Youth Is Served at Leadership Conference
While increased globalization and regional integration present Cambodia with new opportunities, the country continues to face challenges in fields as diverse as education, public health, urban planning, and technology. Tackling them requires leadership skills and entrepreneurial innovations as well as active participation of Cambodian youth, which makes up over 30% of Cambodia's population.
On January 16th, Sok Xing & Hwang co-sponsored the Leadership Conference in Phnom Penh. Organized by the Asia Leadership Trek, a consortium representing Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tufts University, 250 participants, comprising students, officials from the government, non-governmental agencies, as well as the private sector, gathered to learn and exchange leadership ideas at the forum.
Sharing his leadership experience in the keynote address, H.E. Sun Chanthol, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce as well as alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, stressed before the participants that, "We cannot just live on an island of wealth surrounded by the sea of poverty, but we need to expand the island of wealth, so that we cause the sea of poverty to shrink.
Mr. Sok Lor, Managing Director of Sok Xing & Hwang and an alumnus of Harvard Law School, remarked, "The Conference provided participants with critical perspectives and frameworks to help them think about salient economic and social problems of Cambodian people and to identify innovative solutions to such challenges. Also, as some Cambodian youth may perceive Harvard University, MIT, Tufts University, and other top universities as being out of their academic reach, it is my hope that their mingling with those alumni and scholars helps to narrow that perception gap. We have outstanding students and citizens who are already making extraordinary contributions to their communities and the country. Their continued achievements and assumption of leadership roles are critical to Cambodia's future."
The Asia Leadership Trek brings together scholars from Harvard, MIT and Tufts to travel Asia to acquire first-hand insight through engagement with relevant leaders and organizations on the field across several countries in Asia. During this field visit to Cambodia under the theme "Thriving Asia: When is Asia Set to Become the World's Powerhouse?," the delegates met with Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, H.E. Sun Chanthol, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce, H.E. Hang Chuon Naron, Minister of Education Youth and Sport, and other leaders in the public and private sector institutions.
Sok Xing & Hwang co-sponsored the Leadership Conference in conjunction with the US Embassy and the Coca Cola Company.