This article reports that IFC has supported Cambodia’s motivated rice millers in their efforts to create voluntary, member-run and financed business associations since 1998. The IFC-managed Mekong Project Development Facility (MPDF) first began working with the original group of miller associations set up under guidance of Cambodia Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project (CARERE), providing them with a business management course specially designed for Cambodian rice millers. When CARERE’s mandate and funding expired in 1999, MPDF helped members of its disbanded private sector unit organize as a local NGO, renamed Enterprise Development Cambodia (EDC). MPDF also opted to increase its own direct involvement with millers, commissioning creation of a manual outlining the mechanics of starting a business association in Cambodia, and teaming up with EDC to provide technical and financial backing for the start up of six new associations throughout the country.
Bibliography: IFC (International Finance Corporation). 2000a. “A Rice Industry Revives: The Millers’ Tale.” SME Facts 1 (9). World Bank Group, SME Department, Washington, D.C.
