Cambodia & Law: Wissam Mghazli, bridging legal cultures
To mark the publication of Komon’s new legal guide “S’implanter et faire des affaires au Cambodge” (Setting Up and Doing Business in Cambodia), Cambodge Mag met Wissam Mghazli, a member of the Paris Bar and director of Komon Cambodia.
You are a member of the Paris Bar, director of the firm Komon Cambodia, a lecturer at the RULE (Royal University of Law and Economics) and president of the AFCAJ (Franco-Cambodian Association of Lawyers and Jurists). What led you to open a Komon office in Cambodia?
Cambodia offers opportunities that French entrepreneurs still know too little about. The country has about 18 million inhabitants, 60% of them under 30, and is a member of ASEAN, a regional market of more than 700 million people. In most sectors, foreign investors can own 100% of their company’s capital, which is a real advantage over some other countries in the region.
The economy is also largely dollarised, English is commonly and skilfully used in business, and operating costs are competitive in many areas. Cambodia can therefore be a market in its own right, but also a base for French companies that want to diversify their activities and explore new sources of growth in Southeast Asia.
The opening of Komon Cambodia meets a concrete need: to support international companies, French ones in particular, in their investment projects in Cambodia. We provide legal expertise suited to their development goals and to Cambodian law through our local partners.
We speak their language and guarantee high-quality services that meet the international standards most of them are used to.
Komon is the first French firm to have opened an office in Cambodia. With your experience on the ground, what are the key factors in a successful set-up?
Success rests on three things: choosing the right legal structure, understanding local practices and building solid professional relationships.
The legal framework must support the company’s ambitions from the start, inter alia: choice of company form, organisation of the activity and governance, tax implications, often with international considerations, hiring and trademark protection.
But knowing the law is not enough. It is also necessary to understand local customs, to be present on the ground and to take the time to build relationships of trust.
The quality of professional relationships also plays a very important role. Taking the time to meet local players, to understand what they expect and to build trust makes dealings easier and anchors the company’s development in the long term.
It is this combination of legal mastery, understanding of the field and quality of professional relationships that allows a better grasp of the Cambodian market and the building of a lasting business there.
As for timing, the creation of Komon Cambodia comes at just the right moment. After almost ten years of travelling back and forth between Paris and Phnom Penh, it was time for me and my firm to make it concrete. This is a pivotal year for Cambodia, which will be in the spotlight in a few weeks with the 20th Francophonie Summit and all the economic and legal events around it, including an important Paris Bar event in partnership with the Cambodian Bar on 12 and 13 November 2026.
Komon is publishing the legal guide “S’implanter et faire des affaires au Cambodge” (Setting Up and Doing Business in Cambodia). Why did you want to create it, and what need does it meet?
“S’implanter et faire des affaires au Cambodge” is the newborn little brother of the other Komon group guides, notably those on doing business in Japan and in Morocco, for French and French-speaking companies.
For this Cambodian edition, we wanted to bring together in a single guide the essential information an entrepreneur needs to prepare a set-up in Cambodia.
When you think about starting a company in a new country, the questions are many. Which structure to choose? How does taxation work? How do you recruit staff? Should you protect your brand? What rules apply to property investments or a possible acquisition? And so on.
The guide follows the main stages of a set-up project, from the creation of the company to dispute resolution, including customs and intellectual property. It covers the economic environment, companies, taxation, labour law, trademark law and mergers and acquisitions. This is what makes it useful beyond a simple presentation of Cambodian law: each chapter answers a question the manager asks at a specific point in the project.
It is aimed at SME managers, investors, legal and finance departments and the professionals who advise them. The aim is to give them an overall view of the Cambodian legal framework and of the main steps to prepare before getting started.
Can a company be created and developed in Cambodia as it would be in France? What mistakes should be avoided?
Cambodia offers a favourable framework for foreign investors, but several legal specificities must be taken into account from the preparation of the project.
Company creation: in most sectors, foreign investors can own 100% of their company’s capital. The limited liability company is the most common form.
Land: foreigners cannot, in principle, directly own land in Cambodia. Solutions such as a long-term lease, a trust or certain corporate structures can be considered, subject to the applicable legal conditions.
Taxation: corporate income tax is 20% and VAT is 10%. Certain qualifying investment projects can benefit from tax incentives, including an exemption of up to nine years depending on the applicable regime. A tax treaty between Cambodia and France is also under discussion.
Labour law: hiring foreign employees requires, among other things, compliance with visa, work permit and quota requirements.
Intellectual property: registering a trademark is essential to protect one’s rights in Cambodia. It is best to plan this step from the preparation of the project.
These examples illustrate the questions to examine before creating a company, investing or hiring in Cambodia. The guide goes into these subjects in more depth to help entrepreneurs better prepare their set-up.
You teach law at the RULE, notably the law of obligations and international arbitration law. How does this experience enrich your view of Cambodian law and the needs of foreign companies?
“I always walk through the gates of the Royal University of Phnom Penh to teach with a certain mix of happiness and naivety, and it gets me every time, however many years pass!
Teaching future Khmer or French lawyers lets me exchange with a new generation of professionals and better understand how the Cambodian legal world is changing.
Besides passing on knowledge, which matters a great deal to me, this experience feeds my practice as a lawyer and adviser, notably in supporting foreign companies facing local and cross-border legal issues.
Cambodia has a legal framework that evolves with the development of its economy. The 2021 investment law, the 2023 tax law and the growth of commercial arbitration illustrate this. Teaching lets me address these changes and also explain what they mean in practice for companies.
Arbitration is an important subject for companies that carry out international operations: understanding the mechanisms available to resolve commercial disputes helps secure their business relationships.”
At a time when companies are looking for new sources of growth in Asia, why take an interest in Cambodia? What first piece of advice would you give a manager considering setting up there, and where can he or she get your guide?
“Alongside the traditional pillars of the Cambodian economy — agriculture, textiles, tourism and construction — several sectors offer prospects for development, notably health, digital, industry and renewable energy. The country also offers investment incentives for certain eligible projects, while special economic zones can bring advantages to industrial and export-oriented companies.
My first piece of advice would be to come and see for yourself, to meet the players in the market and to test your project against local reality. Beyond studying economic opportunities, understanding the local environment and building relationships of trust are essential to a successful set-up.
Cambodia still suffers — wrongly, as you can imagine — from many preconceptions in Europe about its development and its economic and social situation. My aim, like that of many people around me, is precisely to put paid to these received ideas by inviting many entrepreneurs, notably on the occasion of the Francophonie Summit, to come and meet us and discover the real Cambodia with their own eyes!
And it is notably to help these entrepreneurs better understand this environment that we designed the guide “S’implanter et faire des affaires au Cambodge”. It is available free of charge online on the Komon Cambodia website:
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