ICT Federation of Cambodia

"The Post’s Kali Kotoski sat down with Thomas Hundt, CEO of Smart and vice president of the ICT Federation, to talk about the current state of the [ICT] sector."

The CEO of Smart on adapting as the Kingdom digitises The information and communication technology (ICT) industry continues to grow at a rapid speed, pushing companies to digitise their systems in order to remain competitive. The Post’s Kali Kotoski sat down with Thomas Hundt, CEO of Smart and vice president of the ICT Federation, to talk about the cur...

"Smart Axiata CEO Thomas Hundt said he was very impressed by the outcome of the competition and the level of development reached by the finalist teams, especially considering that all the participants have yet to complete their university degree. He added that for the five ventures selected for the incubation program, the most difficult part lies ahead as they must now work to produce market-ready products."

Young ICT innovators awarded funds, help Winners of the SmartStart Young Innovator Program were announced yesterday with five teams awarded funding and support to bring their technology-related business ideas to market.

"The company’s soon-to-be-released mobile-phone application provides a one-stop platform for cashless transactions, digital money transfers and e-wallet solutions, while facilitating communications with features such as built-in messaging and video chat.

Tomas Pokorny, CEO of Pi Pay, said the platform is targeting young, internet-savvy Cambodians in the 17-30 age range in a bid to become the local equivalent of regional e-payment giants WeChat and Alipay.

'If you look at the Cambodian market you see a lot of telcos, banks, microfinance institutions and money transfer companies trying to handle remittances, but what you don’t see is a company that fully consolidates everything into a third-party payment system,' he said."

Pi Pay goes cashless with app Cash may be king in Cambodia, but Pi Pay Asia is banking on rising smartphone pe*******on and an arsenal of digital payment solutions to help dethrone it.

Thank you to everyone who participated in making yesterday's “Boost your eCommerce Sales Through Best Practices Learned From Taiwan & Business Matchmaking” workshop a success. Yesterday’s event was the second in a continuing series of co-hosted workshops held by the ICT Federation of Cambodia, the Institute for Information Industry (III) and the Taiwan Digital Opportunity Center. Their partnership and support allow for these events to be possible and we very much look forward to our next opportunity to work together in the future.

A very special thank you to the entire team from III; General Director, Ms. Meili Hsiao; Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Warren Chen; Director, Mr. Shun-Jung Tu; Section Manager, Mr. Jose Cheng and Senior Planner, Ms. Yingfen Lin.

Thank you as well to our local sponsors who continue to the support the ICT Federation and allow for us to continue empowering the digital economy of Cambodia. Heres to our Diamond Sponsors; Pathmazing and Smart Axiata and our Gold Sponsors; ICE Electronics, Sabay, EZECOM, and BiPlan Global

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Finally would also like to express our appreciation to all of the companies from Taiwan who traveled here to Cambodia to present their products/services and participate in our workshop.

**Accton Technology Corp** (IgniteNet): IgniteNet, owned by Accton group, has a proven track record of providing powerful, reliable, easy to deploy, and innovative cloud managed wireless solutions and the industry's lowest cost 60GHz wireless technology. Accton group was founded in 1988 with product solutions from data center infrastructure, cloud solutions to home security, IoT and energy management products for data center, telecom and enterprise.

**III - KD8:** III was established in 1979 as a quasi-government organization via the joint efforts of the government and private enterprises. The objectives of III are to increase innovative applications of information technology and to facilitate the development of knowledge-based economy. Their mission is to become the organization with research and development capability in the information technology domain and the strength in providing advanced application services.

**International Integrated Systems Inc:** International Integrated Systems, Inc. (IISI) is a large-scale international professional benchmark company in information and communication technologies for system implementation and software development. IISI is devoted to providing services with consistent innovation and transparency. Cooperating with global IT service providers, IISI offers worldwide customers competitive and intelligent solutions. They are striving to become a leader in providing state of the art solutions to support clients to achieve their competitive edge for success and growth.

**Onward Security Corporation:** The major business of Onward Security has implemented cybersecurity assessment for years. The experiences enhanced our team as a pioneer in the field of cybersecurity assessment. Except for working with customers, we also have cooperated with industry and academia to deliver the research technology to help the development of the industry. We are the only team in Taiwan who have executed over 300 cybersecurity drills. More than 200 network devices were tested and 2,000+ vulnerabilities were discovered in the wireless router, DSL modem, switch, NAS, IP camera, smart phone and internet TV.

**xBeacon Co:** The xBeacon team was formed in 2013 and is focused on the development of innovative technology. The team is comprised of members from different fields of expertise, including a product developer, hardware engineer, IOS and Android mobile application engineer, product designer, UI designer, a database engineer and more. Whether your issues involve the development of hardware, firmware, or software, they have a solution for any and every case.

On May 25th the ICTF and III will be co-hosting the second in a series of workshops designed to further encourage and facilitate cooperation between Taiwan and Cambodia in the ICT and eCommerce private sector.

