Nine centuries ago, long before invention became the privilege of a few wealthy economies, Khmer engineers built the hydraulic network that made Angkor the largest pre-industrial city on Earth. That privilege is eroding. A country unburdened by legacy infrastructure can now outpace those still carrying it, as Cambodia showed by leapfrogging to national-scale digital payments in under a decade. The remarks ask what it takes for ideas to move from the laboratory into the real economy across the emerging world, from enabling regulation to capital, skills and early adoption, and why a population with a median age of 26 makes Cambodia a live proving ground for what gets built.