Chapter 1 CAMBODIAN SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ... - ERIA

2.2 GrowthThe subsequent growth of Cambodian SMEs has been remarkable considering the levelof devastation of infrastructure and institutions during the country’s recent civil war,and the banning of commerce from 1975 to 1979 under the Khmer Rouge (KR). By theearly 1980s agro-industry food processing activities, predominantly rice milling, hadstarted taking place under the cooperative sector. By the mid 1980s a host of smallprivate enterprises providing basic manufactured goods, such as fish sauce, hademerged to meet growing domestic demand. 7 Nationalised SMEs were sold or leased tothe private sector from late 1989, and in 1991 the government introduced a full-scaleprivatisation programme. Macro-economic stability had been largely achieved by thelate 1990s and basic infrastructure and institutions had been rebuilt providing theplatform for growth of SMEs. 8The number of Cambodian manufacturing SMEs has increased steadily since thelate 1980s. A National Institute of Statistics (NIS) survey of industrial firms shows thatTable 1: Registered SMEs by industryEnterprise type 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005Food, beverage andtobacco18,590 19,147 20,152 21,871 21,568 20,869 22,712 23,343Textile wearing apparelleather310 396 366 2382 1,417 1,406 1,672 1,662Wood productsincluding furniture895 814 869 141 13 13 16 -Paper products printingpublishing26 23 24 23 15 21 25 31Chemicals petroleumcoal plastics55 67 297 277 275 96 120 153Non-metallic mineralproducts811 777 666 721 757 681 680 718Fabricated metalproducts1,375 1,647 1,824 1,454 1,899 1,850 2,239 2,222Other manufacturing 2,035 1,356 1,208 1,286 976 1,049 667 618Total 24,097 24,227 25,406 28,155 26,920 25,985 28,131 28,747Notes: SMEs in this data set are defined as employing up to 50 people. There are very fewenterprises that employ between 50 and 100 people in Cambodia, so not including this groupstill provides a reasonable estimation of enterprises with fewer than 100 employees.Source: Cambodian Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy, Cambodian National Institute ofStatistics Yearbook 20063