Sunday, March 20, 2011

Government-Private Sector Forum (G-PSF)

6:20 PM seangkhun No comments




Government-Private Sector Forum (G-PSF)

Source www.investincambodia.com/gpsf.htm

The Government-Private Sector Forum (G-PSF) improves the business environment, builds trust, and encourages private investment. This is a demand driven process with the private sector identifying issues and recommending solutions. By fostering capacity and a strong relationship between the government and private sector, the G-PSF is considered a key pillar in improving the investment climate in Cambodia. The G-PSF is funded by IFC and the Government of Australia through AusAID.

The Forum meetings, which are the principle mechanism for direct government / private sector discussion, are held twice per year and chaired by the Prime Minister. They are formal Cabinet meetings and decisions made in the Forums are binding. To ensure wide public exposure, the Forum itself is telecast live on television and radio.

The Forum is the umbrella mechanism under which sit eight Working Groups:
- Agriculture & Agro-Industry
- Tourism
- Manufacturing & SMEs
- Law, Tax & Good Governance
- Services, including Banking & Finance
- Energy, Infrastructure & Transport
- Export Processing & Trade Facilitation
- Industrial Relations

Although substantive progress can be made in the Forum, the Working Groups are the ‘work horses’ of the Forum. Each is co-chaired by a minister and a member of the private sector and they conduct high level technical discussions. Throughout the Forum process the IFC acts as Secretariat and honest broker in its role of facilitator and coordinator.

Private sector representatives meet before the main Working Groups to review and comment on proposed legislation and to identify issues for discussion in the formal Working Group meetings. These Private Sector Working Groups are supported by the secretariats of respective business associations and the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. Where business associations are weak, the Working Groups provide a clear platform for associations to carry out their critical task of advocacy on behalf of members.

Since the Forum began, it has considered over one thousand issues and made corresponding recommendations. Several hundred issues have been resolved with hundreds more in progress. Over time, private sector participation has grown substantially, as has transparency, capacity to advocate on behalf of the private sector, trust among participants, and influence with donors. Specific achievements include high-level consultation on a number of business-related laws and regulations, trade facilitation reform, finance sector reform, and negotiations on issues relating to concessions involving land and infrastructure. The government has continued to encourage and institutionalise the Forum process. It has restructured its own focus on private sector development to incorporate the government co-chairs into a top level Private Sector Development Steering Committee. The level of communication and focus on private sector development is considered to have improved significantly since IFC became involved in 2002, and is considered a testament to what technical assistance can achieve.

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