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Greening the Industrial Sector in Cambodia

On January 09, Cambodia’s National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD), in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Ministry of Planning (MOP) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) co-organized a workshop “Greening the Industrial Sector: Scenario Formulation Workshop” in Phnom Penh.

The workshop, attended by over 40 participants from line Ministries, civil society and private sector, was the fourth national-level consultation of the Policy Alignment for Green Growth program, and was opened by H.E. E Vuthy, Deputy Secretary General of the National Council for Sustainable Development.

The Royal Government of Cambodia regards the industrial sector as a priority sector in contributing to its economic vision of achieving upper middle-income country status by 2030, evident from the adoption of the Industrial Development Policy (IDP) 2015-2030 and its key targets. Specifically, the IDP emphasizes the transformation and modernization of Cambodia’s industrial structure from a labor-intensive industry to a skill-based industry by 2025.

In October 2017, GGGI initiated a study “The Economic, Social and Environmental Impact of Greening the Industrial Sector” which aims to develop a green growth transition assessment that underlies a robust economic case for greening the industrial sector and integrating priority actions in the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2019-2023 and relevant sector plan(s).

As part of the ongoing engagement process to develop evidence-based policy recommendations, this fourth workshop in a series of national-level consultations presented the analysis and system dynamics model based on existing local and international data collected for 4 industrial sub-sectors (i.e. garment, food processing, bricks and electronics). The key objectives of the consultation include:

  • Deepening understanding on the qualitative and quantitative models developed for scenarios assessment for four sub-sectors;
  • Validating the baseline scenario, as well as the key data and assumptions used for model calibration;
  • Prioritizing potential policy instruments and interventions for the model simulation and integrated CBA.

In his opening remarks, H.E. E Vuthy noted “green growth development will significantly contribute to the government’s vision and goal as well as its policy efforts for sustainable development, and greening the industrial sector is the right approach to ensure both economic growth and sustainability of the environment”.

Acting Country Representative Dr. Pheakdey Heng highlighted that “an economics-led approach and scenarios-based policy analysis is required to support coherent policy, investment and regulatory measures that would serve as inputs to the Investment Law and Tax Law, all of which will shape industrial growth in Cambodia”.

GGGI-Thailand Country Representative, Khan Ram-Indra also delivered a presentation on GGGI’s experience in developing the GHG Reduction Roadmap in the Industrial Sector and the NDC Action Plan. He emphasized that the Thai government’s commitment and support for greening industry is evident of the fact that it views green growth as a crucial means for sustained competitiveness and survival of its industrial sector in response to advancing manufacturing technologies in developed markets.

This year marks the final year of the National Strategic Development Plan 2014-2018. This assessment will play a necessary role to identify critical actions to contribute to Cambodia’s industrial development through green growth measures, that would contribute to overarching development goals in the upcoming NSDP 2019-2023.