Entrepreneurship Platform for Engagement and Exchange

“In Cambodia, we have seen the increasing desire from government to be supporting the startup ecosystem in Cambodia,” remarks Melanie Mossard, Director of Venture Support of Impact Hub Phnom Penh (IHPP). “We also see that entrepreneurs have the desire to voice their needs, their challenges and to interact with the government in a more informal and friendly manner,” she adds. To acknowledge the limited experience of youth-lead startups and ministries working with each other and to give them platform to share their growing interest, IHPP’s new innovative mechanism called Entrepreneurship Platform for Engagement and Exchange (EPEE) was developed. The platform brought youth-lead startups and government representatives from five ministries into workshops to share, discuss and provide each other with constructive recommendations, and an opportunity for two women-lead startups to meet and present their products to two Ministers.

In Cambodia, there is a growing number of youth-lead startups who would significantly benefit from partnering with relevant government ministries. The government also has a desire to support and startups, but there is a lack of mutual understanding of the issues that are priority, or what is possible to be tackled constructively.

he EPEE platform was implemented with a space for entrepreneurs to interact, communicate and build trust relationships with people working in the area of policy making, to develop actionable recommendations and have their voice heard. It also thought the start-ups to understand the government’s interest to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. “Entrepreneurs, who joined the program, felt that the program met their expectations in helping them understand potential areas for collaboration with Ministries & Ministry needs, make connections within government respectively, and increase in confidence of startups to approach and collaborate with relevant government departments. The ministries also commented on the need and value in this workshop and dialogue,” IHPP and the need to continue this.

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“Entrepreneurship Platform for Engagement and Exchange” bringing together entrepreneurs, government ministries, regional incubator, NGOs and other important startup eco-system players to ignite more dialogue and civic engagement between startups and ministries.

Adding to this, two videos were produced to raise awareness of women startups profile and show that ministries are approachable and listen to the start-up needs and promote a culture of collaboration and entrepreneurship. “Before I felt that it was difficult to talk or work with the government. After presenting our business to the Minister of Women’s Affairs, we received a lot of encouragement and inspiration to move forward and to add on to our business. The Minister is so passionate about us and shows a strong support to what we are doing. To us as a startup, the support and motivation from them are meant a lot. It is not a big change, but it gives us the encouragement and inspiration to continue and to grow in what we are doing for our business and our society at large,” Mankia Noun, Co-founder of Green Lady. “The encouragement and compliments from the Minister make our team stronger and believe in our vision and mobile application,” Sovann Srun, Founder of Edemy.“The implementation of EPEE platform has enabled startups and government to hear what is needed and relevant on both sides. The trust relationship is building with the government. The government is more approachable for future collaboration. It is also an opening door to building more connection with other ministries and stakeholders in Cambodia. This is the starting point and there will be more in the future,” Melanie. WE Act is building further on this experience to engage government representatives in constructive dialogue around issues related to start-ups.

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