Startups with Social Conscience Thrive in Cambodia

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Startups with Social Conscience Thrive in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - KiHow Tran had originally planned to just spend a few months in Cambodia volunteering and taking a break from his life in the U.S., but three years later, the 24-year-old Cambodian-Chinese-American is part of a growing community of entrepreneurs creating startups in the Southeast Asian country.

Tran, whose parents fled Cambodia during the brutal Khmer Rouge era in which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were killed, partnered with his brother, Ki Chong, to create the country's first 3D printing company.

"[3D technology] has the potential to kind of change everything - just like the computer, the Internet or even telephones. Usually these types of new technologies go to rich countries first and they're developed there and then years later - pretty much when it's mature - it'll go to a place like Cambodia," Ki Chong Tran said. "So I thought it would be interesting and also really beneficial for a developing country to get a cutting-edge technology and grow with it as the technology grows."

With a low cost of living, cheap Internet and an abundance of non-profit organizations, Cambodia is luring entrepreneurs like KiHow and Ki Chong who are looking to make a difference while starting a business. Though the tech community still remains relatively small in Cambodia, co-working spaces as well as entrepreneurship workshops and events are popping up in Phnom Penh to support the budding startup culture.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/cambodias-socially-driven-startup-scene-lures-entrepreneurs-n370621