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Angkor TimesExperienced
Asked: January 13, 2022In: ,

By: ASEANForum, Jessica Sander Cambodia’s integration into the ASEAN Economic Community is fast approaching amid much speculation on whether the country is ready to reach regional expectations, standards and demands. In a game of hide and seek, kids hide ...Read more

By: ASEANForum, Jessica Sander

Cambodia’s integration into the ASEAN Economic Community is fast approaching amid much speculation on whether the country is ready to reach regional expectations, standards and demands.

In a game of hide and seek, kids hide themselves in wardrobes, under beds and behind chairs while another one of them counts to 100. When that child has finished, she shouts, “ready or not, here I come”, before setting off in pursuit of her friends. This children’s party game has parallels with the current state of Cambodia as it gears up for the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of the year.

Cambodia ASEAN-CamConnect
Cambodia ASEAN-CamConnect

“There’s a lot to do and not much time to do it, but I think that point is not lost on the government,” says Grant Knuckey, CEO of ANZ Royal Cambodia. “The court system, industrial policy, customs and educational systems are all experiencing clear positive change and reform.”

The question is whether these changes will be implemented in time for a smooth transition into a regional economic and trading bloc of 600 million people over the next few months with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and capital.

Proponents of the AEC say it will significantly boost investment, create more jobs and raise incomes across the region. While, in the short-term at least, Cambodian businesses will face increasing competition from its fellow ASEAN members, many anticipate that this competition will stimulate innovation, and improve both quality and productivity.

One person who is quite clear where Cambodia fits into this brave new economic world is His Excellency Sok Chenda, the Minister attached to the Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Council for the Development of Cambodia. He believes that the country has an important role to play in an integrated ASEAN production and supply chain. He cites rubber as a prime example of how this network might work.

“Cambodia has rubber plantations and sometimes exports under other brand names. I dream to have rubber processed into automotive parts and every day we send containers to the eastern seaboard of Thailand to be assembled into cars. In a car you have 20 to 30,000 parts, so why can’t Cambodia produce 10 of these? This is called value processing and production fragmentation.

“Production fragmentation means that there is not a single country that will wholly produce any one type of goods. So a car will be assembled in Thailand, and one part will come from Laos, another from Myanmar, then Cambodia and Vietnam and so on, based on each location’s competitive advantage. There are no borders, all the parts come from different places. AEC will provide this opportunity,” he says.

Currently, Cambodia benefits from its status as a least developed country, which allows it to incorporate inputs from other ASEAN member states – except Brunei and Singapore – into goods assembled in Cambodia and exported to the EU as duty-free and quota-free. Goods such as garments, footwear and bicycles manufactured in Cambodia are successful examples that should see little disruption when full integration is completed. Instead, regional trade will be enhanced and expanded, with the country gaining access to a potential export market of over 600 million – the population of ASEAN.

“The AEC will be a region where goods, services, investment, labour and capital have unfettered flow throughout the region. This … will affect and inform strategic decision making for years to come,” says Michael Lor, CEO of Canadia Bank.

Increased intra-regional trade should also have knock-on benefits across the economy, including financial institutions.

“Cambodia’s financial sector will be able to further develop having more direct access to new capital and technology,” says Her Excellency Chea Serey, director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). “The development of this sector will also be supported by the expansion of regional trade and investment.”But while the advent of the AEC can provide long-term institutional benefits for Cambodia’s financial sector, the question remains whether the country is yet ready for December 31.

In a one-day seminar on Cambodia’s capacity to join the AEC held by the Asian Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia in January this year, Dr Pich Rithi, the director-general for International Trade, Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia, outlined a number of challenges that the country will encounter with the advent of the AEC.

These include losing revenue as import tariffs are eliminated or reduced to a maximum 5 percent; improving the quality of goods in line with international standards; having sufficient financial resources to actively participate in all ASEAN economic activities; and implementing reforms to comply with ASEAN agreements.

Serey believes that Cambodia is facing a new financial landscape.

“The early stage of Cambodia’s financial sector remains the most challenging,” she says. “Deepening of financial integration is dependent on Cambodia’s readiness in terms of the quality of its financial markets, infrastructure, financial standards of practice and its institutional capacity to implement reform.”

Lor believes that this new landscape should see significant advances within the sector.

