Created in 2012 by GRET’s teams in Cambodia, iSEA is a services centre providing small rural water operators with technical and management support, focusing on sustainable and accessible development of this sector that is essential for inhabitants’ well-being. Today, iSEA is a fully independent entity that has signed 80 contracts with 17 local private operators since it was set up.
The services provided include the design, extension and improvement of networks and treatment facilities, as well as training of operators and sometimes support to obtain loans. We look back on this entrepreneurial adventure targeting sustainable water management for rural populations in Cambodia.
At the end of the 2000s, we were surprised by the vitality and dynamism of private operators in the water sector in Cambodia, at the time we called them “small private operators” or SPOs. We felt they needed technical support to become professionalised and have access to bank loans to improve and extend their infrastructure. In our Cambodian team, we had confirmed expertise in engineering, in training of operators and in the services economy. And while at that time there were no specialised engineering consultancies in Cambodia that could provide the range of services these entrepreneurs needed, in 2011 we had the idea of drawing on the skills of our Cambodian colleagues to create an engineering consultancy. We imagined we could position the structure as an intermediary between these operators and banks to enable them to submit credible projects to the latter.
In 2012, this consultancy was set up as an autonomous internal team at the GRET representation in Cambodia to test – in near-realistic conditions – private operators’ interest in paid technical support provided by local expertise. The team directed by Yi Sokkol grew and obtained a first series of contracts with these operators. The experience demonstrated growing interest in engineering and project monitoring. It also showed that without appropriate financial products, the brokerage function was more difficult to implement. This constraint was eliminated with the implementation by Agence française de développement (AFD) of a credit line intended for small water and electricity operators in Cambodia in 2015. This credit line proved that operators were willing to borrow money if suitable financial products were available and technical assistance was provided.
Based on this experience, the conditions were in place to begin the creation of an engineering consultancy called Innovative Services, Engineering and Advisory, or iSEA. GRET wished to remain strongly involved in the structure and its January 2014 General Assembly unanimously validated its equity investment in iSEA as soon as it was set up. However, numerous difficulties were encountered in terms of officially registering iSEA. Firstly there were changes in the staff involved, following several departures that delayed the finalisation of the statutes. But, more significantly, in a context where the Cambodian authorities were defying international NGOs, GRET had trouble having the principle of its shareholdership in iSEA accepted, despite the fact that it was legal. Several possible solutions were explored to overcome this difficulty, including carrying of GRET’s shares by other structures or the creation of iSEA elsewhere in the sub-region. However, none of these solutions was entirely satisfactory.
In the meanwhile, the team was stabilised, with twelve staff headed up by director Yi Sokkol, economic director Chhim Tit Cresna, and technical director Oun Sreymao. iSEA became a key player in the water sector in Cambodia, and the only structure with real experience in intermediation between banks and water operators. iSEA provided advice to the Stone Family Foundation for the implementation of a new credit line for private water operators, and supported these operators to obtain and repay their loans. Private operators had confidence in the structure (since 2012, more than 80 contracts were signed) and some became loyal clients, despite the higher prices practised by iSEA compared to informal competition from individual consultants. For its part, GRET subcontracted engineering and economic studies on services within projects or consulting missions.
At the end of 2021, having exhausted all options to register iSEA with GRET shareholdership, with GRET’s agreement, the team decided to register the structure with solely Cambodian shareholdership. iSEA has been officially registered since the beginning of 2022, ten years after it was set up as an autonomous team within GRET. Our two organisations are connected by a partnership agreement and it is very likely that our relationship will remain strong in the coming years!
Good luck to all the team! We’re working on the same development trajectories…
Mathieu Le Corre, head of the Essential services and natural resources department at GRET
During its ten years of presence within GRET, iSEA obtained funding from Agence française de développement (AFD), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Fondation Suez, and UNICEF.
