ASEAN turns 50 in 2017. Happy Birthday! The Association of Southeast Asian Nations was established in 1967 by five founding member countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. With Brunei joined in 1984, Viet Nam in 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999, ASEAN today comprises of 10 member countries.

I take this opportunity to join with regional brothers and sisters in celebrating this special occasion. This occasion at the same time takes me back to the good memorable days of my professionalism as the sole national consultant working with international experts to implement Cambodia’s Single Window Preparation Technical Assistance funded by World Bank. This technical assistance project was to design and develop preparatory work for the establishment and operation of the Cambodian National Single Window (CNSW) based on the government decision and policy. The project completed successfully; thanks to the very good work collaboration with the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia and other relevant agencies. Our team has developed and produced the CNSW Blueprint in 2014. Subsequent progress includes the establishment of the Cambodia National Single Window Steering Committee, chaired by the Minister of Economy and Finance, in 2015; and the establishment of Legal and Policy Advisory Team, Technical Project Team and Secretariat of CNSW to carry out the development of the national single window.

My key performing activities in the project included extensive primary and secondary research on customs clearance procedures across many government ministries and departments, leading government stakeholder engagement, conducting extensive business process mapping of their trade-related processes and taking a significant role in business process streamlining. I really enjoyed the work and believe it has a very significant importance in contributing to enhancing the prospect of an ASEAN region functioning as a single unified market.