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.