Why Cambodia
Located in the heart of Southeast Asia, a region experiencing a gigantic economic growth over the past few decades, Cambodia presents an attractive destination for starting a business. Factors such as low labour cost, low startup cost, liberal government policies, and a pool of untapped resources and markets, add to the charm of the country that offers one of the region’s most open economies to foreign investment.
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Low tax rates, investment incentives, and a one-stop-service for qualified investments, further reinforce the government’s commitment to attracting foreign capital.
The country, as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), benefits from very low tariffs on most goods traded with its neighbour countries. However, by 2018, the ASEAN Free Trade Area aims to completely eliminate all tariffs.
Also, as a WTO member and least-developed country (LDC), Cambodia benefits from preferential access to some of the world’s richest markets for a number of products.
How to Start
Every company conducting commercial activities in Cambodia must be registered with the right authorities. The registration requirement depends on field of business one chooses.
In most cases, these are the steps followed for registration:
Step 1. Register business with the Ministry of Commerce.
Step 2. To receive incentives, register the investment project with CDC (Council for the Dovelopment of Cambodia). The registration process requires preparing a large volume of documentation (for example, the Memorandum and Articles of Association) in Khmer language that has to be submitted with the application form to register a business.
Step 3. Register the address of the business with City Hall.
At the end of the above-mentioned steps, the business will receive a registration certificate indicating a company identification number. The process usually takes three weeks.
Major Industries: Garments, Tourism, Petroleum, Agriculture, Wood Processing, Telecommunications, Food Processing, Construction, Footwear
Indian Companies in Cambodia: Bank of India, Curewel International Co., Ltd., Data Management Centre, East India Curry Restaurant (Cambodia) Pte Ltd., Futurelinks International Pte Ltd., Helaol Pharmaceuticals Imp Exp Co., Ltd., Kirloskar Brothers Limited
Scope for Indian business: While Indian companies have immense scope in exporting raw materials used for pharmaceutical products, garment industry, machinery and automobile components, Cambodians can tap the rubber and fish
product markets.
Additionally, agriculture, food processing, tourism, hospitality, education, IT (Information Technology) and infrastructure are the key areas of trade between India and Cambodia.
Things to know when dealing with Cambodians:
• Senior person must always be treated with respect and deference.
• It is good to have one side of the business card translated in Khmer.
• Good interpretation skills are a necessity when dealing with Cambodians.
• Handshakes are normal. However, a firm hand-shake could be construed as aggressive.
• When interacting with females, eye contact must be kept to a minimum.
| MAIN BUSINESS TAXES | Natural Resources | Demographics: | INVESTMENT INCENTIVES |
| • Patent Tax • Stamp Tax • Value-Added Tax • Tax on Profits • Minimum Tax |
• Oil & Gas • Timber • Gemstones • Iron-ore • Manganese • Phosphates • Hydropower |
Population:14,701,717 Ethnic groups: Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, Other 4% Religion: Buddhist 96.4%, Muslim 2.1%, other 1.3%, unspecified 0.2% Languages: Khmer (official) 95%, French, English |
• Choice of profit-tax holiday or special depreciation allowance • 100% import duty exemption for construction materials, production equipment and input materials • 100% export tax exemption • Transferability of incentives through merger or acquisition |
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