The government has called on private sector partnership for investment in Cambodia’s infrastructure; a move officials say will help funnel more foreign funds into the country.

Speaking at a seminar on Public Private Partnership (PPP), the Minister of Commerce, Cham Prasidh, conceded that help was needed to meet the demands of rapid growth.

“We also acknowledge that we are still short of capacity and financial resources to accelerate infrastructure development, thus private sector participation is crucial,” he said, adding that “better infrastructure can attract more investment”.

Professor Hidetoshi Nishimura, the Executive Director at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, said that PPP does not merely need to be a source of funding; it can be an opportunity to harness private sector innovation: “Even in the case that host governments can afford to develop infrastructure projects by their own budget, PPP is still an effective option to deliver better infrastructure,” he said.”