“As the banking industry in particular continues to grow and develop, I think we will see continued improvements in the regulatory regime, and more transparency between banking institutions, and the individuals and corporations with whom they conduct business,” he says. “I also expect to see more comprehensive industry-wide standardised practices for the banks to follow, bringing more coherent order throughout the system overall.”

Certainly many challenges lie ahead, and the ultimate rewards depend upon how quickly the country can adjust to the changing regional landscape and its demands. However, these rewards could be great.

“According to an ADB (Asian Development Bank) study, Cambodia is set to benefit the most from the AEC,” says His Excellency Vongsey Vissoth, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. “The potential growth will increase by 20 percent but with conditions. We need better institutions, better connectivity, better skills and a stronger business climate. I think we still have a long way to go around institutional capacity if we are to benefit more fully.”

The threat is that while Cambodia makes the necessary changes to its institutions, including education where the country lags the rest of the region, other more advanced ASEAN countries can better exploit the free market “If we compare to 10 countries in ASEAN, Cambodia is one of the least developed,” says Serey. “AEC means opening the door to more capital and product flow in the market, thus based on these conditions, I think that we will face some difficulties. It’s hard to compete with countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.”

At the end of a game of hide and seek, when everyone has been found, all the children sit down and enjoy some cake. At the moment the jury is still out on the benefits that AEC integration will bring to Cambodia. Three questions remain to be answered. Is the kingdom ready for the game? How long will it take to find all its friends? And, most important of all, how much of the cake will it get at the end of the game?

Source: http://www.aseanbriefing.com

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Angkor Times
Angkor TimesExperienced
Asked: January 13, 2022In: ,

On October 28, Cambodia officially took over the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the third time since joining the group in 1999. Sitting atop ASEAN brings some passing power and prestige. Brunei, the 2021 chair, hosted ...Read more

On October 28, Cambodia officially took over the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the third time since joining the group in 1999.

Sitting atop ASEAN brings some passing power and prestige. Brunei, the 2021 chair, hosted several ASEAN meetings and summits, including one with President Joe Biden. The Group of 20 (G20), which comprises the world’s major economies, also invited Brunei to its leaders’ summit, as it does every ASEAN chair.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, a strongman who has been in power for almost 37 years and is personally invested in being accorded “respect” abroad, will certainly enjoy his country’s 15 minutes of fame.

The role of Cambodia in ASEAN-camconnect
The role of Cambodia in ASEAN-camconnect

Yet expectations for Cambodia’s chairmanship are low, owing to the country’s past obstructionism in ASEAN, its outright alignment with China, and the sheer number of challenges the region faces. The Biden administration is working to allay such concerns by preemptively engaging Cambodia. But with limited trade and investment—not to mention frosty diplomatic ties and an increasingly fraught security relationship—Washington has little leverage over Phnom Penh. Cambodian obstruction or inaction is thus likely.

Stasis, however, will push foreign powers to engage ASEAN members on a bilateral basis, thereby weakening the bloc’s claims to regional centrality. A failed or even stagnant Cambodian chairmanship will therefore accelerate ASEAN’s decline, which will proceed not with a bang, but with a slow, drawn-out whimper.

In normal times, inaction would be acceptable. ASEAN would make it through the year with limited controversy and few deliverables. Some progress would be made on the sidelines. Everybody would move on and do it again next year. But in 2022, there will be far too many ongoing crises for ASEAN to remain inert.

First, of course, is Covid-19.

After fending off the pandemic’s worst in 2020, Southeast Asia has in 2021 faced a massive outbreak. But on the back of increased vaccination rates (in many cases with Chinese vaccines of questionable efficacy) some countries are relaxing restrictions to “live with the virus”: Cambodia has declared itself fully reopened, with in-person school having resumed on November 1.

But Covid-19 has exacerbated Southeast Asia’s inequality and social divisions, which risks political instability. Most countries’ fiscal responses, while relatively small, have been crucial to the region’s limited recovery so far. Yet given rising global interest rates, which means increased borrowing costs and pressure on local currencies, smaller countries will have little choice but to limit these expansionary macroeconomic policies.

To prevent further societal scarring, ASEAN must therefore seek financial and capacity-building support from a diverse swath of international partners. China will come to the table regardless of how active ASEAN is. But Southeast Asia cannot afford to rely on just one country. The region needs to engage the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and others on a multilateral level to secure these funds. Forcing Southeast Asian countries to seek out such support on a bilateral level—the natural result of an idle ASEAN—will slow and fragment the region’s recovery, raising tensions within the bloc.

