Cambodia Reconnaissance

I am writing this blog at Cambodia right now, and this is my first trip to the country. I must admit that this is a real eye-opener!

Coming here on a two-day trip just to get a better feel of things, and I do feel that there are plenty of possibilities in Cambodia. Having just been stabilized politically roughly ten years back, the country is developing pretty well. Definitely there are plenty of vehicles around, and the commercial area is really starting to pick up.



When I first touch down at the airport (there is only one run-way at Siem Reap and Phnom Phenh International Airports), there was a lot of difference from what I am normally accustomed with. Firstly, language is really different from back at Singapore. Thankfully, we have a fantastic secretary that can speak Khmer, English as well as Chinese! Without her, we would probably not have been able to do much during our trip here! Secondly, the landscape here is comprised mostly of two-three storey buildings in Phnom Phenh, and stands in sharp contrast to the towering sky-scrapers in Singapore, Taiwan and China. Thirdly, there is definitely a lot less air-conditioned places than Singapore! Finally, I have found a place that is hotter than Singapore!!



And yet, there are plenty of business opportunities. For one, there is a healthy level of wealthy citizens in Phnom Phenh that has plenty of disposable income. And at the same time, there are very little places for them to spend their money! A place that is able to provide comfortable shopping facilities for high net worth consumers would be worth investing in Phnom Phenh. Also, the low landscape here makes it very easy for us to possibly deploy our wireless infrastructure in the country, and would cost only a fraction of our construction costs in Taichung! Mobile penetration is lower compared to developed cities, and would give alternative solutions like PHS or VOIP an easier entry into the voice market.

Emcom is going to take Cambodia by storm!

Ignious Yong

Managing Director
Empire Communications Technology (Emcom)

Business Expansion Plans

The past few weeks have been a real hectic time for our company! Not only have we successfully organized an exhibition in Taichung, where our vendors created booths to display our various future offerings in terms of our products and services, we have also made significant developments in our business divisions in Singapore.



EmCall, our voice services division, would be launching by the end of February 2007. Right now, we are in the process of setting up the web page for EmCall and watch out for our launch of our web page on the 9th of February! Offering high quality call-back services, our users can save up to 80% of what they would pay if they were to pay roaming charges from mobile operators! Within the year, we would also be launching P2P voice services as well as PC to mobile VOIP services in Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan. EmCall would be a highly profitable business unit for our growing consumer market business.



Additionally, we have recently acquired the VOIP and ISP license in Cambodia. Being controlled licenses, there are currently only 3 VOIP licenses issued out to companies, and our registered company in Cambodia, Emcom Technologies (Cambodia) Ltd, is one of the companies having this license. In Cambodia, we expect to develop a highly profitable business in the country. As part of our plans to develop a strong foothold in the developing countries in the South-East Asia region, we are happy to be able to work with the Cambodian government in the development of the ISP and voice market in Cambodia. In the near future, we hope to be able to establish a wireless city infrastructural project in Cambodia, much like our current EM-Taichung project.

Till next time!

Ignious Yong

Managing Director
Empire Communications Technology (Emcom)