Cambodia Launches Electronic Know Your Business (e-KYB) System

on Sep, 07 2024

The Cambodian government has launched the “Electronic Know Your Business (e-KYB) System,” designed to verify the identity, status, and legal compliance of enterprises, as well as their relationships with other individuals or companies. It covers aspects such as business registration, tax registration, and enterprise declaration requests.

The Soft Launching Ceremony of the Electronic Know Your Business (e-KYB) System took place on September 6, 2024, at the Techo Startup Center.

The ceremony was attended by Dr. Taing Nguonly, Executive Director of the Techo Startup Center, along with representatives of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC), the General Department of Taxation (GDT) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), and the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT), as well as members of the Cambodia Data Exchange (CamDX).

According to a government press release, the e-KYB system was developed within the CamDX ecosystem, which is described as “a unified yet decentralised data exchange layer between information systems that offers a standardised and secure way to provide and consume services”.

The CamDX infrastructure allows for effortless access to data in government databases without compromising the security and ownership of the data, and with minimal technical changes in existing information systems.

What Is The New e-KYB System In Cambodia?

As the newly proposed national best practice, the e-KYB system functions similarly to the Electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) system previously used by the private sector. The e-KYB system allows for compliance scoring by verifying enterprise data against existing enterprise records.

Cambodia Launches Electronic Know Your Business (e-KYB) System./Image credit: Techo StartUp Center

The press release adds that this system will offer numerous benefits to the public sector, particularly enhancing specific IT systems in the government, such as the e-invoicing system, public procurement system, and enterprise credit scoring system.

Additionally, the e-KYB system will allow the private sector – including financial institutions, banks, and insurance companies – to collaborate with the public sector with greater ease under a unified digital business ecosystem through the CamDX platform.

How To Use Cambodia’s e-KYB System?

To access the e-KYB system, private sector institutions must first register to become members of CamDX before receiving permission to use e-KYB verification APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) – the mechanisms that enable two software components to communicate with each other.

During the e-KYB system’s pilot period, CamDX members from the private sector must submit a request to extend their use of e-KYB APIs through the CamDX membership application portal, which is directed to the Techo Startup Center, the operator of CamDX.

Multiple line ministries have participated in Phases 1, 2, and 3 of this ongoing online business registration project, and numerous companies have already registered under the MOC, GDT, and MLVT in the initial registration process.

Key Features Of The e-KYB System

Secure and reliable digital verification, ensuring that enterprise data is validated against the base registries of the competent ministries in the government.
Electronic enterprise identification with an automated and rapid verification process.
Accurate information verification through data exchange between entities.
Efficient and sustainable use of existing infrastructure and base registries.

Cambodia Data Exchange - CamDX

By 2022, CamDX recorded an average of 438,532 monthly transactions and exchanged data for four services: the Online Business Registration System (OBR), the Global Travel Assessment System (GTAS), the Validation Application on Payment Guarantee/Invitation (VAPGI), and the CamDigiKey e-KYC solution for the banking sector.

CamDX adopts Estonia’s X-Road for a unified yet decentralised data exchange to provide online services to the general public.

Cambodia Digital Development Policy

In June 2023, the Cambodian government announced a plan to achieve a Digital Economy and Society by 2035, based on three pillars: digital government, digital citizens, and digital business.

In recent years, the Government of Cambodia has embraced digital technology to offer better public services to citizens, such as the population database of the Ministry of Interior (MOI), e-Tax of the General Department of Taxation (GDT), the business registration IT system of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), and the vehicle registration IT system of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT).

However, many databases lack interoperability among the IT systems, according to the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI).