The Cambodian Association and Finance and Technology (CAFT) held its 2nd Annual General Meeting and MoU Signing with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) last Friday, March 4, 2022 at the SOSORO – Preah Srey ICANAVRMAN Museum.
The MoU was signed by H.E. So Visothy, Secretary of State of MPTC and Mr. Remi Pell, CAFT Board Chairman and witnessed by by H.E. Dr. Chea Vandeth , Minister of Post and Telecommunications, H.E. SOK Puthyvuth, Secretary of State of MPTC, H.E. Dr. Chea Serey and CAFT Board Director Secretary General Mr. Tomas Pokorny, CAFT Board Treasurer Frandara Khuon and CAFT Board Member Sanjay Chakrabarty.
The MoU aims to strengthen CAFTs vision of collaboration by gathering and bringing together the diverse parts of the Cambodian finance and tech public and private community, advocating for a unified voice of the Cambodian finance and tech ecosystem, facilitating a great network where people in the Cambodian finance and tech industry connects, and to teach by learning from existing and past leaders to nurture the next generation of talent.
In his welcome speech Mr. Remi Pell Chairman of CAFT mentioned that the association’s readiness in addressing the Cambodian industry’s challenges. “CAFT has conceived strategic objectives to give us guidance on how we address the challenges that we face as an industry – 1) the need the expand the tech talent pool and create opportunities for upskilling, 2) creating education of developing innovation skills for implementation and utilization, 3) increase the SME digitalization and adoption, 4) financial literacy and financial inclusion. These are the challenges that make up who we are an association and it’s our mission to address them and make progress, which at times seems incremental, but holistically its steadily forward,” he said.
H.E. Dr. Chea Serey, Assistant Governor and Director General of the National Bank of Cambodia on her collaborative remark, stated: “Fintech is believed to provide convenient and affordable access to finance that could improve financial inclusion and provide social-economic benefits to SMEs and people who have no access to financial services. The MoU between CAFT and the MPTC was an important step in building synergy between the private and public sectors to promote a diverse digital economy in Cambodia.“
Meanwhile, H.E. Dr. Chea Vandeth, Minister of Post and Telecommunications, highlighted the importance of the Memorandum of Understanding during his collaborative remark. He said, “The collaboration between MPTC and CAFT is a good example of the private and government sector coming together towards one goal in improving finance, technology, startups, entrepreneurship, commerce, marketing, networks, skill capacity building, and knowledge which would enable financial inclusion, digitalizing and digitizing technological and finance startups, transforming the current digital ecosystem, and promoting the development of infrastructure for Cambodia’s economy to be aligned with and fully benefit from Industry 4.0.”
During the AGM CAFT Board Director – Secretary General Mr. Tomas Pokorny presented the milestones of CAFT for 2021. Albeit a challenging year, CAFT was able to persevere and highlighted the success of CamTech Summit powered by Prudential with hope that it has put Cambodia on the map as a Fintech powerhouse and that this year CamTech Summit Powered by Prudential will be held in person.
As part of CAFT’s continued advocacy, Tomas Pokorny on his presentation announced the Strategic Partnership with Prudential (Cambodia) Life Assurance. The partnership will highlight Prudential’s unending and continued support of CAFT initiatives and their contribution as CamTech Summit’s Title Sponsor.
Sanjay Chakrabarty, Prudential CEO and CAFT Board Member, said, “We are pioneering digital health and insurance in Cambodia. Our efforts are aided by a thriving Fintech sector. CAFT has been doing an incredible job developing the Fintech sector in Cambodia. We’re now in our 3rd year of this strategic partnership and we’re looking forward to furthering capacity building and knowledge sharing in Cambodia through CamTech and other planned events.”
Other partnerships were also announced with Cambodia Internet Startup Association which is led by Mr. Jack Lee, International Business Chamber chaired by Mr. Paul Clements and Ecosystem Partner – 500 Global with Carrie Liauw, Regional Director, Programs, APAC. These partnerships are vital for CAFT’s future and its commitment to their members and public.
To recap his presentation Pokorny highlighted the creation of the FINTECH ASEAN roundtable which would bring together ASEAN states for collaborative meetings to examine key issues and challenges affecting the region and to determine how to further push the sector forward.
“We’re finally starting to show, through our efforts and efforts of many others, that Cambodia is ready to communicate with the rest of the world when it comes to technology, and when it comes to financing,” Pokorny said.
Also present during the event were Madam Ambassador Tina Redshaw British Ambassador to Cambodia; H.E. TOUCH Yarandy, Under Secretary of State of MPTC; H.E. CHEA Sereyvath, Advisor to MPTC; H.E. NEANG Mao, Director General of General Department of Information Communication Technology; H.E. MOK Rady, Director General of General Department of Administration; H.E. SAM Sethserey, President of Institute of Digital Research & Innovation of Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT) and Mr. Ouk Sarat, Director of Payment System Department, National Bank of Cambodia.
Lastly, the event could not have been possible without CAFT’s board‘s, executive committee‘s, members’, and partners’ continued support as well as the AGM sponsors iCare Benefits Group, Sathapana Bank, Tilleke & Gibbins and TrueMoney Cambodia.
SOURCE Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology
