New Women
Cambodia promotes women to increasingly important and powerful roles in government. Technocrats all, the women and men of the new government are accelerating governance optimisation.
Women of Cambodia
Since 2004, Ing Kantha Phavi, has been serving as the Minister for Women’s Affairs, where she is responsible for its management and leadership. In addition to her ministerial post, she has been the Chairwoman of the Cambodian National Council for Women since 2004. Prior to becoming Minister, Dr. Phavi served for 5 years as Secretary of State of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs.
Under her leadership, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs has succeeded in integrating gender equality measures into important laws such as the Land Law, the Decentralization and Deconcentration Organic Laws, and laws related to combating violence against women, such as the Anti-Trafficking of Human Beings and Sexual Exploitation Law, and the Law on Domestic Violence and Protection of the Victim. She continues to advocate for gender issues in state reforms and promote women’s economic empowerment and decision-making roles.
In the region and worldwide, Minister Phavi has contributed to the advancement of women’s agenda, especially at the East Asia Gender Equality Ministerial Meetings, the East Asia Ministerial Forums on Families and the ASEAN Ministerial Meetings on Women. In 2014, Minister Phavi was one of the nine women leaders awarded by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women Leadership Forum as “Most Outstanding Women”.
In the 1990s, Dr. Phavi worked in France as a private medical doctor and, later on, as director of the drugs trials department at ABR, a French firm involved in marketing and research for medical drugs.
Dr. Phavi also served as Deputy Secretary General in the medical nongovernment organization, Association des Medecins Cambodgiens, which provides medical and social assistance to Cambodia. Dr. Phavi holds a medical doctorate with a specialization in nutrition and tropical diseases from Saint Antoine Faculty, Paris and a brevet in Public Administration from Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Paris. In 2004, she participated in the Executive Leadership Program, Leaders in Development: Managing Political and Economic Reforms, at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
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Cambodian Minister of Women's Affairs Ing Kantha Phavi has underscored the importance of science, technology and innovation (STI) to women's development, and noted that the new government has prioritised digital education for women and girls.
Kantha Phavi addressed the ASEAN-China Women's Forum 2023 on September 15, in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The minister explained that (STI) will be a pivotal driver to respond to global challenges. It will also accelerate the attainment of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, as it will shift the development pathway from a focus on traditional growth to support for inclusive and sustainable growth.
“STI will enable the structural transformations that are required to achieve prosperity, peace and security, employment and the improved well-being of all people,” she said.
She added that promoting equal access and participation of girls and women in the STI field should be among the top priorities of all governments.
“We should not limit our understanding of innovation to only within the realm of the digital and technological world, or to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Advancing gender equality and women's empowerment requires a more holistic approach,” she explained.
She stressed the importance of understand the changing dynamics of the digital world for transformative change, keeping abreast on “complexity, multi-dimensionality, and interconnectivity of trends… to forge new alliances and partnerships”, and of focusing on and addressing each and every issue and challenge, step by step.
Kantha Phavi shared the new government’s priorities, noting that it has placed top priority on building a vibrant digital economy and society in order to accelerate new economic growth, promote social welfare and drive sustainable development, under the new normal.
“This is why the National Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020-2030 was adopted. It will build our national capabilities in STI and strengthen our innovation capacity, in order to respond to the fundamental needs of the nation – especially of women and girls,” she said.
She added that the government has also adopted the Cambodia’s STI Roadmap 2030, which targets five main pillars: Governance, education, research, collaboration, and ecosystems.
“One of the main objectives among these pillars is to empower women and girls, with a particular emphasis on ensuring that by 2030, at least 40 per cent of STEM graduates will be women,” she explained.
According to the minister, the government has put a special focus on improving women's digital literacy – as well as their access and participation in the digital sector – through the Policy Framework on Digital Economy and Society. The government also intends to promote women's digital leadership within government institutions, and has provided a roadmap to guide and develop programmes for young girls and women to close the gender gap in the digital sector in Cambodia.
She also positively highlighted the excellent bilateral ties between Cambodia and China through the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the Lancang-Mekong Framework Cooperation.
“We believe that multi-levels, multi-dimensional, and multi-partners approaches, such as ours are the key to making a contribution to promoting, driving and accelerating not only women's economic empowerment in the digital age, but also the use of innovation to boost women's development,” she added.
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Export Positive?
By Chea Vannak
Textile, garment and footwear exports were in a positive growth early this year after a significant decline in 2023, while the exports of electrical equipment and machinery showed a significant decline.
Cambodia's exports from the garment, textile and footwear sector totaled nearly US$826 million in January 2024, an increase of 24 percent or US$161 million compared to the same period in 2023, which was more than US$665 million, said a report of the General Department of Customs and Excise.
At the same time, the exports of machinery and electrical appliances to international markets saw a year-on-year decrease by 42 percent to US$134 million, the source underlined.
According to the report, Cambodia's total exports in January 2024 reached almost US$1.96 billion, up 27 percent compared to January 2023.
Garment, footwear and travel goods industry is the biggest foreign exchange earner for the Southeast Asian country.
The sector consists of roughly 1,300 factories and branches, employing approximately 840,000 workers, mostly female, pointed out the Ministry of Labour.
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