Second, there is the violent conflict that has consumed Myanmar since the military’s February coup.

Cambodia was initially hesitant to speak out against the junta, citing ASEAN’s principle of noninterference, but its patience has worn thin: Phnom Penh supported ASEAN’s decision to accept only a “nonpolitical” representative from Myanmar, thereby excluding the junta from last month’s virtual summit hosted by Brunei. Hun Sen defended this step in surprisingly strong terms, saying, “ASEAN did not expel Myanmar from ASEAN’s framework. Myanmar abandoned its right. . . . Now we are in the situation of ASEAN minus one. It is not because of ASEAN, but because of Myanmar.”

ASEAN’s decision predictably incensed the Myanmar military. Cambodia, then, comes into its chairmanship while Myanmar teeters toward civil war as the junta refuses to back down or seriously engage the bloc. Cambodia has promised to set up an ad hoc task force to work with Myanmar’s “conflicting parties quietly or through back-door diplomacy,” but it is hard to imagine this effort being effective. The crisis will drag on, and ASEAN will need Cambodia to play a strong leadership role in stopping it.

Cambodia’s government, however, has no commitment to democracy, human rights, or any of the other principles that Malaysia, Indonesia, and others have said they want reinstated in Myanmar. Rather than work with these countries, Cambodia will be more likely to defer to China, which for now remains nominally pro-junta but is increasingly fed up with the junta’s inability to control the country and protect Chinese investments. (Beijing is accordingly maintaining ties with and providing vaccines to some of the ethnic armed organizations that have long battled Myanmar’s military.) Cambodian leaders, meanwhile, have little personal interest in Myanmar, lacking strong historical ties or significant trade with the country. The likely result is paralysis, which will allow the crisis to fester and undermine ASEAN’s image.

Third, the South China Sea remains an albatross.

When Cambodia last chaired ASEAN in 2012, the bloc failed to issue a joint statement for the first time because Cambodia refused to accept language criticizing China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea. Cambodia has since drawn even closer to China, repeatedly blocking ASEAN statements that are critical of Beijing. China, for its part, has only become more aggressive in the South China Sea.

Just as with Myanmar, the bloc will not make much progress. Cambodia does not want to touch security issues because they are sensitive and consensus will be difficult to build, as the Cambodian government has admitted. Even if Phnom Penh does not outright block statements as it has in recent years, Cambodia will push the South China Sea off the agenda as much as possible.

Thanks to Cambodia’s hesitance and pro-China outlook, along with ASEAN member states’ disagreements and the bloc’s consensus-based process, it is difficult to imagine ASEAN and China finalizing a Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea in the next year. The two sides agreed on a preamble in August 2021, but more substantive negotiations have proven difficult and produced little progress. This inaction will likely lead to increased tensions.

Fourth, a Cambodia-led ASEAN will struggle to navigate the growing U.S.-China rivalry, in which most Southeast Asian countries do not want to choose a side.

As chair, Hun Sen’s Cambodia will serve as ASEAN’s spokesperson and chief executive. Cambodia counts on China for nearly 90 percent of its foreign direct investment; it has reportedly signed a deal that will give Chinese forces access to a naval base on the Gulf of Thailand; it supported China’s human rights abuses at the United Nations; and it even banned the Taiwanese flag from being displayed in Cambodia. Clearly, the government of Hun Sen, who has extolled Beijing because the “Chinese leaders respect me highly and treat me as an equal,” is not best positioned to maintain ASEAN’s careful balancing act.

Under Cambodia, the bloc will more likely tilt a bit toward China, or at least lie prone while China and the United States duke it out. This latter position—of passivity in the face of foreign rivalry—might seem acceptable, but the history of the Cold War in which ASEAN was founded teaches otherwise. Nobody will look out for Southeast Asia’s best interests if regional states don’t do it themselves through ASEAN.

Unfortunately, Cambodia appears unwilling to accept that challenge. Its time as chair will likely see ASEAN stagnate, reinforcing international claims of the bloc’s futility and prompting foreign powers to further prioritize bilateral engagements with its members.

