Swisscontact – the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation – is an independent, non-profit foundation based in Zürich, founded in 1959 by leading figures from the Swiss private sector and Swiss universities. It is exclusively involved in international development, active in more than 36 countries with 110 programmes with more than 1,400 staff members. At the heart of all of Swisscontact’s work stand the private sector and its crucial role for achieving more inclusive economic growth. Swisscontact approaches this through four thematic areas; a) Skills, b) Enterprises, c) Finance, and d) Environment. Swisscontact has been present throughout South-East Asia for more than 30 years.
Swisscontact has been operating in Cambodia since 2013, establishing its office in the country in April 2016. In Cambodia Swissconact mainly operates in four working areas – enterprise promotion, skills development – always acting through private sector development. Building on the wider organisation’s regional and global experience, Swisscontact strives to support local areas of focus, including agricultural innovation, tourism, impact investment, and renewable energy. Swisscontact currently implements the SDC-funded Skills Development Programme (SDP), leads the implementation of the Senior Expert Corps (SEC), Mekong Inclusive Growth and Innovation Programme (MIGIP) in destination management in the tourism sector and technology commercialisation in the agriculture sector, USAID-funded Regional Investment Support for Entrepreneurs (RISE), and Cambodian Horticulture Advancing Incomes and Nutrition (CHAIN) project as a consortium partner.