COVID-19 has impacted all countries in every front. It slows down the economy due to supply and demand shocks, and reduced trade volume. Lockdowns worldwide and the shutdown of major industries such as hospitality, travel, and retail led to significantly higher unemployment rates worldwide, and Cambodia is not different to have felt the impacts. However, due to technological progress, especially the emerge of digitalization, impacts of COVID-19 have been minimized. In the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization technologies have become more critical. However, the lack of digitization, technology adoption, and limited online presence are key challenges. COVID-19 will likely introduce new digitization technologies to benefit the economy. Initiated by the AERI, the Lecture Series with the theme ‘Roles of Digital Economy in Post-COVID-19 Era’ aims to provide a critical perspective to the recent social and economic developments of the ASEAN countries and how the benefits digital technologies are captured to boost the economic recovery.
About the Speaker
Dr. KONG Marry is an Under-Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and advisor to His Excellency Dr. Aun Pornmoniroth, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Finance. His areas of expertise include ICT Development, digital innovation and transformation and digital economy policy development. His main roles at the Ministry involve driving reforms through the use of digital technology and platforms, developing startup and digital entrepreneurship and SMEs to go digital and promoting innovation in financial technology (FinTech).
Dr. Kong Marry is also serving in several boards of directors. He is Chairman of Techo Startup Center’s board of directors; a member of board of directors of Khmer Enterprise and Royal University of Phnom Penh; and a state financial controller for Cambodia SME bank.
Dr. Kong Marry is leading a number of working groups in the Ministry and in the government as well where he serves as Chairman of the technical working group of the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Information Technology Council, Chairman of the digital taxation working group, Chairman of the inter-ministerial technical working group in charge of business registration via IT platform and Permanent Vice-Chair of the digital economy policy framework working group. Within the framework of digital government, he is currently a Chairman of the inter-ministerial working group for monitoring and evaluating ICT projects.
In addition to serving in the boards of directors and leading the working groups, he is also Chief of Digital Technology and Enterprise for Rural Value Chains Unit of the Sustainable Assets for Agriculture Markets, Business and Trade (SAAMBAT) project. Dr. Kong Marry obtained his Master’s and doctoral degrees in Telecommunications Technology and Information Technology from Waseda University, Japan.
