Making money and maintaining honor in Cambodia
From my travels in Cambodia I can say there are many opportunities for overseas Khmers wishing to return to do business in their homeland. Cambodia is a rapidly developing country whose economy is growing at an astonishing rate of over 10% annually. You need only spend a few weeks there to get a sense of the many voids that must be filled to meet the demands of Cambodia's growing economy.
Although problems like poverty and corruption are still quite pervasive, there is no mistaking that the country is undergoing an exciting positive transformation, in concert with the economic boom taking place throughout Asia. Overseas Cambodians, should they decide to take part in the rebuilding, have an advantage in that they had lived and studied in more developed countries and are thus able to spot opportunities that someone who had lived his or her entire life in Cambodia might miss.
For instance, I have an online business and use the internet quite extensively whenever I'm in Cambodia. The internet in Cambodia is slow, expensive and unreliable by American standards. Although home internet access costs are falling, most Khmers still get their access at the many internet cafes that charge 1,500 to 2,000 riels an hour (about US$0.35 to $0.50/hr). Although these internet cafes are quite adequate for casual internet uses like e-mail and casual web surfing, it's not convenient to sit five or six hours straight in one place in a hot crowded internet cafe open to a busy noisy Phnom Penh street outside.
A few years ago at such a cafe, while waiting over half an hour for a thousand emails to download (yes, I get thousands of e-mails a day, 99.5% of them spam), I thought to myself how nice it would be to work in a more comfortable, air-conditioned place that had the amenities of a Starbucks coffee shop back home in Houston. I figured that if I had to spend an hour just to download my emails, I might as well do it in a "cafe" that actually served coffee.
Well, when I returned to Cambodia on another working vacation last November, I was pleasantly surprised to find not one or two, but at least half a dozen such establishments. These fancy coffee shops, which offer free wireless internet access (through your own laptop), had all the amenities of a Starbucks, including comfortable sofas and cushioned chairs, a variety of coffee drinks and fruit shakes, courteous service, and a pleasant atmosphere, plus a few extras that you won't find in any Starbucks, such as hot restaurant-quality Khmer dishes like ku thiev, beef loc lac and fried rice.
The idea of opening a fancy coffee shop in Phnom Penh is one that I've had for years but never considered seriously. Now, I see that several people had beaten me to it. Although I don't know who were behind those operations, I figure that they must have come from the outside or were local Khmer entrepreneurs who had traveled abroad and had visited trendy coffee shops in other countries.
Even if I didn't play any part in the realization of the idea, I was happy to see that other people shared the same idea and took the initiative to make it happen. Although these coffee shops won't directly put food in the mouths of the poor hungry street children, they at least provide jobs to some young Cambodians who might otherwise resort to less dignified ways to survive.
Whenever Cambodians from overseas go back to do business in Cambodia, we create job opportunities and help our people help themselves. As importantly, we bring back the much needed expertise and know-how to help our country grow and develop. Extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, it's a win-win situation for everyone-- for the business owner, the employees, and Cambodia as a whole.
That's not to say that all business ventures by outsiders are good for our homeland. Cambodia is perhaps better off without people, Khmer or non-Khmer, who go into our country with the intention of making a lot of money in a short time and leaving with their fortunes. Even if they manage to create a few jobs in the process, they'd do it in a way that contributes to the already serious abuse and exploitation in our country. In the long run, they will have taken away far more than they give. It's just like stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
For instance, one of my favorite activities in Cambodia is getting a good massage after a long day of work. You can get a really good massage there for around $5 an hour. While receiving a massage, I'd ask the massager was how money he or she was earning from the session, so I'd know how much to tip them.
One day I decided to try a massage place near Wat Phnom that I had never visited before. As the session started I asked the usual the question. The massager told me that her boss pays her $50 a month but does not give his employees a cut of the hourly fees. She complained that workers at other places were receiving the same monthly salary but were also getting a dollar or two for every customer they served.
I asked her why she didn't just quit her job and go work at a different place. She responded me that she had trying to for months but had not found an opening anywhere else, yet. I told her midway through the session that while she was doing an excellent job, I would not be coming back to her place because I just didn't want to support any business that treats its employees that way.
I later learned that the establishment was owned by an old white American guy who was married to a 20-year-old local Khmer woman. Although I wasn't too thrilled about old white guys coming to Cambodia to hook up with Khmer girls young enough to be their grand daughters, being in Cambodia for a while you get used to those kinds of things. What made me upset, though, was that he was from America, a country that prides itself on such things as human rights and equality-- he should know better than to treat his employees that way.
I think as Khmer expatriots returning to do business in our country, we should hold ourselves to much higher standards. While Cambodia's current development offers enormous opportunities for expats with the know-how and expertise from the outside, there are also a lot of opportunities for abuse and exploitation. Just because we could profit by exploiting others who are far less fortunate than we and could get away with it, it does not mean we should do it. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a lot of money, we need not compromise the dignity of others, and thereby our own honor and dignity, to realize our material ambitions.