Source: http://www.csis.org

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Angkor Times
Angkor TimesExperienced
Asked: January 12, 2022In:

Not everyone who speaks fluently and can use the phone to take photo can become a professional journalist. Unethical work and use of technology is destructive to society. Therefore, [some] journalists need to pay attention to moral issues again. I ...Read more

Not everyone who speaks fluently and can use the phone to take photo can become a professional journalist. Unethical work and use of technology is destructive to society. Therefore, [some] journalists need to pay attention to moral issues again. I have compiled a code of ethics for internet users. Therefore, online journalists who lack understanding of morality must read this book a few times.

Moral-Crisis-in-Cambodian-Society
An unknown girl was surrounded by reporters/journalists taking photos and shooting videos and live on Facebook for being attempted suicided by jumping from the Chroy Changva bridge, in Phnom Penh in Jan 2022.
The-Code-of-Ethics-for-Internet-Users-Handbook
The-Code-of-Ethics-for-Internet-Users-Handbook

Source: https://bit.ly/3Fj7wNZ

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cambodiajournalists in Cambodiamoral crisis in Cambodian Societyreporters in Cambodia
Angkor Times
Angkor TimesExperienced
Asked: January 11, 2022In:

Competition for any business is always productive. In Cambodia setting up business or looking for business opportunities might sound like a cake walk at times, but everything requires hard work. The time when your move is most vulnerable is when you are ...Read more

Competition for any business is always productive. In Cambodia setting up business or looking for business opportunities might sound like a cake walk at times, but everything requires hard work. The time when your move is most vulnerable is when you are ahead. Most people who come to Cambodia get appalled by the lifestyle and facilities. So much so that they start to think of ways that they could live here on a permanent or long-term basis. 

Make Money in Cambodia

How to Make $1 million dollars in Cambodia

Cambodia formerly known as ‘Khmer Expire’ in many lists of “best places to retire” in the globe. To be considered for residency a person shall require an income of around $2,100, savings of approximately $25,800 in a Cambodian bank account, or both equaling to a total of $23,934.54 per year.

However, the thing is that as a tourist you are spending money in a different way than you would back in your country where you have responsibilities and a budget. Company formation in Cambodia or any other realistic ways one can stay here and start earning living can be analyzed from various angles.

Whether it’s through business development in Cambodia or working there as an expat there are various ways to make a million dollar and work progressively.

Start your own business

Setting up a company from a legal perspective and that’s why the law firms here are running successfully, because foreigners usually have no idea how to set up a business here, not only but also because all documents and certificates are in Cambodian language which only few of us can read.

Most types of businesses foreigners set up in Cambodia are completely monitored by the tourism industry. We know for a fact that living in Cambodia always has its pros and cons and after one terrible season many business owners can’t afford to pay the rent anymore and then lose their lease contract.

Many people have never been entrepreneurs in their entire life and then come to Cambodia and see all these “little businessmen” like street vendors and Facebook sellers and think they can do so too. There are people who climb up the success ladder with their fortune and keep earning and succeeding but again many small business owners cannot think of making 1 million dollars. So what matters is the correct move and luck. 20-30% of foreign business owners are successful in the long run and that’s because they know what they are doing, and they are good in what they are doing, they love what they are doing, and they have successfully been dealing with the obstacles and changing it into a triumph situation.

Foreigners mainly start this kind of business in Cambodia, if it clicks then the 1-million-dollar dream is not far-fetched.

  • Restaurant
  • Bar
  • Hotel
  • Entertainment Venues (Beer Bars, Go Go Bars, Massage Salons, G-Clubs)
  • Export Business
  • Consulting Business (Teaching, Coaching, Advising)
  • Tour Company / Diving School
  • Online Business
  • Startup Consulting

Taking up jobs

Several international companies opening branch offices where one can apply as per their qualification and can get an office job, but these are obviously extremely difficult to get and usually they send over experienced workers from the headquarters rather than putting out a job advert in Cambodia. 80% are in Phnom Penh and one must be really flexible in terms of place of living. There are minimum salaries for foreigners working in Cambodia, but a lot of companies don’t go with them.

But, if one finds a job at one of the big companies it’s not uncommon that they provide you with a much better package with salaries well above $2,991.42 plus commissions, 13th salary, seminars, business trips abroad etc. But again, the demand for these jobs exceeds the supply by far. So again, it comes to how adequate one is professionally and can move ahead and worth his or her mettle in the long race. Various representatives of Asia get various job offers on basis of their diplomatic and country representative careers and gets settled earning themselves a huge fortune in short span of time.

