Phnom Penh: The Minister of Economy and Finance, Deputy Prime Minister Aun Porn Moniroth, said that the government has released an additional 100 million dollars to help agriculture and SMEs, which are priority sectors in the economic recovery after the Covid-19 crisis.

At the launching ceremony on raising funds for small and medium enterprises in Cambodia and the Rural Development Bank for Agriculture which was conducted Online on 14 February, Deputy Prime Minister Aun Porn Moniroth said that within the strategic framework to restore the economy to normal for 2021-2023 aims to revive the Cambodian economy in the near and medium-term to return to normal economic growth and resilience.

He said that in order to achieve this growth, practical activities have been launched in many sectors, with 100 million US dollars being used to support two priority sectors, agriculture and small and medium enterprises, which are important sectors. For the national economy, both in terms of job creation as well as improving the living standards of the people and rehabilitating the national economic growth.

Overall, to promote SMEs and priority sectors, the government has introduced a number of mechanisms, such as imposing state taxes on equipment and machinery, the establishment of the Skills Development Fund, the Entrepreneurship Development Fund and the Cambodian Entrepreneurship, creation SME Bank in Cambodia, Implementation of SME, co-financing program and special government financing program to provide concessional interest rate loans for agriculture and agro-industry through Rural and Agricultural Development Bank and the purpose of providing credit guarantees to enterprises that are experiencing a shortage of collateral.

Seeing the positive in the implementation of the first phase of the project to support small and medium enterprises, the government also decided to continue the project in the second phase, which was launched in August 2021 with a budget of 140 million, as of January 17, 2022, the project has achieved about 90%.

Meanwhile, through the Rural Development and Agriculture Bank, a special $ 73 million financing program has been implemented to support the rice sector in order to maintain price stability and boost the export of $ 50 million to support handicrafts, small and medium enterprises in the Agriculture sector. Through this special program, enterprises in the agricultural and agro-industrial sectors have the opportunity to expand their business and improve their production lines and boost exports in the context of Covid-19.

Small and medium enterprises not only contribute to supporting Cambodia's economic growth and job creation but also play an important role in building the resilience of the national economy. In fact, SMEs make up about 98% of all businesses in Cambodia and contribute 58% of GDP and provide employment to 73% of the population in Cambodia. The agricultural sector also contributes about 22% of GDP as well.