Although problems like poverty and corruption are still quite pervasive, there is no mistaking that the country is undergoing an exciting positive transformation, in concert with the economic boom taking place throughout Asia. Overseas Cambodians, should they decide to take part in the rebuilding, have an advantage in that they had lived and studied in more developed countries and are thus able to spot opportunities that someone who had lived his or her entire life in Cambodia might miss.
For instance, I have an online business and use the internet quite extensively whenever I'm in Cambodia. The internet in Cambodia is slow, expensive and unreliable by American standards. Although home internet access costs are falling, most Khmers still get their access at the many internet cafes that charge 1,500 to 2,000 riels an hour (about US$0.35 to $0.50/hr). Although these internet cafes are quite adequate for casual internet uses like e-mail and casual web surfing, it's not convenient to sit five or six hours straight in one place in a hot crowded internet cafe open to a busy noisy Phnom Penh street outside.
A few years ago at such a cafe, while waiting over half an hour for a thousand emails to download (yes, I get thousands of e-mails a day, 99.5% of them spam), I thought to myself how nice it would be to work in a more comfortable, air-conditioned place that had the amenities of a Starbucks coffee shop back home in Houston. I figured that if I had to spend an hour just to download my emails, I might as well do it in a "cafe" that actually served coffee.
Well, when I returned to Cambodia on another working vacation last November, I was pleasantly surprised to find not one or two, but at least half a dozen such establishments. These fancy coffee shops, which offer free wireless internet access (through your own laptop), had all the amenities of a Starbucks, including comfortable sofas and cushioned chairs, a variety of coffee drinks and fruit shakes, courteous service, and a pleasant atmosphere, plus a few extras that you won't find in any Starbucks, such as hot restaurant-quality Khmer dishes like ku thiev, beef loc lac and fried rice.
The idea of opening a fancy coffee shop in Phnom Penh is one that I've had for years but never considered seriously. Now, I see that several people had beaten me to it. Although I don't know who were behind those operations, I figure that they must have come from the outside or were local Khmer entrepreneurs who had traveled abroad and had visited trendy coffee shops in other countries.
Even if I didn't play any part in the realization of the idea, I was happy to see that other people shared the same idea and took the initiative to make it happen. Although these coffee shops won't directly put food in the mouths of the poor hungry street children, they at least provide jobs to some young Cambodians who might otherwise resort to less dignified ways to survive.
Whenever Cambodians from overseas go back to do business in Cambodia, we create job opportunities and help our people help themselves. As importantly, we bring back the much needed expertise and know-how to help our country grow and develop. Extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, it's a win-win situation for everyone-- for the business owner, the employees, and Cambodia as a whole.
That's not to say that all business ventures by outsiders are good for our homeland. Cambodia is perhaps better off without people, Khmer or non-Khmer, who go into our country with the intention of making a lot of money in a short time and leaving with their fortunes. Even if they manage to create a few jobs in the process, they'd do it in a way that contributes to the already serious abuse and exploitation in our country. In the long run, they will have taken away far more than they give. It's just like stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
For instance, one of my favorite activities in Cambodia is getting a good massage after a long day of work. You can get a really good massage there for around $5 an hour. While receiving a massage, I'd ask the massager was how money he or she was earning from the session, so I'd know how much to tip them.
One day I decided to try a massage place near Wat Phnom that I had never visited before. As the session started I asked the usual the question. The massager told me that her boss pays her $50 a month but does not give his employees a cut of the hourly fees. She complained that workers at other places were receiving the same monthly salary but were also getting a dollar or two for every customer they served.
I asked her why she didn't just quit her job and go work at a different place. She responded me that she had trying to for months but had not found an opening anywhere else, yet. I told her midway through the session that while she was doing an excellent job, I would not be coming back to her place because I just didn't want to support any business that treats its employees that way.
I later learned that the establishment was owned by an old white American guy who was married to a 20-year-old local Khmer woman. Although I wasn't too thrilled about old white guys coming to Cambodia to hook up with Khmer girls young enough to be their grand daughters, being in Cambodia for a while you get used to those kinds of things. What made me upset, though, was that he was from America, a country that prides itself on such things as human rights and equality-- he should know better than to treat his employees that way.
I think as Khmer expatriots returning to do business in our country, we should hold ourselves to much higher standards. While Cambodia's current development offers enormous opportunities for expats with the know-how and expertise from the outside, there are also a lot of opportunities for abuse and exploitation. Just because we could profit by exploiting others who are far less fortunate than we and could get away with it, it does not mean we should do it. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a lot of money, we need not compromise the dignity of others, and thereby our own honor and dignity, to realize our material ambitions.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cooper on -
Sith,
Do you mind refer me to those people that you know? I would appreciate your help.
Thanks
Savy
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Permalink Reply by Oudam on -
Dear Siths,
The answer to your question about making this site a hub for business networking is "Yes!"
This site was developed with the intention of empowering the Khmer community, by providing an open, friendly and engaging atmosphere for Cambodians from all over the world to interact with one another in a constructive manner, socially or professionally.
