Cambodia hosted a 50-member ICT and Biotechnology trade mission from Malaysia last Friday with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An arriving to join the Malaysian high-technology experts for speeches and lunch at Nagaworld Hotel.

A business session was also held so the Malaysian delegates could get to know their Cambodian counterparts and numerous connections were made with representatives from Cambodia’s ICT associations.

Delegates from Malaysia’s ICT sector included the Multimedia Development Corporation of Malaysia, MIMOS, CyberSecurity Malaysia and .my domain registry along with the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry Malaysia (PIKOM).

Malaysian ICT companies represented included CEOPE Risk Technologies, e-Protea MSC, TESS Innovation, Triaset, Exabytes Network, Scope Group, SecureMetric Technology, IME Solutions, Belmah Strategies, IDD SolutionNet, K3Y Techs, Verion Research and i-Solutions and Computing.

Leading the Malaysian delegation was Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili who, along with Sok An witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Cambodia’s National Information Communications Technology Development Authority and Mimos Berhad of Malaysia.

The scope of cooperation within the MOU includes precision agriculture, wireless sensor networks, content service delivery and intelligent informatics in the health, government and logistics centers.

In a speech to the Malaysian delegation, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who is widely recognised as a leading force in the develoopment of Cambodia's ICT sector, said Cambodia's ICT development can become a catalyst for the development of other sectors.

He cited the development of the Government Administration Information System (GAIS) and the Provincial Administration Information System (PAIS) as evidence of Cambodia's commitment to move the country online.

Sok An said Cambodia has 12.5 million mobile subscribers in a country of 14 million. "We have about 680,000 internet subscribers. The ICT sector has leapfrogged from analog to GSM to 3G systems, and next year we might have a 4G system," he said.

"The number of internet service providers has increased from just a few companies in 2000 to 27 companies in 2011," he said.