Knowledge is the key to successful investment, says Laurent Notin, general manager of Indochina Research.

I am very pleased to welcome you to the first edition of the Foreign Business Leaders Assessment Survey/Cambodia. This initiative, taken by Southeast Asia Globe and Indochina Research Ltd., is a tool to help potential investors understand the Cambodian business environment and enable them to make an informed investment decision. To deploy an investment at the right moment or to decide to engage in a business in a foreign country requires a certain level of confidence in a market. Providing an accurate and reliable picture about Cambodia's business climate, by those who experience this exciting market first hand, can certainly nurture such confidence. What better source of information than to assess the perceptions of those foreign businessmen and women who have already invested in Cambodia and proven themselves  successful at it ever since?

Indochina Research Ltd. is the only independent market research agency with operations in the three countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. We have been servicing private and public institutions for the past 15 years and have acquired deep knowledge of the local people, market trends and business environment. This survey was conducted by e-mail. We have talked to a large number of foreign business leaders, representing a broad range both of sectors of activity and nationalities. The results highlight key strengths and challenges for those already doing business, or planning on doing business, in Cambodia. They will come as no surprise to those already familiar with the country's environment, but they may put the enthusiasm of those looking at investing in the country into a broader context.

Let's put Cambodia back into the context of its history: one does need to remember that it has come a long way since the Khmer Rouge era, but entire sections of its economy still need to be built from scratch again. So yes, no doubt there are challenges ahead, but there are also long-term opportunities for businesses that are ready to benefit from Cambodia's current level of development and accept the constraints of a country still under construction. These are exciting times in a fast-moving economy and this may be why 93% of the businesses we have interviewed expressed their intentions to  continue investing in this market.

My deepest thanks go to all of the participants in this survey for kindly supporting this initiative. I hope you will enjoy reading this report as much as we have enjoyed preparing it.  I also hope it becomes a reference for investors inside and outside Cambodia and look forward to your feedback – and to welcoming you as new partners in the country.

Download the full
Business Leaders Survey 2011
as a pdf here