The Vietnamese and Cambodian education ministers met for talks in Phnom Penh on December 4, with a number of cooperative agreements set to be agreed in the near future.
Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan and Cambodian Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Hang Chuon Naron were unanimous regarding support for overseas students, the development of their training programmes and the evaluation system for education quality.
Both said that enhanced cooperation in education and vocational training will not only bring benefits to each country’s people but also actively contribute to increasing understanding, traditional friendship and solidarity between the two countries.
Luan, in his capacity as Chairman of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Council, suggested Cambodia accelerate its involvement in the council’s activities in a bid to raise the quality of education and personnel training.
He expressed his willingness to help the country establish its SEAMEO centres in order to make it easier for educational cooperative activities between regional countries, looking towards the establishment of an ASEAN Community in 2015.
Minister Hang Chuon Naron said over the past years the Cambodian Government has paid special attention to the sector, adding that reform programmes have been implemented at several levels.
Thanking SEAMEO for its support to Cambodian education, he accepted an invitation to attend the council’s upcoming conferences and the ceremony to mark its 50 th founding anniversary.
During his stay in Cambodia on December 4-5, Luan visited the Royal University of Phnom Penh and met with overseas Vietnamese students and the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in the country./.