Sok Xing & Hwang Senior Counsel Moderates at Cambodia's Education Summit
Cambodia’s education system was entirely devastated as a result of the Khmer Rouge regime during 1975 – 1979 period. Even years later, as the country seeks to modernize its formal education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), it finds the road ahead toward building a sustainable, innovative, and inclusive education system is facing enormous structural challenges. The challenges have been further exacerbated for Cambodia thanks to the significant mismatch between the skills of the Cambodian labor market entrants and the needs of the employers as well as the free flow of skilled labor under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
On 27 October 2016, Mr. Larry Strange, Senior Counsel of Sok Xing & Hwang, participated as a moderator in the Education Summit to contribute to the understanding of the critical challenges in the education and TVET systems and to seek and propose innovative, leading-edge solutions, without which Cambodia’s long-term future development will be put at risk. As he moderated, Mr. Larry Strange emphasized the importance of the private sector’s participation in the policy dialogue and service delivery in the domain of education and TVET. The Government alone, he said, will not be able to sufficiently overcome the challenges. Among the panel he moderated were key representatives from the private sector and research institutions, including Dr. Leonie Lethbridge, CEO of ANZ Royal Bank; and Dr. Chem Rithy, Executive Director of Cambodian Development Resource Institute (CDRI) – where Mr. Larry Strange had spent 10 years as its Executive Director.
Organized by the International Business Chamber (IBC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Education Summit brought together an audience of over 400 participants from various backgrounds, including government agencies, the private sector, and social enterprise organizations.