totten – EMC Consulting

COVID: Using CATI for data collection in Cambodia

EMC recently commissioned a quantitative survey of 200 smallholder farmers in four provinces via CATI (computer assisted telephone interviewing). The survey was one element of a larger feasibility study EMC conducted for investors in the financial services sector. We had originally planned typical face to face interviews, but the impact of COVID travel restrictions, shortly after the project commenced made this impossible. Face-to-face interviews have been the familiar method for primary data collection in surveys, and CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) is...

July 5, 2020

By tottenUncategorized

Designing a Fund to support energy efficiency

Cost-saving investments are of interest to all businesses; reducing greenhouse gas emissions are of interest to everyone. This blog post is part of a series that summarises our 2016 Pre-feasibility Study, conducted with Arup, of a Fund to support energy efficiency investments by Cambodian SMEs. Our research and analysis of possible energy efficiency solutions and their returns, as well as analysis of banking in Cambodia, determined that investing in EE solutions is profitable and that local banks do not lack...

April 4, 2020

By tottenBusiness Consulting, Market Entry & Investment

WE Act Empowers Women Entrepreneurs

Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC) is supporting Pact Cambodia on the WE Act project that is seeking to help young women entrepreneurs achieve their full potential. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), this five-year program is focusing on urban-based micro or small businesses and aspiring women entrepreneurs between the ages of 15 and 35. WE Act aims to address key challenges to their businesses through strengthening business skills, expanding their professional network, increasing access to relevant information, financing,...

March 5, 2019

By tottenPrivate Sector Development

Lao PDR SME: Opportunities

Lao PDR has grown relatively rapidly, but needs to focus on the non-resource sector to innovate, diversify its economy and generate more inclusive wealth. SME are a key component of that strategy. Boosting Lao PDR SME As Lao PDR is a small (6.7 M) land locked country, but conveniently located and part of ASEAN, a lot of growth will require developing stronger, value added exports. This journey begins with dramatically improving the enabling environment to start up and grow small and medium...

September 22, 2018

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Climate Change & Hydro Dams

We recently did some work on the 'green growth potential' of the Cambodian economy and currently are working on a assessment of the economic potential in the Khone Falls transboundary region of Lao PDR and Cambodia. So it's a good time to reflect on the impacts of climate change in Cambodia. Climate change is predicted to most negatively impact the global south countries, which are the countries least able to adapt and respond. Broadly, an increase in temperature and annual precipitation...

August 19, 2018

By tottenEconomic Research

Myanmar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

The Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), in cooperation with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Myanmar, partners with EMC Consulting, the ANDE, Micro Empire and Impact Hub Yangon, gathered local stakeholders in Yangon to discuss new perspectives on Myanmar's entrepreneurial ecosystem. On 12 June 2018, local stakeholders from Myanmar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem gathered at Impact Hub Yangon to share their appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of the ecosystem and elaborate together potential solutions to contribute to a more conducive operating...

June 13, 2018

By tottenPrivate Sector Development

Kasikorn Business Matching – Modern Retail

AEC export opportunity: The World Business Team at Kasikorn Bank are running business matching for SME wishing to export to Thailand and AEC. Kasikorn Bank SME Matching Day A good opportunity for quality Cambodian, Laotian and Myanma exporters to meet major regional buyers. The focus is on high growth retail segments... urban living, active lifestyle and modern diet. 60 business leaders in on and offline retail, distribution, real estate and hospitality, from 10 ASEAN countries. This is the 3rd mega matchup - it...

March 31, 2018

By tottenMarket Entry & Investment

Green Growth Lao PDR

EMC conducted a Green Growth Potential Assessment (GGPA) during 2016-2017 to assist the Government of the Lao PDR (GoL) in formulating its national green growth strategy and support the national administration in policy design and implementation. The project was undertaken for the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), which is advising the National Institute for Economic Research in this process. We also worked closely with Dr. John Ward, of the Mekong Region Futures Institute. GGPA Concept (source: GGGI) The GGGI is a treaty-based...

