growth and spatial transformation, as well as lessons to inform future support to the country.Publication FY 2025 China Country Opinion Survey Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-04)The Country Opinion Survey in China assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in China perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in China on 1) their views regarding the general environment in China; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in China; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in China; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in China.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.