Cambodia’s National Assembly Approves the E-Commerce Bill
- Jazmyn Himel
- October 9, 2019 12:25 PM
The National Assembly Tuesday passed the e-commerce bill, which will set rules for digital activity and interactions, updating the legal framework ahead of the country’s emerging digital economy.
Comprised of 12 chapters and 67 articles, the bill is meant to prepare the country for the “Industry 4.0,” also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As the Cambodia Development Research Institute’s Industry 4.0 policy brief stated earlier this year, “a strong policy and regulatory framework can help spur science and technology development.”
This “revolution” is expected to involve an industrial shift toward technological and scientific modes of production and activity. As Pauline Tamesis, the United Nations resident coordinator in Cambodia previously noted, the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is “especially crucial in exploiting the opportunities offered by global innovation.”
In the “Readiness for the Future of Production Report 2018” of the World Economic Forum, Cambodia’s drivers and structure of production were assessed as 3.6 on a scale of 10. Among other measures to take for countries to meet the challenges that this shift toward Industry 4.0 will present, the report stressed the responsibility that governments have to protect consumers and establish legal frameworks for this new technology.
The e-commerce bill is part of the Cambodian government’s effort to have the country achieve middle-income status by 2030, and also involves measures for consumer protection and social security regime laws.
