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Women-owned and managed enterprises in Cambodia have a significant presence. A large majority of these entrepreneurs remain informal due to sociocultural challenges and those related to lack of access to human capital, markets, finance, and other policy dimensions.

To help develop women's entrepreneurship and increase business registration, Cambodia has introduced a digital registration process that aims to save costs and time. The digitization of business registration is the first stage in the development of Cambodia's One-Roof-Service (ORS) digital platform. While these initiatives are essential for catalysing women's entrepreneurship, concrete and deliberate steps are needed to ensure that women can access the ORS, and have the willingness and ability to formalize their business. Drawing on the challenges mentioned above and via stakeholder consultations, this policy report provides guidelines for mitigating the challenges related to increasing business registrations and access to the ORS for women entrepreneurs. The report proposes the following three sets of guidelines: 1. The first set of guidelines reviews the overall development of the ORS. This includes establishing a dedicated working group on women entrepreneurs and the ORS, setting targets and a reporting framework, and building a gender-responsive policy environment. 2. The second set of guidelines discusses increasing the access of women entrepreneurs to the ORS. Since access is closely linked to the types of services and knowledge an ORS can offer entrepreneurs, therefore, these guidelines focus on the kind of Women-owned and managed enterprises in Cambodia have a significant presence. A large majority of these entrepreneurs remain informal due to sociocultural challenges and those related to lack of access to human capital, markets, finance, and other policy dimensions. 12 Supporting Women-Owned and Managed Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) In Cambodia services that may be of use to women entrepreneurs. These are related to developing success stories, toolkits, market access information, compliance guides, enabling access to finance and knowledge of finance, training/skill up-gradation programs, and building an online support network. 3. The final set of guidelines relate to increasing business registration by women entrepreneurs. Here, the guidelines cover both the online and offline options related to business registrations. The willingness to register is a function of the benefits that women see in business formalization. Thus, the guidelines suggest using direct and indirect approaches to mitigate challenges across the domains mentioned above, working through existing networks, and collaborating with the Ministry of Women's Affairs initiatives for developing women's entrepreneurship in Cambodia.
Contact
Social Development Division +66 2288 1234 [email protected]