This workshop will focus on the various applications of eCommerce in the modern marketplace including the applications of big data in relation to eCommerce, mobile commerce, eCommerce marketing, eCommerce ecosystem, and cyber security. The second half of the day will be comprised of a business matchmaking exhibition that will provide Taiwanese and Cambodian companies an opportunity to give presentations about their businesses and engage together in one on one matchmaking.

Please RSVP to [email protected] by Wednesday, May 24th.

ICTF & III eCommerce and Business Matchmaking Workshop The ICT Federation and the Institute for Information Industry (Taipei) invite you to an eCommerce and Business Matchmaking Workshop On Thursday, May 25th, 2017 09:00 - 16:00 Sokha Hotel Ballroom #1 Formal Attire Please RSVP by Friday, May 19th,

This morning ICTF President and CEO of Pathmazing, Steven Path, and ICTF Vice President and CEO of Smart Axiata, Thomas Hundt, delivered remarks at the launch event for an official partnership between Barcamp Cambodia and Smart Axiata.

Thomas Hundt stated at the event that "At Smart we have a dream to help digitize Cambodia. At the end of the day that is our core mission. The potential of ICT and technology to enhance the lives of people across the country is so great, it is unlimited. While Cambodia is still small, we see a fast growing scene with entrepreneurs and young, inspired people. This is what we at Smart want to support and why we wanted to partner with Barcamp."

Steven Path remarked that, "currently there are 200 million internet users in all of ASEAN with an expected 300% increase of the next 7 to 8 years. We see Cambodia as the largest beneficiary of this. We are seeing a growing middle class and political stability, there is a lot of opportunity for growth and for our country to develop its human resources along with its entrepreneurs." He continued that "many players are coming together to help grow this industry organically and the international attention that Cambodian ICT has received in 2017 alone is indicative of the industries strong potential for future success."

"Thomas Hundt, CEO of Smart, said in the release that the new partnership served to further the company’s digital strategy in Cambodia, while helping it expand its reach in the country.

'Smart’s unique strength in data and digital leadership, network coverage and value-added offerings will be greatly enhanced by Mitsui’s involvement as Smart continues to evolve towards a digital lifestyle brand,' "

Axiata sells 10% stake in Cambodia’s Smart Axiata Group sold a 10 percent stake of its Cambodian subsidiary Smart Axiata to Japanese group Mitsui Co Ltd to form a strategic partnership and further the firm’s activity in the Kingdom, according to a company release on Friday.

This morning at the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center, ICTF President & CEO of Pathmazing, Steven Path, and ICTF Board Member and CEO of Sabay, Chy Sila, participated in a panel discussion on the "opportunities and challenges posed by cyberspace for individual users, the private sector and government."

Steven Path suggested that “One of the challenges facing cyberspace development is the need for skilled IT professionals that are able to adhere to international standards." "It will take some time but by patiently training core app and web development skills and by providing mentors that have derived their experience from working in the real world IT industry, we can certainly overcome this obstacle."

Steven Path also strongly encouraged students to pursue careers in information technology. Mr. Path stated that “Cambodia has an exciting opportunity to be apart of the digital transformation taking place in South East Asia. Cambodia has a very bright future and everything is coming together with the private sector and government working hand in hand. The demand for IT jobs will soar, we are very confident in this. We have partners all throughout Asia as well as the United States that are looking for opportunities in Cambodia and there are many high skill and high paying IT jobs on the horizon.”

Shivam Tripathi, co-founder of CamboTicket, told The Post "I think that although there is regional competition, we have a competitive edge on some points and we know that many operators, not just in Cambodia, but also in the region do not have proper technologies. That gives us a good access into the market.”

Funding to drive CamboTicket expansion Local tech startup CamboTicket is looking to take its proprietary bus ticket booking platform to other countries in the region after receiving $100,000 in seed funding, a company executive said yesterday.

"Kao Kim Hourn, the minister attached to the prime minister of Cambodia, said that 'youth participation in the region’s development was imperative as they represent such a large portion of the population. The youth need to participate in the future of the region and they need to consider how they dream the region will be [in the future],'. He added that 'technology is providing youth opportunities to help their countries and the region develop.'"

Youth keying into digital economy Southeast Asia’s youthful population is embracing the internet and rapidly connecting to the digital economy, creating enormous potential for economic growth throughout the region, panellists at the World Economic Forum on Asean said yesterday. Addressing a panel discussion on “The Asean Dream”, Kao...

This year's theme for the Mekong ICT Camp 2017 focuses on "innovation, citizenship and open technology for social change in the Mekong sub region, and all developers, journalists, development workers and social workers are welcomed to apply."

"In line with its theme, the 2-day workshops will mainly focus on already existing developmental projects in Mekong countries and generating ideas to solve data and technological problems related to issues such as environmental and social impacts of development projects such as dams, mines, oil; disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation; and
health, education and civil rights."

Mekong ICT Camp 2017 Back to Develop the Region The biannual event has once again opened its gates to ICT players in the Kingdom. Find out all the details you need and more about this event before application closes!

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