This would be easy billion dollars of business transactions. All the
folks at the different ministries need to do is facilitate such a
process by creating an interagency. That would bring representatives
from commerce, foreign affairs, economics, tourism, the Cambodian
chamber of commerce, and the different institutions who are interested
in getting expats to do teaching, managing, mentoring and counseling
in various fields of endeavors.
In fact, this is a much better strategy because expats are familiar
with the culture, having relatives inside the country, and eager to
stay much longer in the country. Besides billion of dollars that will
flow in, the amount of information, knowledge and new ideas are
priceless. They can go to spur innovation and creativity in all walks
of life in Cambodia.
Suppose we have about 20,000 returnees who want to resettle in various
cities such as in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Some expats have long
professional life in the US. Additionally, If they are retirees, they
would have benefits from social security, pension funds, 401K
investment accounts and life insurance. Suppose again that the
combined benefits would amount to around $3,000 monthly which is
$36,000 annually for each one of them. Let's do the math:
$36,000 X 20,000 = 720,000,000 that's close to one billion dollars
annually. But this is only an approximation. The real value may be a
lot more, depending on the approach to induce and entice the expats.
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