Cambodia Leadership Review
Cambodia’s tax landscape is evolving rapidly, presenting both challenges and opportunities for businesses and advisors alike. As a leader in Cambodia’s tax advisory sector, Clint O’Connell shares his insights on the core values that shape his leadership, the key tax challenges businesses face in 2025, new developments at DFDL Cambodia, and his outlook on the country’s investment future.
Leadership Values and Guiding Principles
CLR: Clint, as a leader in Cambodia’s tax advisory sector, what core values and guiding principles shape your approach to leadership? How have these principles helped you navigate challenges and inspire your team in such a dynamic and evolving market?
Tax in Cambodia has been evolving at pace for the last ten years. The discipline of tax is not a hobby nor is it something one can casually approach. To be a gamechanger and a true leader in tax you must eat, sleep, breathe and spend your days thinking about it. When you have put in the hours, I often refer to the 10,000-hour rule, then you may get to a point where you can start thinking strategically and align those tax strategies with the needs of your clients.
My approach to leadership is to lead by example by setting high standards as to the expected knowledge of my staff, the way they effectively communicate with clients and officials and by encouraging adaptability and flexibility in this fast-changing environment.
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Tax advisory at its core is a service and the teams I lead are taught to have a client-centric mindset. That means anticipating client needs, understanding their business, and proactively offering solutions that add value. Once you incorporate client value add as your driving mindset then your whole philosophy changes.
Where I come from there is a well-known expression – whāia e koe te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei. This roughly translates to seek excellence and if you bow your head let it be to a lofty mountain! I set high expectations for my team but never ask them to do something that I would not undertake myself!
Sector Challenges and Opportunities in 2025
CLR: The tax advisory sector is integral to Cambodia’s economic transformation. What are the key challenges businesses face in 2025, and what opportunities do you see for both local and international firms to thrive in this changing landscape?
It’s fair to say that post-COVID certain sectors in Cambodia have not rebounded as well as others. Tax policies undertaken by the Royal Cambodian Government have sought to encourage recovery in areas such as real estate, tourism and hospitality.
The key challenges businesses face in 2025 with respect to tax are well documented. These include dealing with tax audits, dealing with an unlevel playing field with respect to the tax registration and treatment of locally owned competitors, managing to obtain VAT refunds, and keeping up with new tax developments such as capital gains tax on share transfers, personal income tax (apparently slated to come into effect from 2026), and a new airlines and logistics tax framework.
One of the key challenges facing the Royal Government is how to formalize a very large MSME sector to widen the tax base and take some of the tax audit heat off those businesses who make up the relatively small number of registered taxpayers in Cambodia.
New Developments at DFDL Cambodia
CLR: What are some of the new initiatives or innovations happening at DFDL this year? How are these efforts positioning your firm to address the evolving needs of your clients and stay ahead in the industry?
At DFDL Cambodia we are always looking to encourage new initiatives and innovations to keep ourselves at the forefront of the market.
Our investment in our people always comes first and in 2024 and this year we were proud to promote several new partners in the firm including Ms. Davy Kong, Ms. Vajiravann Chamnan, Ms. Nearirath Sreng and Mr. Diberjohn Balinas. These promotions highlight our deep level of expertise in the fields of tax, customs, real estate, e-commerce, banking and commerce.
Last year we also moved to our new office on the 16th floor of the Exchange Square Building – this has been a gamechanger! The feedback from our guests, clients and staff has been amazing and we have a great sense of pride in our new office environment that enables us to strive even harder with our professionalism and to provide value for our clients.
We also have increased the number of events and update sessions that we now regularly provide for our clients using the top-notch facilities that are on hand.
We recently launched our local European Desk headed by Ms. Julie Keo, which works closely with our European Desk in Paris to ensure that we provide tailored solutions for our European clients. We have invested in our Chinese desk by hiring both tax and legal Chinese speaking advisors to assist our Chinese clients.
We launched very successful customs and real estate booklets in late 2024 and we will be launching tax, investment and trusts booklets in the first quarter of 2025. We also have a very special launch planned for an online platform for company incorporation that we think will be a game-changer in Cambodia but that is being kept under wraps for now and will be revealed soon!
Outlook for Cambodia and the Tax Advisory Sector
CLR: Looking ahead, what is your outlook for Cambodia as a growing hub for business and investment? How do you see the tax advisory sector contributing to the country’s economic goals, and what advice would you give to businesses navigating Cambodia’s evolving regulatory environment?
We are very optimistic looking ahead to 2025 and beyond. Celebrating 30 years of operations in Cambodia is not just a time for reflection but also a time to take stock for the future.
DFDL was fortunate to be advisors for the Nham24/Grab and Amret/Sinopac acquisitions in late 2024/early 2025 and those two significant deals are proof-positive that the Cambodian market is still very attractive to investors.
With a young and dynamic government which is very attuned to the needs of the Cambodia economy and very active in selling doing business in Cambodia to the world things are looking up! The new airport, the Funan canal, ongoing investment in infrastructure and electricity and a young dynamic and tech-savvy workforce place Cambodia in a very good position for the coming years.
The Cambodian tax advisory sector will continue to play an important role to foreign investors who enter this marketplace. My advice to investors is to ensure that they use a competent and experienced tax and legal advisor who can provide them with value added services. Remember in the advisory stakes you often get what you pay for!
As a tax advisor for nearly 20 years in Cambodia I have witnessed firsthand many before and after stories of business owners who swore by the competency of their accountant or external advisor only to come to us down the road to try and resolve the daunting tax re-assessment situation that their incumbent advisors landed them in.
Cambodia Investment Review, in partnership with the International Business Chamber of Cambodia, has officially launched the Cambodia Leadership Review – 50 International Voices 2025. Now in its second edition, the publication highlights 50 of the most influential international business leaders and innovators contributing to Cambodia’s dynamic economic landscape.
Download the full publication here.
