Jean-Daniel Gardère

Jean Daniel Gardère (b. 1945) is a French researcher and historian specialized in economy and finance who witnessed the last moments of Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s Sangkum Reastr Neyum and has been serving as Special Advisor to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and the SOSORO Museum (Cambodia Museum of Economy and Money), Phnom Penh.

He visited Cambodia for the first time in 1968, at a time he was based in Singapore on a study mission for the French Ministry of Finance, and even if he fell in love with the country his professional involvement in the Ministry’s international activities and book publishing in France, as well as the deteriorating situation prevented him to come back before 1991.

He finally settled in Cambodia in 2002, first as the Head of the French Economic Mission in Phnom Penh, then as advisor to the investment firm City Star before launching his own consultancy agency, JDGC. After 2015, he divided his time between France and Cambodia, pursuing his research on the history of Cambodian economics. As Project Manager at NBC, he contributed as Concept Designer to the establishment of SOSORO Museum, which opened in April 2019, and to the process leading to the expansion and renovation of the Museum of Battambang, scheduled for the end of 2026.

Publications

• Money and Sovereignty: an exploration of the economic, political and monetary history of Cambodia, [Monnaie et souveraineté: Éléments pour une histoire économique, politique et monétaire du Cambodge], Phnom Penh, National Bank of Cambodia, 2010, 728 p. [FR/ENG]
• Les voies du Cambodge — Croissance et défis [1998 – 2013], Phnom Penh, National Bank of Cambodia, 2013.
• Une histoire cambodgienne: Les 4 vies de l’étonnant M. Keat Chhon, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2016, 512 p. ISBN 978−2−343−08655−2.