How to better understand Cambodia

Khmer Times, Opinion, 25 January 2023 (Link)

There are two ways to better understand a country and its people.

One way is to give up all prejudice and try to approach local people with naked eyes.

Another is to seek to understand the original thoughts, cultures and identities of local people.

Now let us discuss about the first way, the importance of seeing local people with naked eyes without predetermined frames of prejudice.

The approach towards Cambodia and Cambodian people should be in a learning attitude, trying to understand without prejudice and predetermined judgment.

For example, for Cambodian people, when asked what they think about Japanese, they often can accept Japanese as they are, not as the imperialist invaders based on historical and cultural prejudice even if Cambodian people like to watch Khmer-dubbed Chinese movies, Korean movies and American movies that portray Japanese as devil imperialists.

They just accept Japanese people as Japanese, as friends, as guests, as pure human being without any prejudgment.

Cambodian people know that there are also some rude and arrogant American, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. But they still approach those foreigners without discrimination.

Cambodian people rarely view Westerners in the historical frames, such as the past colonists, the past bombers over our grandparents, the past “sanctioners” over our parents, or as the past Khmer Rouge sympathizers.

Generally, we don’t have vengeful feeling against foreigners.

Such kind of approach by Cambodian people should be reciprocated by foreigners.

Now let us discuss about the second way, the importance of digging deeper by getting to know the original thoughts and ways of life of local people.

Cambodia’s gradual shift to medium- and high-tech manufacturing

 

Khmer Times, Opinion, 29 June 2026 (Link)

For decades, external observers viewed Cambodia through a predictable economic lens: a low-cost hub heavily reliant on the garments, footwear, and travel goods (GFT) sector. However, a structural shift has quietly accelerated. Moving beyond basic light manufacturing, Cambodia is positioning itself as a key strategic node for medium- and high-technology industries within the Southeast Asian supply chain.

Precision component manufacturing: Adapting beyond the ‘Plus-One’ crisis

The initial pivot into medium-technology manufacturing was modelled around a “Thailand Plus One” strategy, where global automotive and electronics giants sought to buffer their operations in Thailand by offloading labor-intensive component segments to Cambodia.

As an early anchor in the Royal Group Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Japan’s Minebea pioneered high-precision machining in Cambodia by steadily moving from basic assembly to the manufacturing of advanced micro-motors, LED backlights and complex electronic components, effectively proving that Cambodia’s young workforce could adapt to tight technical tolerances.

In tandem, Japanese automotive giant Denso identified the Kingdom as a strategic manufacturing hub. Denso executives have praised the Cambodian workforce for its perseverance, teamwork and unique patience required in handling equipment-intensive vehicle and motorcycle components like sensors, oil coolers and magnetos.

Faced with an unstable land route to Bangkok, manufacturing anchors like Minebea and Denso have had to urgently re-engineer their logistics. Rather than relying on a land corridor, companies have bypassed the land border. They have redirected cargo towards maritime shipping via the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) and utilised emergency air charters. This crisis has forced Cambodia to prove it can sustain high-tech production even when physically isolated from its immediate neighbour.

Automobile assembly sector: Driving full-scale localisation

Preparing the landscape for Cambodia’s semiconductor sector

 

Khmer Times, Opinion, 15 June 2026 (Link)

Cambodia does not have a policy for semiconductors. This article is to share the perspectives from a foundational study that the General Secretariat of the Committee for Economic and Financial Policy conducted and published in September 2024.

Entitled the “Study on the Identification of Strategic Industries and their Promotion through Special Economic Zones,” the research identified semiconductors as one of the future strategic industries. The paper is available only in Khmer.

Consultations were conducted in January and February 2024 with industry players in Vietnam and Thailand regarding the preparatory landscape for the sector.

In Thailand, the Working Group met with the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thailand Printed Circuit Association.

Thailand is a major electronics hub. Between 2021 and 2023, the country brought in a massive 132.1 billion baht ($3.7 billion) in printed circuit board (PCB) investments from tech companies from China – including Hong Kong and Taiwan – Japan and Germany. Because of this big footprint, Thailand handles 5% of the entire global market for PCBs, exporting up to $1.6 billion a year, a figure projected to surge up to 15% (roughly $8 billion) per year in the near future.

But when the team asked the big question: “Is Thailand ready for a semiconductor industry?” – the answer was not an immediate yes or no.

In general, it is understood that the PCB industry is one of the first step towards building up a semiconductor ecosystem. Despite sitting on a multi-billion-dollar PCB industry, Thai industrial players were still not immediately-enthusiastic for this high-tech industry because this industry is no longer just a regular business; it is highly strategic and politically sensitive.

Semiconductors have become matters of national security. Giant semiconductor companies will not risk investing billions in advanced factories unless they have absolute confidence that global political tensions or trade wars won’t suddenly shut down their production lines or block their markets.

Thailand’s lesson is clear: building the early-stage ecosystem is only half the battle; navigating global politics is the other.

Cambodia-Thailand: The choice between building an iron curtain or a lasting, legal border

Khmer Times, Opinion, 23 January 2026 (Link)

The deadly border wars between Cambodia and Thailand in 2025 beg a serious question: Would the permanent neighbours prefer to build an iron curtain or a legal border between them?

There are several border models that Cambodia and Thailand should contemplate, considering they are eternal neighbours who cannot move away from each other unless one of them is wiped off the world map.

First, there is the iron curtain which was manifested in a few models during the Cold War.

For instance, there was the wall that divided Eastern and Western Germany, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall that stood for 28 years from 1961 to 1989.

And then there was the iron curtain in Hungary that was described in detail in a documentary entitled 1989 – The fall of the Soviet Union, produced by Anders Ostergaard and Erzsebet Racz.

In the documentary, the Hungarian reformist communist Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth (1988-1990) played a crucial role in dismantling the Hungarian Iron Curtain by opening the border with Austria in 1989.

He described how he had uncovered secret financial mismanagement by the communist state in the construction and maintenance of the electric border fence, which was constantly triggered by intruders, including wild rabbits, and thus constantly woke the border guards, depriving them of sleep.

Unnecessary spending, particularly on the construction of a superfluous border fence, had left Hungary bankrupt and heavily indebted.

Other models Cambodia and Thailand might want to emulate are the old Franco-German border model or the new Franco-German border.