Cambodia's financial system has undergone a significant transformation: from fragmented payments and limited access to an increasingly interoperable digital ecosystem built around national infrastructure. The opening remarks place that journey in the wider challenge facing emerging markets: how to modernise financial systems while preserving trust, monetary sovereignty and the ability to respond to domestic priorities. Cambodia's experience is presented not as a model to replicate, but as a record to examine - including the choices, trade-offs and lessons behind building national payment rails and connecting them beyond its borders. The remarks invite regulators, financial institutions and innovators to use the Summit to test what emerging markets must control themselves, what they can build or govern collectively, and where greater cooperation can create shared economic value.