Cambodia : Cross-cutting issues between digital finance and connected health

During the recent health forum organized by EuroCham at the Sun & Moon Riverside, Mr. Oudam Rony, Director of the Department of Supervision of Technological Risks and Innovation at the Banque Nationale du Cambodge (BNC), presented his analysis of the cross-cutting issues between digital finance and connected health.

Mr. Oudam Rony, Director of the Department of Supervision of Technological Risks and Innovation at the Banque Nationale du Cambodge (BNC)

His presentation highlighted the digital transformation of the Cambodian financial sector as an inspiring model for establishing a reliable, secure, and inclusive digital health ecosystem.

Lessons from the financial sector for building trust

Mr. Rony began by recalling the spectacular evolution of the financial sector in Cambodia. He mentioned two structuring milestones: the Bureau du Crédit de Cambodge (CBC), launched in 2012, and Bakong, a next-generation digital payment system introduced in 2020. These innovations, fruits of a public-private partnership, profoundly changed the trust relationship between financial institutions and citizens.

The CBC, for example, established a new regulated and iterative logic for sharing credit data, with strengthened protection of privacy and user consent, well before national legislation on data protection existed.

This infrastructure allowed faster credit decisions, improved access to financing for more than 5 million Cambodian adults, and secured economic transactions, thus contributing to national economic growth.

Bakong, for its part, took trust to a new level: its distributed design ensures transparent, auditable, and confidential transactions without compromising security. In 2023, more than 8 million users benefited from this system, which was also crucial during the pandemic, notably for contactless payments and the adoption of digital vaccination certificates.

Governance and collaboration, pillars of a digital health ecosystem

Mr. Rony drew a strong analogy between financial governance and that required in digital health. In finance, trust is based on hybrid governance bringing together regulators, private actors, and users within a clear framework. He proposes a similar model in health where hospitals, clinics, drug suppliers, and health authorities cooperate to build interoperable, secure, and resilient platforms.

This collaboration prevents system fragmentation and promotes a coherent national ecosystem, combining transparency, accountability, and innovation, ensuring patient confidentiality and the security of medical data.

Enhancing digital health in the national economy

Finally, Mr. Rony underlined that digital health is not limited to immediate clinical benefits: it becomes a key infrastructure for technological innovation, research, education, and investment attractiveness.

Anonymized and secured data open the way for the development of medical artificial intelligences, innovative startups, and skilled jobs.

This dynamic creates a virtuous circle beneficial for public health and Cambodia’s economic growth.

An invitation to build on trust and collaboration

Mr. Oudam Rony’s intervention offered a clear perspective on the challenges and opportunities of digital health. Leveraging the successes of the financial sector, he invites building a digital health ecosystem based on trust, shared governance, resilience, and innovation.