The technology for professional and business networking is already built into this site. We just need more people to join and start using it to its full potential.
I am very optimistic that very good things will come out of this project. Notice that while Khmercity.net is only a few weeks old and presently has just 145 members, we're already talking about things like helping kids in orphanages, creating job opportunities for young Cambodians, and building a better future for our homeland.
And let's not forget the life-long personal friendships that are being forged through this site. Just imagine the potential positive impact to our extended community when membership grows to 10,000 or more.
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Permalink Reply by Ken on -
Hi,
I am a barang living in Siem Reap Cambodia. I found this forum by chance when I was searching for some updated statistics on land prices around the country. As I read through some of the comments on this forum, I realized that Khmers living abroad may have limited access to updated information on what’s going on in Cambodia at the moment. In fact, that is also the case for Barangs and, to a certain extend, local Khmers living here. We still lack good in dept newspapers, thorough economic statistics, reporting and so on. Doing research here is so much more difficult than back in Norway.
I have only lived here for two and a half years, while my girlfriend has lived here for about five years, so I do not have too much experience understanding of everything going on.
Some comments to what's been written on this forum.
- Finding a good job is easy for people with higher education, of course one cannot expect the same salary as in the west, but then again, living expenses are much lower. There are also private job agencies that can help out. One example, because of the current building boom, a highly qualified electrician would be able to make usd 100 per day.
- Starting a business is easy here as long as you know how to start & run a business.
- Corruption is as in many countries (even the US) interwoven into the culture and larger economy. However, on a small scale (for the average guy and small businesses) it is not a big issue. Having said that, there is room for improvement.
- For employees with a monthly income over USD150, employers have to file tax papers and pay taxes.
- Companies have to pay profit tax and in most cases VAT
- In general, western owners pay higher salaries for less working hours
- In general, foreign investments are good for Cambodia. Having 50% of the population under 18 years, a lot of jobs need to be created within the next few years. 2/3rds or more of the farmers need to find another/new source of income/profession.
A bit on the side: My claim is that the best foreign aid is sustainable job creation, combined with access to higher learning. The first part can be largely done by the private sector, while the latter requires funding from institutions and organisations.
-Having a good business practice is always the way to run a company, being in the US, in Norway or here in Cambodia. Cambodia has quite strict labour laws that one should follow.
Eg: Buying insurance for employees is inexpensive, but very valuable for employees.
-The GDP growth is currently around 7%
-Inflation is currently the biggest current issue for the people, economy and growth.
Eg: Rice 13-50 in a year, Brick 140-500 in a year ...Beer 8(24) -14(24) in 6 months.
-Growth sectors are oil & gas, farming, garment industry and tourism. And let’s not forget inland construction/infrastructure.
PS! Living in Siem Reap I am actually a little on the sideline of what’s happening in the big capital (PP). All though we have lots of development, largely due to tourism, the main and most exciting activity is out of PP.
And, correct me if I am wrong.
That’s all from Rainy Siem Reap today.
Ken
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Permalink Reply by Hang, Chumnith on -
Thanks for the info, Ken. Best of luck to you and yours,
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Permalink Reply by My friends call me Sams, everyone love it and i love it too. on -
Ken,
You have just gotten to know a little about Cambodia. As a foreigner you have covered somehow a long time deficiencies this goverment have made.
Cambodia needs long term investors in order to sustain future populations growth and for Strong national security, education and improve welfare.
Something that young generations are looking forward to such as great deal of educations, jobs and live in peace and harmony.
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Permalink Reply by My friends call me Sams, everyone love it and i love it too. on
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Oudam,
Thank for your info.
By the way i'm not surprised that what you see are exciting and sadness occured to poor people and some part of accomplishements during the years of political stability.
The economic, it's simple to understand when the country open up for businesses engage in foreign trades and promote bilateral agreement with neighbors, sure enough investors would come to get the cut and those are in the run who are not really do business to improve human dignity and respect of rule of law. As you may see some Americans, French, German, Thais, Vietnam and from China etc... they do business for the sake of earning.
This is just the number that is not really constituted long term progress since the government hatred to improve and promote healthier and strong mechanism to sustain the progresses.
1- Minimum wage have never been increased to workers and government employees.
2- Environment and quality control have never been strengthened on foods and medicines.
3- Government employees are still encountering late pays and is deficit to market prices.
4- Government officials are still taking to much time for their own businesses than the states duty.
5- Investors you see are of course khmer from the U.S are doing business for the sake of earning although they create jobs. it's just to soft to take for a developed country base on rule of laws and strong mechanism to run the country for long term success.
I don't deny the progress have been made but i'm not thrilled. because things are still outof controled.
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Permalink Reply by Kosal on -
I read your article of your expericence in Cambodia. I'm tollally agreed on the many issue on poverty and corruptions. It's very sad to know many khmer people suffer very much everyday. I hope and pray for the best for our's country. Good luck to you. Thanks you for sharing your stories. You must be a journalist. Great stories. Talk to you later, friend.
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