Cambodia Leadership Review Top 50 2025: Dalton Wong – Chairman at Masswork
- nicholastan788
- Mar 31
- 5 min read
As a seasoned regional entrepreneur and leader of IndoCham and Kadin Cambodia, Dalton Wong shares his leadership philosophy and the values that have shaped his approach to business. He discusses the challenges and opportunities for Indonesian businesses in Cambodia, the evolving trade landscape, and how IndoCham and Kadin are facilitating stronger economic cooperation. He also outlines the future roadmap for his group, with a focus on renewable energy and outbound investment from China to ASEAN.
Leadership Values and Guiding Principles
CLR: Dalton, as the founder of Speedwind and a leader in regional business organizations, what core values and guiding principles have shaped your leadership approach? How have these values influenced your success in building a strong distribution and managed services network?
As I have grown through the years, I have made many mistakes, learned a lot from my experience as a regional entrepreneur, the values that I go by have also evolved and solidify as I learned from our own success stories as well as our failures.
They are in no particular order:
a) Resilience and persistence
b) Integrity and Ethics
c) Quality and excellence
d) Social Responsibility and Sustainability
These values have helped me through the years in shaping the leadership and culture of the team and company as well as navigating challenges and innovation, in building our strong network and services.
Challenges and Opportunities in Indonesia-Cambodia Trade.
CLR: With Indonesia’s growing economic influence in ASEAN and its expanding trade ties with Cambodia, what do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for Indonesian businesses looking to enter and grow in Cambodia? How is IndoCham and Kadin supporting these efforts?
To be frank, there will be some challenges for Indonesian businesses looking to enter Cambodia. As a matter of fact, any business who wishes to invest in another country will still find some challenges, whilst opportunities are also there. In Cambodia, I would think that:
a) Relatively Smaller market size compared to Indonesia and less affordability compares to other neighboring countries.
b) Infrastructure and Logistics Limitations – while Cambodia is improving in terms of infrastructure, it still lags behind regional standards. Logistics costs can be higher due to inefficiencies in transport and supply chain networks.
c) Human resource challenges – skilled labor maybe limited, and investment will be required on training local employees. Turnover rates and a small talent pool in specialized industries can make hiring difficult.
Having said the above, our role as IndoCham and Kadin is ready to facilitate and support Indonesian businesses who are looking to invest in Cambodia with our vast network of members and partners.
Despite some of these hurdles, Cambodia offers growth potential, particularly in infrastructure, manufacturing, and digital services. A strong local trusted partnership, due diligence and adaptability are key in overcoming these challenges.
Strengthening Indonesia’s Presence in Cambodia
CLR: As President of the Indonesian Chamber (IndoCham) and VChair of Kadin’s Cambodia, you play a key role in fostering Indonesia-Cambodia business relations. What strategies and initiatives have you championed to enhance trade, investment, and business cooperation between the two countries?
Since inception of IndoCham, we have coordinated many initiatives, events and projects in business, trade, investment, cultural exchange as well as support and promote better networking between Indonesia businesses in Cambodia and the local and international business community. I do not really want to highlight any initiatives and yet not discredit any event or initiatives done. But I must say that for IndoCham we have led, coordinated and organized a mixed bag of events / initiatives relating to Business, Community, Social and Cultural. You can find out more regarding all our initiatives on our IndoCham website.
The Future of Indonesia’s Role in ASEAN Business
CLR: Looking ahead, what is your outlook on Indonesia’s evolving role in ASEAN’s economic landscape? How can Indonesian businesses leverage opportunities in Cambodia, and what role will organizations like IndoCham and Kadin play in shaping this future?
Indonesia plays a central role in ASEAN’s economic landscape, driven by its large economy, strategic location and active leadership in regional initiatives.
Some of the key aspects of its role include:
1) Economic Anchor of ASEAN – contributing 35-40% of the region’s GDP and large population of over 280million.
2) Trade and Investment hub – RCEP and attracting FDI in key sectors like digital economy and green energy.
3) Champion of Digital and Green Economy – booming tech sector, leading renewable energy initiatives, sustainable supply chains, and supporting ASEAN’s green growth agenda.
4) Supply Chain Realignment and Industrialization – vast natural resources to position itself as a regional manufacturing hub for EVs and batteries.
5) ASEAN Leadership and Policy Advocacy – taking lead in ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, prioritize supply chain resilience, energy security, and digital economy cooperation.
With Indonesia taking lead on the above, these objectives are very key to shape the way the economic outlook is going to be in the next 5 to 10 years amongst the countries in ASEAN.
IndoCham and Kadin are well aligned with the country’s Key objectives in ASEAN and have taken the lead is facilitating multiple bilateral engagements between the two countries.
These have been in both private or public sectors as well as many MOUs have been signed between the two countries on bilateral cooperation, trade, knowledge exchange as well as business community connectivity between the two countries and these activities have gotten much more traction in the recent years.
The Roadmap Ahead For Your Group
CLR: As a Regional player, what is the Roadmap going forward for your group and how will it fit into IndoCham and Kadin’s objectives?
Our immediate focus going forward will be focusing more on outbound business from China to Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia in renewable energy, Household Infrastructure including waste management. Cambodia will be focusing on solar energy projects, leading to higher demand for batteries and inverters. This is driven by factors such as an increase in solar energy adoption, the expansion of commercial and residential infrastructure and the need for power backup solutions.
We are expecting the demand to grow significantly from now until 2030 especially in the areas of renewable energy, transportation and industrial applications. Countries like Malaysia and Indonesia has also seen an upside interest in these products and areas and will be focusing on this as well.
With outbound businesses and investments from China going to Asean countries, it coincides well with Kadin and IndoCham key objective of fostering business collaboration, exchange, trade and investment amongst Asean countries for the private sectors. CLR
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