PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — CamTech Summit Powered by Prudential was a five-day hybrid Fintech and Tech event in Cambodia held between November 8-12, 2021 to inclusively showcase Cambodia’s emerging and accelerating Fintech and Tech sectors.
During the opening ceremony H.E. Dr. Chea Vandeth Minister, Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in his welcome remarks stated the fact that “The pandemic has disrupted the way we live, do business and interact with one another. In a way, however, this disruption has emphasized the importance of digital technology in minimizing the impact of the pandemic and allowed us to accelerate digital transformation and adapt ourselves to the digital economy as the new economic growth model.“
This was reiterated by NBC Deputy Governor Neav Chanthana on her opening address “As we are already aware that technology has been advancing rapidly especially in financial technology (Fintech) as a result of Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 and it is becoming the main driving force to support the economic development as in many countries in the world are currently leveraging this technology to digitize their economy. This is due to the strong belief that technology could promote efficiency of economic activity such as the production and delivery of goods and services both in public and private sectors and as a result, it spurs inclusive and sustainable economic growth especially during the pandemic of COVID-19 as it enables to digitize all economic transactions when the lockdown and social distancing are implemented.”
Wilf Blackburn, Regional CEO, Insurance Growth Markets, Prudential Corporation Asia added “Technology has certainly played a significant role in how we engage and support our customers and consultants during this pandemic, where face-to-face interactions have been severely curtailed. We have also been investing significantly in enhancing our digital capabilities, recognizing that technology will help us bridge the widening protection and health gaps in our markets.”
The 5-day Summit with Prudential (Cambodia) Life Assurance PLC as its title sponsor featured more than 75 local and international speakers who shared their expertise on health tech, insurtech, blockchain, tourism tech, real estate tech, and agriculture tech, and digitalization.
Several key award-winning startups were also featured at the Summit to showcase how far Cambodia’s vast startup ecosystem has come a long way on its competitiveness towards global standards.
“To achieve full financial inclusion, all Cambodians will need access to bank accounts, loans, savings, investments and insurance. Technology is making it possible for all those services to be available to customers via their phones and at a very low cost,” said Mr. Sanjay Chakrabarty CEO of Prudential Cambodia and Board Member of CAFT in his closing keynote as he talked about the relevance of fostering collaboration across stakeholders and developing capacity in the digital sector to propel Cambodia in the future and achieve economic success.
Tomas Pokorny, CAFT Board Secretary General and Weena Llona CAFT Executive Director as the main organizers of the Summit closed the event highlighting that this is just the beginning for CAFT and Cambodia in its step towards financial inclusion and digitalization. “Cambodia is ever evolving in its digitalization – the government is hard at work with digital frameworks; industry leaders and change makers are gearing up and sharing their expertise and we have a young pool of talent that is up for the challenge – we are quite certain that Cambodia has a bright future ahead,” said Tomas. “The 5-day summit was not enough to showcase all of Cambodia’s vast fintech and tech landscape, but we hope that the audience both local and abroad were able to get a glimpse of what Cambodia has to offer,” added by Weena.
This Summit was mainly organized by the Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology (CAFT) in cooperation with National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC) and Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) and is one of the 11 partners for the World Fintech Festival by the Singapore Fintech Festival which takes place on November 11-12, 2021. You can still watch the event on demand at https://camtechsummit.com/.