March 20, 2018

By tottenEconomic Research, Strategy

Cambodia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem – new perspectives

The Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), in cooperation with EMC Consulting and Cambodian Women Entrepreneurs Association, gathered local stakeholders to discuss new perspectives on Cambodia's entrepreneurial ecosystem. On 12th December 2017, local stakeholders from Cambodia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem gathered in Phnom Penh to share their appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of the ecosystem and elaborate together potential solutions to contribute to a more conducive operating environment for local entrepreneurs and their businesses. 34 representatives from financial institutions, business associations, development...

December 13, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due..

World Bank Doing Business Cambodia has barely budged with overall ranking declining slightly from 131 to 135 (2017 v 2018). There are many things of interest to comment on in WB DB stats. What's particularly interesting, for purposes of this post, is Cambodia's extraordinary performance in the metric 'Getting Credit', where it scores 20th of 190 economies world-wide. That is ahead of not only the Mekong family (Lao PDR 79, Myanmar 177) but wealthy ASEAN cousins (Singapore, 29) and my home...

November 6, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Cham Language, Literature and Literacy

EMC and Breogan Consulting are currently on the 4th iteration of our Cambodian - Cham language literacy program. This blog is a brief summary of the work and achievements. The Cham Heritage Expansion (CHE) program involves the standardization of the written form, production of variety of Cham language training materials and text books, other literature, design and implementation of teacher and student training. The teaching program takes place outside state school hours in parallel to the state school system, and thus...

October 8, 2017

By tottenUncategorized

energy efficiency

Energy Efficiency – Cambodia’s Industrial Sector

Energy Efficiency improves a firm's competitiveness (less cost) and the environment we all share (less emissions). This blog post summarizes the energy and energy efficiency situation in Cambodia. It's a summary of the initial phase of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for a 'fund' to encourage Cambodian SME to invest in energy efficiency. EMC completed the original study for the National Council for Sustainable Development (Royal Government of Cambodia) and the Global Green Growth Institute. The study was motivated by the earlier...

October 8, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Governance in Mining Sector

Governance of Cambodia’s Mining Industry

EMC report, Cambodia's Mineral Exploration Licensing Process: Governance Risk Assessment aims to identify and analyse governance risks associated with the process for granting mineral exploration license in Cambodia. The study is in line with the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) efforts to improve the governance system in mining sector and their recently adopted initiative to enhance effectiveness of the Ministerial Exploration Process. This assessment was conducted by Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC) with support from Transparency International Cambodia (TI-Cambodia), using the...

September 24, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Informal SME in Lao PDR

Many businesses in Lao PDR remain informal, and struggle to grow into medium-sized and large businesses that are capable of providing decent work for large numbers of Lao PDR citizens. This is 2 of 3 blog posts based on our recent report "Business Formalization in the Lao PDR". Growing Small and Medium Sized Firms (SME) The private sector in the Lao PDR is highly fragmented. Official figures for registered enterprises show that small enterprises (1-19 employees) comprise about 99% of all enterprises...

September 23, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

SMEs’ use of finance – CLMV

As part of our work for the Dutch Good Growth Fund #ClosingTheGap series, we analysed 2016 data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys to paint a nuanced picture of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. SMEs are not a homogeneous group. Hence their finance and development needs are different. SMEs' use of financial services differs not just across the four countries, but according to the type of SME. We segment SMEs according to their size and growth into a number...

September 13, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Cambodia’s SMEs

As part of our work for the Dutch Good Growth Fund #ClosingTheGap series, we have analysed 2016 data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys to paint a nuanced picture of Cambodia's small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are not a homogeneous group. Hence their financing and development needs are different. Finding the Gazelles Segmenting Cambodia's SMEs by size and growth highlights that the majority are small and low-growth ("necessity entrepreneurs"), but a small number are larger and faster-growing ("Small growing businesses" and "Gazelles"). Source:...