Working online

In Cambodia a very common making a living out of online work known as “digital nomads” Though the word nomads do not justify what it portrays as nomads means people who are not stable in one place but in this context in Cambodia is mostly people who live here permanently or at least for most of the time of the year and make good amount of money

Till date the biggest community of foreigners working online is found in Phnom Penh. The reason being: Phnom Penh has the best climate in Cambodia, surrounded by beautiful rivers and everything one needs as it’s the biggest capital city in Cambodia with malls, international restaurants and quite a happening life. But in Phnom Penh things are little rule based and distractions are not easily visible.

It takes a lot of time, usually years of hard work without initial returns, before you figure out how to make money online, so you really need to be passionate and patient about it especially if you are trying to make money out of it. But with patience and perseverance and right influence successfully earning money will not be a tough call.

Common ways to make money online

  • SEO agency (promoting websites)
  • Blog (to affiliate commissions, promote product sales, facilitate placements of ads, paid guest posts etc.)
  • Pure affiliate sites (creating/ designing a whole website around niche products, link them to shops like Amazon and get a commission for each sales referral)
  • Selling products on eBay (a lot of trial and error to figure out what works)
  • Playing (and winning) online games, e.g., poker
  • Day Trading

Freelancing

Flexible, lucrative way of earning money specially in Phnom Penh are the so-called freelance jobs means you get paid by the day, night or simply by success. There’s now more foreign real estate agents and financial advisors than ever and most of them have no base salary as everything is commission based, means they get paid like 5-7% of every sale they make for a condo or investment plan.

Though these kinds of jobs are very attractive, but the competition has gotten pretty tough by now, for example it’s quite typical for the property market that developers don’t make exclusive listing agreements with one broker anymore but have several agents list them on their website and all fighting for the clients.

Common Freelance Jobs Foreigners do in Cambodia:

  • Real Estate Agents
  • Financial Advisors
  • Modelling
  • Freelance Work Online

Online Market Trading

Investing in stock markets can be lucrative if you learn to do it properly and safely. By the same token, you may suffer significant losses if you don’t take it seriously. Today there is no need to fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style stockbrokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms. Please be aware that all trading involves risk. And in Cambodia market research it shows multi-asset platform which offers real asset ownership and high risk leveraged One should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Professions/Businesses

Tourism and the hospitality industry in Cambodia opens gates to various professional and business avenues which if excelled in may enabling minting of money.

The baby products business has been booming in the last half a decade. Lifestyle changes and the outlook towards buying the best for one’s child has made this market nearly recession proof and independent of the pricing of the product.  It includes baby apparel, baby furniture, baby cosmetics, baby Medicare and baby food, crèche running, selling toys, and above all running baby Pre-schools. Along with the same, a coterminous profession is of running a business of proving babysitters. Market study estimates a lot of promise in this greenfield activity.

Small scale Manufacturing is a very impressive industry in Cambodia and is majorly responsibly for the economic robustness of Cambodia. If someone chooses his/her/its area of business intelligently profits are assured.

Smart Risks, Smarter moves

To make 1 million dollar the fastest way one can take the stable moves mentioned above or if already they have enough money to risk and will not be bothered to lose. In other words, don’t bring your life savings and attempt this. People who do it usually are considerably well off financially and can afford to take some risks and stay afloat during low season. People with lot of experience in business, and they know what they are doing its always better to think about everything thoroughly before attempting taking risk measures to earn. Analyse things in a worst-case scenario and in a best-case scenario and then make the best decision possible. Follow own guts it usually is right and take measured actions to earn in intermediary business roles where if it clicks gains are skyrocketing if not loses are beyond expression. Cambodian business acumen has its pros and cons, and the wise movers are always the great takers.

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Angkor Times
Angkor TimesExperienced
Asked: January 9, 2022In:

If you want to stay in Phnom Penh long-term and generate your own source(s) of income, there are some ways to make money, either through a full-time job or by doing things on the side. Phnom Penh is by no ...Read more

If you want to stay in Phnom Penh long-term and generate your own source(s) of income, there are some ways to make money, either through a full-time job or by doing things on the side. Phnom Penh is by no means a ‘working city’ for foreigners, so the number of jobs available to foreigners are rather limited. Most decent jobs are obviously offered in Phnom Penh. This is true for both foreigners and Cambodians. So, if you want to make some money here, you’ve got to be creative and persistent, there aren’t many companies dying to employ you. Here are 10 ways foreigners or expats can make money in Cambodia.

