Media Award Handover Ceremony on the News Writing Competition on: "The Contribution of the Banking and Financial Sector to the Cambodian Livelihoods"

Background

The financial sector has been playing a crucial role in delivering essential financial services and contributing to living conditions, bolstering the Cambodian living standard, reducing poverty, and boosting Cambodia's national economic growth. Banking and Financial Institutions have continued to contribute to improving Financial Inclusion, which is reflected in the increase in the number of customer deposit accounts to 12.1 million and consumer credit accounts to 3.3 million.

At the same time, we also understand that Media also plays an important role in contributing to promoting Cambodian Livelihoods in terms of information sharing. Therefore, the relationship between the media and the financial sector is inseparable. Media has the role of sharing knowledge, information, education, and entertainment and is also an important mechanism and channel for the financial sector to disseminate messages and spread awareness about financial products and services through the media to all Cambodian nationwide.

The current relationship between BFIs and Media is in the form of advertising, while editorial and news content relations seemed to be limited. Some journalists have often raised the difficulty of seeking sources or interviews in the financial sector. On the other hand, professionals in the financial sector (FIs) seem reluctant to communicate directly with the editor or journalists, as they perceive that there may be risks and that the financial sector seems to be complex, requiring detailed study or understanding deeply before producing a story with accuracy.

These challenges have resulted in limited content about the financial sector and limited access to financial information and knowledge among the Cambodian population, despite the ongoing financial topics getting noticed every day. The lack of linkages between the financial sector and media deprives financial institutions of significant opportunities to contribute to financial education, disseminate information, and enhance the vital role of the financial sector in the daily life of the Cambodian people.

Seeing these challenges, the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC) and the Cambodian Microfinance Association (CMA), together with the Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ), have been working together to strengthen the relationship between media and the financial sector since the beginning of 2021. These activities have included organizing training for journalists on basic knowledge of the banking and finance sector, field visits to Kampot and Takeo provinces, and News Writing Competitions on the topic of "The Contribution of the Banking and Financial Sector to the Cambodian Livelihoods"