September 13, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Unlocking Cambodia’s Potential

Our report 'Unlocking the Potential of the Cambodian Private Sector' has been published here. This study was carried out under the Mekong Business Initiative project (MBI). The MBI is a regional technical assistance project funded by the Government of Australia and the Asian Development Bank. This article is a summary of the report. Cambodia’s economic performance has been strong for more than a decade, with real GDP growth averaging around 8% per year since 2001. Poverty rates have fallen, literacy and primary...

August 7, 2017

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Recruitment of Children into Armed Groups in Conflict-Affected Areas

The recruitment of children into armed forces in Myanmar has been one of the most tragic consequences of the conflict in rural areas, aggravated by socioeconomic factors and the pressure on non-state actors to recruit members. Armed opposition groups operating in Southern Shan State have been known to recruit children, according to several independent reports. EMC research – commissioned by the ILO – is contributing to the ongoing effort to help children previously associated with armed conflict and to prevent the recruitment...

April 6, 2017

By tottenUncategorized

Thanks for a successful 2016

A big thank you to all our clients and partners in 2016. During the year EMC worked on 80 projects, for around 40 various investors, development partners and government clients. We covered a broad number of thematic areas across business consulting, economic & social research, private sector development and evaluations. Some notable highlights included: Field research team in China International work. EMC continued to do more work outside our core markets of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar – in 2016 this included Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, Rwanda,...

January 5, 2017

By tottenUncategorized

Financing Development of Bangladesh Garment Sector

Low safety conditions in the Bangladesh Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector cost lives in the past few years. How much does it cost to make all factories safe and what is stopping factories from doing so? Bangladesh is one of largest apparel exporters in the world. In the 1980s, about 50 factories produced clothing, while the number is now estimated to hover around 4,269[1]. Production of Ready Made Garment (RMG) is crucial to the Bangladeshi economy, as the sector is the largest...

November 29, 2016

By tottenPrivate Sector Development

Refugee

Refugee Employment and Income Generation Opportunities

Burmese refugees have been crossing the border into Thailand since 1984, fleeing incessant fighting in South-eastern Myanmar, religious and ethnic persecution and resulting economic hardship. However as political change in Myanmar enables voluntary repatriation of Burmese refugees, the need arises for technical and vocational skills to generate sustainable income both in the camps and in Myanmar. In this context, Handicap International (HI) with funding support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), commissioned EMC to...

September 28, 2016

By tottenEconomic Research

Challenges with Rice Husk Gasifiers in Cambodia

Big changes in the operating environment, caused big problems for a recent program to promote gasifiers to rice mills. Here's what went wrong and what we can learn from it. Strong Business Case? On paper, the Cambodian rice mill sector looked like a perfect market for the adoption of rice husk gasification technology. A large reason Cambodian rice mills were uncompetitive against neighboring countries was that their fuel costs were very high; many rice mills do not have access to grid electricity and were...

June 26, 2016

By tottenEvaluation Impact, Private Sector Development

Female Entrepreneur Builds Engineering Services Firm in Laos.

Founded in 2009 by entrepreneur Siriphone Phanthavong, Electrical Civil Mechanical Engineering (ECME) specializes in providing engineering services in Lao PDR. Prior to founding ECME, Siriphone worked on infrastructure projects in the mining industry – primarily electrical installations. As Laos saw a boom in mining and hydropower, Siriphone identified a market niche for international standard engineering services. In 2013, ECME founder Siriphone was a winner of the Mekong Women’s Entrepreneur Challenge (MWEC) - a competition for highly motivated women who own small to medium sized businesses....