How can a foreigner make money in Cambodia

How can a foreigner make money in Cambodia

The most successful ways to make money in Cambodia is to take advantage of the difference in costs of living and products between Cambodia and the developed world, to spot a niche opportunity in the market, or to exploit on a certain skillset or piece of knowledge. The less successful ways are to work as a local.

Looking at what most other people do can help you to get inspired. Here’s an overview of the most common ways for foreigners to make money in Chiang Mai:

1. Teaching English (or something else)

By far the most popular job amongst foreigners in Phnom Penh, probably in the rest of Cambodia, is teaching English. An estimated 1 out of 20 or so young, active foreigners in Phnom Penh teach English part-time or full-time, through an official school or less official, with a TEFL degree or without, at Cambodian university level or in high school.
This is not the best-paid job in the world, it can offer you a modest good living in Phnom Penh, but it gives you a lot of freedom to move all around Southeast Asia or anywhere in the world where the local population is in need of schooling. Clearly, your chances are best when you have a degree in teaching, a TEFL and as your native speaker.

You can also enroll in several programs to get a TEFL degree and work and live in Phnom Penh (for example: CM Language Institute, UNITEFL, SEETEFL, Paradise TEFL and TEFL 360).

Besides English, the most popular languages Cambodians are interested in are French, Japanese and Korean. Also, there are a lot of yoga instructors and yoga schools in Phnom Penh where you can learn or teach yoga. Other foreigners give study help to Cambodians or to students abroad (through Zoom).

2. Working online: being a Digital Nomad

Much less visible than English teachers are foreigners who generate money behind their computer screens within the confines of their own room: digital nomads. There’s probably no (consensus on an) official definition of this new societal phenomenon, but practically let’s say a ‘digital or virtual nomad‘ is someone who can travel anywhere (in the developing world) while generating money online on the go.

Working online is a preferred option for those who love the freedom of working in your own time without a boss and who don’t want to bother about the hassle of Cambodian work permits. Digital nomads take advantage of the fact that most of their work can be done remote from an office, boss, or customer, using mostly the internet or other modern technology to communicate and perform their work.

Nowadays, you can do almost anything on the net and if you’re smart, diligent, and persistent enough, you can make money with it. Here’s a range of endless possibilities:
• running a website – Internet speeds in Phnom Penh aren’t great but sufficient and definitely better than in many other parts of the developing world.

  • website design– A more creative job that involves some technical and creative skills.
    • programming / software development– technical job that you can also outsource to some local programmers. There are several foreign-run companies in Phnom Penhthat program for companies in the west and benefit from the cheaper engineers here.
    • copy writing / freelance writing / editing – You get assignments in the mail and are paid by the number of words. Do it in your own time and pace.
    • graphic design / online printing – Can be done entirely online, some guys even pretend to still have an office in Europe.
  • online / affiliate marketing – Big international companies often outsource jobs like this to anyone who wants to do it behind a screen.
  • web annotator – Another job you can do completely online. Evaluate websites based on several criteria and report to companies in Ireland / Scotland.
  • playing poker– Some wouldn’t call this work; others claim that it takes many hours of patience and learning so in that sense there’s a work element. Most people who talk about it claim to be making money and to be able to live off it, true or not.

The range of possibilities is really endless, but what all these activities have in common is that you can simply do it at home and nobody knows (especially not Immigration) that money is flowing into your Paypal account, and you can pay off your bills in Cambodia.
Some may argue that a forex trader or a poker player isn’t as much a digital nomad as a website designer, but that doesn’t really matter, the thing is you can travel anywhere and still generate your own money on the go using the internet.

Phnom Penh being such a cool place where nobody bothers you and where it’s cheap to live, a lot of international digital nomads have chosen Phnom Penh as one of their bases, alongside with other cheaper places in the world to live. Do you want to travel and work wherever you want, then this is the thing for you? Here’s an example of how your virtual nomadic life could be.

Officially, working online is probably in a gray zone in Cambodia (and many other countries) when it comes to work permits and taxes. When the money is generated within Cambodia, officially you probably need to have a work permit and to pay taxes, but most people don’t bother to report because luckily nobody knows.

