SENIOR officials from the Ministry of Commerce, leading representatives from the private sector, and development agencies met Tuesday in a multi-lateral effort to boost Cambodia’s trade potential.

The meeting was called as part of the United Nations Development Programme’s Trade Sector Wide Approach (Trade SWAp) initiative. In the first day of the three-day-long retreat, 11 aid projects were adopted that will provide Cambodia with investments of roughly US$2 million.

According to a Ministry of Commerce press release, they will help the ministry “effectively administer rules of origin, custom valuation, product information for trade promotion and draft sanitary standards”.

Funding for the projects is being provided by the Trade Development Support Programme (TDSP), a trust fund managed by the World Bank, which will finance trade strategies for an initial three-year-period under the scheme.

The Ministry of Commerce’s website stated Tuesday that Trade SWAp is an effort to focus national policy and international support on a “single comprehensive programme endorsed by all sector stakeholders”.

“Remarkable challenges related to regulation, finance, management capacity and staff incentive schemes have emerged,” said Senior Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh Tuesday, according to extracts from his opening speech.