PHNOM PENH: On the morning of July 19, Labor Minister Ith Samheng met with Rho Hyun Jun, Director of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Cambodia. The two discussed the partnership between Cambodian and South Korea in the fields of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. They also signed a five-year cooperation plan in pursuit of developing Cambodia’s technological capacity.

The KOICA director reaffirmed his agency’s commitment to joining Cambodia on building professional skills in the field of technology communication for Cambodian youth and to sending their experts to train Cambodians in professional development.

In response, Ith Samheng thanked KOICA for their cooperation and for supporting the training at TVET in terms of capacity building of civil servants, technical teachers and students, providing Korean volunteers and building infrastructure and training equipment for Cambodia’s programs.

The minister emphasized the importance of developing ICT skills in Cambodia, especially in the field of vocational training, for which the government has laid out a plan starting later this year, which will provide vocational training to 1.5 million impoverished and vulnerable youth across the country.

The KOICA director thanked the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training for its support of KOICA's mission over the past 20 years, especially its mission to contribute to human resource development in Cambodia. He stressed that South Korea’s government considers Cambodia to be the second most important country in the region in terms of developing TVET skills and that it is also committed to bringing its national skills and training experience to help train the Cambodian people and develop the national economy.