PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Manet stressed the importance of collecting data to guide the government’s policies in the private sector. While reviewing the results of last year’s economic census, he said that progress can only be made by an up-to-date understanding of the current economic situation.

The Prime Minister Hun Manet spoke at the review of the "National Report on the Final Results of the Cambodian Economic Census 2022 on the morning of December 26. He emphasized the importance of data in making the government aware of the country’s current situation, challenges and solutions.

"If we cannot predict how the situation will develop, we cannot advance,” he said. “We will have to react, which means eliminating the problem and cleaning it up."

He also stressed that the data used must be legitimate and up-to-date, not based on research data posted on Facebook.

"The policy framework is not based on what is being researched out of thin air. The data posted on Facebook is from many international institutions that we have," he said. "It's old data. It needs to be based on the current state of the situation on the ground."

According to the government, the 2022 economic census show that Cambodia has a total of 753,670 businesses, an increase of 49% compared to 2011, when 505,134 businesses were registered. Of all the businesses registered in 2022, 52.5% were in urban areas and 69.1% were led by women. The businesses employ a total of 2.98 million people, of which 1.84 million are women. The economic census covers only two sectors: industry at 7% and services at 93%. In addition, the number of economic entities is sorted by capital-province and by the size of the participants in the economic entity, by classification of economic activities, and by the income-expenditure of the economic entity.