Exporting businesses looking to expand its presence in foreign markets and importing businesses importing products need to comply with a wide range of requirements including quantitative restrictions, technical regulations, product standards and customs procedures. These are generally referred to as non-tariff measures (NTMs). As part of government effort to enhance trade facilitation and serve the business community better, Cambodia has launched the National Trade Repository (NTR) in late 2015 as ‘the official source for all regulatory information relevant to traders who wish to import goods into Cambodia or export to other countries.’ Its website, hosted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on behalf of all line Ministries and Institutions, provides public access to all necessary trade information, including customs permits and duties and trade regulatory procedures and documentation requirements among others. The NTR website was established with technical and financial support from a number of development partners including the World Bank, the European Union, Danish International Development Agency, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

I had the honor to have worked for the World Bank TA project, where I led a team to conduct interview with 12 government ministries and their departments that are involved in trade processes and produced 46 trade process mapping documentation for the NTR website.

Special thanks to H.E. Kong Ratha and his team at Department of Economic Integration and ASEAN of the Ministry of Economics and Finance for their excellent working collaboration and facilitation throughout the project.