3. Exporting / selling things on eBay/Amazon or Alibaba

If you are able to source a local product that is worth selling, you can ship it to Europe, the US or wherever and get a (substantial) margin on it. Most local products are, of course, fairly cheap, and you can sell them for a much higher price in more expensive countries. There are numerous interesting local products that people (tourists) like to buy here and want to have or use at home.

A few big challenges with this type of business are:
– The quality and finishing of Cambodian products is often not so good. Things wear out very quickly or you can see there is no neat finishing;
– Finding (big groups of) customers requires some effort;
– You need persistence to become successful in selling a product.

A lot of people try it out casually and give up after the first hick ups appear, then you’ll never succeed. Others pick the wrong product because they have no market sense. Every year we meet foreigners walking around with the idea of selling Cambodian coffee to Western markets, but no one ever succeeds, for many reasons.

The few people who manage to create a stable customer base and sell products from Cambodia typically choose products such as jewelry and aroma oil. Some reasons why these can sell are: Cambodian skills in design are acceptable (more so than in engineering) so minor flaws don’t matter; the products are light yet expensive compared to their weight so easy to send over even in small quantities; these products already exist in the local market and with some foreign help, you can help adapt them to western taste.

Foreigners who are more successful in exporting goods from Cambodia often operate through an eBay account or, more seriously, they set up a limited company in Hong Kong to be able to issue real invoices, while being (nearly) exempted from taxes.

4. Trading stock or foreign currencies

If you have some savings, and you’re able to leverage on it by investing or speculating on the market, you can of course earn good or big money, but you can also lose all of it. A lot of amateur traders are doing this, picking, and selling stocks and FOREX. Most of them say they’re making money and can live of it, up to you to believe it or not, some report having lost millions. Stock pickers generally seem more knowledgeable than forex traders, and those with a financial or economic background seem to do better than opportunity seekers. There are dozens of forex sites trying to lure you into trading, often with ‘guaranteed’ results.

5. Call center jobs

One of the few jobs you can get in foreign – owned offices in Phnom Penh are call center jobs. There are a few call centers here, that are always on the lookout for multilingual staff as diverse as Spanish, German, Danish and so on, besides English. You can make a modest living out of it, but few would consider this to be a lifetime career, so the turnover in these centers is probably quite high. If this is your jumping bridge to Asia, it could serve as a first start though. The call centers arrange for work permits.

6. Running a bar, restaurant, guesthouse / resort

This is one of the most common types of business, mostly for older foreigners who have fallen in love with or married a local Cambodian girl. They buy up a local bar or restaurant and run it together with their girl. Some of them underestimate the difficulties of the business, buy too expensive, get cheated by their girls, have problems managing the staff, and finally must sell at a loss. Others do okay. At least they make enough money to stay in the country while being together with their lover.

Typically, foreigners buy up a business and don’t give themselves a work permit because of the hassle of employing 4 local Cambodian, so they sit around in the bar or restaurant, not allowed to really work, while the wife does the work.

8. Renting out property

For those who have a bit of money, buying up a condo or house and renting it out again to foreigners can generate a stable source of income and a much better return than you get in the bank. Read more about buying property in Cambodia and renting out. Phnom Penh still offers quite an attractive real estate market.
Officially, this type of income is probably also in a gray zone when it comes to taxes and work permit, but thousands of foreigners do this all over the country, so for the time being, it is kind of tolerated by the Cambodian authorities.

9. Become a reporter/journalist for online newspapers

There are many opportunities for journalists to make money in Cambodia. One of the most popular is to take freelance jobs, like writing for an online newspaper. However, anyone can take up this job as there are no qualifications needed to become a reporter or journalist for an online newspaper in Cambodia.

10. Setting up your own business

A small number of foreigners manages to set up a completely new business, way different from taking over a bar or a restaurant, something new that didn’t exist before in Phnom Penh.

These businesses spotted a market opportunity, pushed through, and became successful. Of course, it takes quite a lot of entrepreneurial skills, and you won’t find enough of it in every backpacker, yoga instructor or English teacher.

A lot of entrepreneurial momentum in Phnom Penh is created by foreign ideas, what Cambodian typically do is copy it right away and go sit next door to take away your customers, so you better be prepared when you’re doing something new in town.
Some people approach us and ask what kind of jobs are available in Phnom Penh for foreigners with a decent MBA. Well, the answer is of course: nearly none, because there aren’t enough offices and businesses here that offer high quality jobs. If you have a good brain and skillet, the only way is to start something for yourself.

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