About

The ongoing AIDOC support mission is focussing on helping refining the conceptual design developed by the previous mission and outcome of that mission must be incorporated of the project described in this proposal. It was proposed that AIDOC shall serve as “one-stop shop” for information related to MAFF projects in MAFF, other projects and agricultural sector in Cambodia in general. It will maintain links with other instructions that are sources of relevant data and information and/or need information from MAFF. It will focus on market information, provide facts and figures to potential investors, and will help facilitate and accompany adjustments needed in the agricultural sector in the context of the entry of Cambodia in the WTO and other regional and bilateral trade agreements. Information related to standardisation of agricultural products and quality control issues will also be included in the information base, in this way supporting and promoting the production for export to market in Europe and other part of the world.

Support to the centre was proposed in three phases:

1. Start-up Phase: Implemented as part of PRASAC II with the objective to lay the foundation for the proposed centre by converting PRASAC II assets and information related services of the project (e.g. a homepage ) into an initial AIDOC, this phase will last until December 2003, it is envisaged to also move other relevant MAFF units like the ASDC into the new building;

2. Implementation Phases of 1 year in 2004, development of basic information services and modes/protocols for information exchange with other information units within and outside MAFF on pilot basis;

3. Operational Phases from 2005 onwards for at least 5 years with possible link to other ongoing or pipeline projects in the agricultural and related sectors. The main objectives of this phases are :

- to establish additional public information services in cooperation with other information units inside and outside of MAFF; - to establish full co-operation with institutions in the provinces and to implement mechanisms for data collection from provincial sources and information dissemination to provincial beneficiaries; and

- to develop additional value adding services that will be offered against free to the public and private sector in order to generate revenue for the operation of the centre and thus contribute to a sustainable funding of it’s operations. Substantial donor support is needed in Phase 2 and Phase 3 but with gradual out phasing over time in phase3.