Cambodia

Cambodia

New investment law aims to boost foreign investments

09 Sep 2021

On October 15 2021, the Government of Cambodia adopted a new Law on Investment. The new law will replace the Law on Investment of 1993, as revised in 2003. The new Law aims to create an open and transparent legal framework for investment, as well as to attract and promote quality, efficient and effective investment tailored to support socio-economic development.

The key provisions of the new law include:

  • Investment incentives: establishing an investment incentive regime that is transparent, predictable, non-discriminatory, competitive, and supportive of socio-economic policies. Incentives are offered in 19 sectors, including high-tech industries involving innovation or research and development, notably through a mechanism of tax-related basic incentives, additional incentives and special incentives;

  • Investor guarantees: a set of protective measures are granted by the law to investors and their assets, including non-discrimination, guarantees against nationalisation and arbitrary expropriation, free transfer of funds, intellectual property protection etc.

  • Investment procedures: the new law revises and improves administrative procedures for applying for registration of qualified investment projects (SEC) a basic introduction to some technical aspects addressed in the law, such as registering and transferring an investment project.

  • UNCTAD has been collecting information on changes in national foreign direct investment (FDI) policies on an annual basis since 1992. This collection has provided input to the analysis of global and regional investment policy trends in the World Investment Report, the Investment Policy Monitors and the UNCTAD-OECD Reports on G20 Measures.

    In 2024, to further strengthen the quality of reporting, UNCTAD revised the methodology of monitoring investment policy measures. and revised the measures going back to 2012 accordingly.

    The Investment Policy Monitor provides the international investment community with country-specific, up-to-date information about the latest developments in foreign investment policies.

    Through its monitoring of investment policy changes, UNCTAD offers cutting-edge and innovative contributions to investment policy discourse, and contributes to preparing the ground for future policymaking in the interest of making foreign investment work for sustainable development.

  • The UNCTAD's Investment Policy Monitor database include official measures affecting FDI adopted by United Nations Member States. These encompass measures explicitly targeting FDI (FDI-specific), as well as general investment measures with a clear impact on foreign investment (FDI-related). The measures are either reported directly to UNCTAD by Member States through annual surveys or identified by UNCTAD researchers through publicly accessible sources (such as government websites and specialized policy databases). The classification of measures as more or less favourable is based solely on their potential impact on investors.

    Note: Measures are verified, to the fullest extent possible, by referencing government sources. The compilation of measures is not exhaustive.

    Disclaimer: the boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

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