Investment will thrive in a nation free of red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, First Prime Minister Ung Huot told a gathering of foreign investors and diplomats Wednesday.
He urged businesses to have confidence in the upcoming elections, and vowed to ease bureaucratic restrictions and stamp out corruption so firms can flourish.
“The government will look further into easing red tape. Let’s cut red tape!” he exclaimed in an often light-hearted and anecdotal speech at a lunch organized by the Australian Business Association of Cambodia. “There must not be any political pressures. Any extraordinary collection of extraneous taxes must be stopped.”
Ung Huot stressed his desire to encourage small- and medium-sized businesses as well as large foreign multi-nationals, and to promote local products and local suppliers to those businesses.
But the country isn’t yet experiencing the investment paradise Ung Huot envisions for it, according to a report issued last week by the Asian Development Bank. Cambodia’s economic performance in 1997 was “far from promising,” the report said, attributing the slowdown to factional fighting last July.
And businesspeople at the lunch Wednesday conceded that any growth in investment may not happen until after the polls.
“There are a lot of people who are interested in pursuing opportunities, but not a lot of concrete investment,” said Robert Brewitt, from Northbridge Cambodia, a property developer. He added that businesses were searching for possible post-election investment projects.
Chris Maloy, senior representative with Telstra communications, also said investors were playing a wait-and-see game.
“Investors are cautious,” he said. “A lot of people here are on hold and waiting for the election to happen.”
Not all of the business representatives at Wednesday’s lunch were entirely happy with Cambodia’s business climate.
Contractor Roy Barram runs the kind of business Ung Huot is keen to encourage—a medium-sized company employing 350 Cambodians. He’s also the victim of the red tape and taxes the first premier is keen to abolish.
Barram has been trying to get a donated solar power system through customs for five weeks. The process has been held up by officials at all levels demanding money for signatures, he said.
Frustrated, Barram asked Ung Huot at Wednesday’s lunch what the government was doing to expedite duty-free gifts from foreign donors through customs.
“You blame this country for being corrupt, but there are people who cheat you—don’t let them get away with it!” was the first prime minister’s advice. “If you want to help and have difficulty, why are you helping?
“If there are problems, then let us know,” he added.
After the lunch, Barram said, “It’s not satisfactory. If that’s the attitude, it means it’s just too hard. If I don’t get a better answer I’ll have to tell the people who want to donate, ‘Don’t bother.’”