June 16, 2016

By tottenBusiness Consulting, Private Sector Development

Amru Rice

Export led investment key in Rice sector

Amru Rice is at the forefront of developments in the Cambodian rice industry. In 2012, Amru worked with Emerging Markets Consulting under the Export Market Access Fund, to boost its export growth. Amru Rice was founded on three generations of agricultural trading dating back to 1960. SONG Saran joined the family firm in 2008, and embarked upon a process of export-led investment and modernization. Today he is Chairman of a leading diversified agricultural business in Cambodia. Leading Cambodian rice exporter Following the completion of a...

June 7, 2016

By tottenBusiness Consulting, Private Sector Development

Bodia Nature

Bodia Nature Global Ambitions

Bodia Nature is a leading Cambodian Well Being brand, which counts France, China, Japan, Europe and America as key export markets. The French-Khmer brand was developed in 2006, with the ambition of producing 100 percent, all-natural beauty products in Cambodia. In 2012, Bodia Nature worked with EMC, under the Export Market Access Fund (EMAF), to launch exports to Europe. Bodia Nature initially targeted France for 4 reasons - rapidly rising online shopping, one of the largest cosmetics and wellbeing sectors in Europe, and a...

May 30, 2016

By tottenBusiness Consulting, Market Entry & Investment, Private Sector Development

Employer Perceptions Across ASEAN – ILO

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a single regional common market and production base, will become a reality in 2015 for the 600 million women and men of the 10 ASEAN Member States. This will lead to the freer flow of goods, services, investment and skilled labour in the region. New opportunities for growth and prosperity are likely to emerge, but the challenge is to ensure that growth is inclusive and prosperity is shared. For businesses, the AEC poses a range of...

February 21, 2016

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Thank You To Our Clients & Partners In 2015

A big thank you to all our clients and partners in 2015. Across all countries, we worked with over 42 organisations – many of them multiple times. We worked directly for the Governments of Lao PDR and Cambodia (Evaluation of Business Assistance Fund, and National Biodigester Program respectively). We undertook several projects for each of the major multilaterals; ADB, World Bank and the UN (ILO, UNICEF and WFP), in trade, ASEAN integration, private sector development and social research. We also worked...

February 3, 2016

By tottenEconomic Research, Evaluation Impact, Market Development, Market Entry & Investment, Private Sector Development, Strategy

Why is access to finance a problem for water suppliers?

Profitable businesses frequently lack access to finance to grow, whether that be investing in productive assets (fixed assets), or financing working capital and supply chains (inventory). Businesses in Cambodia, as in many other countries, find access to debt finance particularly difficult, as they lack appropriate collateral to secure the loan, and banks lack the capacity to analyse the investment opportunity. Here we present a case study of a 2014-15 project we undertook with GRET in the piped water industry, to...

January 12, 2016

By tottenEconomic Research, Private Sector Development

Export Market Access Fund

Many small to medium-size enterprises do not have the minimum economies of scale to be competitive and to increase exports, as they cannot afford to add additional demand on their limited cash flows. Further, this prevents them from planning long-term market strategies and making necessary up-front investments to develop their export potential. Consequently, producers often do not actively cultivate export markets. In response to this challenge, EMC was contracted by the Royal Government of Cambodia to implement The Export Market Access...

February 21, 2014

By tottenMarket Entry & Investment, Private Sector Development

Mekong Women’s Entrepreneurship Challenge (MWEC)

Ten Lao Women Entrepreneurs Win Business Challenge Over the years EMC has done a lot of work to support entrepreneurship development in Mekong Region. These include the Emerging Market Entrepreneur Incubator (EME), Export Market Access Fund (EMAF) and Mekong Women's Entrepreneurship Challenge (MWEC). MWEC finalists receive their awards EMC implemented MWEC across 3 countries - Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam. It intends to facilitate the expansion of female-owned business through a business competition for highly motivated women who own small to medium sized businesses and are eager to expand. Deputy Director General of the Lao PDR...

April 19, 2013

By tottenBusiness Consulting, Private Sector Development