HING Vutha

Senior Project Advisor

Mr Hing is a trade economist, holding his PhD in Economics from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and Master’s in International Trade Law and Policy (LL.M) from the University of Barcelona, Spain. He has been actively engaged in economic research and policy debate for nearly 20 years through his research profession at the leading development research in Cambodia. He was a research associate at Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) between 2004 and 2008 and a research fellow since 2009. Most of his research works were on trade, economic integration, and labour market and his core research abilities are trade policy analysis using quantitative methods and research grant writing. He is currently working at CDRI as senior research fellow. Mr. Hing is also an advisory Board member of the National Council on Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation, Cambodia.

Through his PhD research, Mr. Hing has built his strong interest and specialization in global value chains analysis using quantitative research method. His PhD dissertation on ‘the role of human capital in global value chains in East Asia'. He has a number of value chains analysis papers on the pipeline for publication and they are: assessing the determinants of global value chain participation in East and Southeast Asia: cross-country analysis; the impacts of human capital on firm participation in value chains: firm-level analysis in East and Southeast Asia; SMEs participation in global value chains: evidences from Indonesian manufacturing firm analysis; does servicification enhance productivity: evidences from Indonesian manufacturing firms; and innovation, technology and productivity: evidences from Cambodian firms.

Email : vutha.hing@cdri.org.kh


HING Vutha


Research Reports

The majority of businesses in Cambodia are micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which account for 99.9 percent of all businesses and a sizable portion of employment in the private sector. The adoption of digital technology (DT) among Cambodian MSMEs is still uneven and relatively low, despite the fact that it has become an essenti...

Working Papers 139
HING Vutha   (2023)

The repercussions of COVID-19 resulted in global disruptions to supply and demand as well as shocks to the global production networks. This paper employs a trade analysis approach to assess the impacts of coronavirus on Cambodia’s export performance. Utilising Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index, changes were analysed using data pre-and post...

Working Papers on COVID-19 2
HING Vutha   (2023)

Despite growing research on COVID-19 and its impacts on Cambodia, the extent to which COVID-19 affects Cambodia’s trade, global value chains (GVCs) and export competitiveness has not yet been well established. This study, therefore, aims to fill knowledge gaps and examine the dynamic of Cambodia’s exports, GVCs and competitiveness during the...

Working Papers 119

This paper maps Cambodia’s participation in Electronic and Electrical (E&E) value chains using trade statistics. It also conducts SWOT analysis based on both qualitative and quantitative data from a E&E firm survey, from which three major conclusions are drawn. This paper argues that E&E production in Cambodia has expanded rapidly with countries in...

International Publications 1

The study examines the characteristics, root causes, and challenges of irregular migration from Cambodia and then discusses the regulatory approaches and policy options to manage it. It employed mixed approaches, including a survey of 507 households in six high-migration villages, focus group discussions with returned and intending migrant workers,...

Working Papers 81
HING Vutha   (2013)

This paper attempts to answer three important questions: (1) Why does trade matter? (2) Whyis trade vital for Cambodia’s growth? (3) What policy priorities for Cambodia will make tradework for economic growth?  First, trade matters because it increases growth. Openness to trade affects growth by: allowing a country to exploit its comparativ...

Cambodia Development Review 17 - 1
HING Vutha   (2013)

Working Papers 76
HING Vutha   (2013)

This report presents new work on the impacts of the global financial crisis on the rural labour market in Cambodia. The analysis uses a combination of descriptive statistics and econometric modelling with data from household surveys in nine rural villages to track labour market changes before, during and after the crisis and then assesses the m...


Inspired by the high and sustained economic growth of the past decades that lifted disposable income and pulled millions of people out of poverty, the Cambodian government has set its ambitious target of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and further a high-income country by 2050. This aspiration terms as ‘Cambodia’s Vision 2030’...


Digital technologies have evolved at breakneck speed and spread, changing not only the digital ecosystem but also the way economy, trade and business are functioning. Massive digital transformation and its associated broad benefits for development have prompted most countries to embrace digital technology and incorporate it into their economic deve...