Cambodian high school students compete for college entrance

English.news.cn   2012-08-06 18:55:39

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- More than 114,000 Cambodian high school students on Monday attended the annual national high school graduation exams, which is a prerequisite for students to pursue their studies at college or university level.
Sam Sereyroth, head of the education department at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, said that 114,114 high school students would take the exams at 254 exam venues across the country.
The exams will be finished on Wednesday morning.
Cheating in the exams is still rampant in this country. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers' Association, said Monday that officials found that students had hidden cheat sheets under their clothes and to cheat during the exams, they had pooled their money to give to invigilators to ensure that their cheating would not be caught or punished.
He said a student gave between 1.25 U.S. dollars and 3.75 U.S. dollars for each subject in the exams.
Generally, days before the exams, cheat sheets would be sold at printing shops and bookstores around schools.
Some students go to Buddhist pagodas to get an anointment from a monk in hope to pass the exams.
The exam results will be announced on Aug. 31 or Sept 1.
In Cambodia, each high school graduate, who obtained a satisfactory score in high school graduate exams, is eligible to apply for their favorite colleges or universities, either private or national.
Each individual national university, which is free of tuition charge, will organize another enrollment exam for its applicants, which is highly competitive and academic performance based.
The high school students who failed to pursue their colleges studies will turn to the job markets or vocational schools.

Cambodian PM to address border issues with Vietnam in parliament next week

   PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will address the National Assembly (NA) on border issues with Vietnam next Thursday, according to a NA’s press release on Saturday.

   The press release said that the National Assembly would hold its 8th plenary session of the 4th legislature on Aug. 9 under the presidency of Heng Samrin, NA’s president. One of the agendas in the upcoming session is “a verbal clarification to the NA on border demarcation tasks between Cambodia and Vietnam”.

   The clarification is made at the request of Sam Rainsy Party, the country's major opposition party.

   Hun Sen said on Wednesday that he would need 4 hours straight to explain to the parliament on the issues.

   The premier's plan to appear at the National Assembly was unveiled after the opposition party had subsequently accused the current government of national betrayal for ceding land to Vietnam.

   "It is serious and unacceptable that they call us 'traitors', so I need to explain these issues," he told a graduation ceremony of more than 2,600 students at the Royal University of Law and Economics on Wednesday.

   He said his upcoming remarks will be televised live in all local TVs if possible.

   Cambodia shares a 1,270-km border with Vietnam to the east. To date, about 80 percent of the border demarcation has been completed and the two countries have vowed to fully complete it by the end of this year. 

Cambodia to host 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting this month

   PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related meetings will be held in Siem Reap, the cultural province of Cambodia, from Aug. 25 to September 1, according to a press release from Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce on Saturday.

   Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will open the 44th meeting on Aug. 27, said the press release.

   The meeting will discuss topics relevant to trade liberalization and economic cooperation among the ten ASEAN member states and with dialogue countries including China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, the United States, Canada and Russia.

   The ASEAN Economic Ministers will also have joint meetings with the 26th ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Council and the 15th ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) Council, it said.

   Also, there will be a consultation meeting between the ASEAN Economic Ministers and the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization, it said.

   Besides these meetings, there will be the ASEAN-U.S. Business Summit and Cambodia’s Garment and Textile Expo.

   The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

China provides largest loan to Cambodia for agriculture, irrigation development

PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- China is the largest provider of financial assistance to Cambodia for agriculture and irrigation development in the last three years, Cambodia's Minister of Finance Keat Chhon said here on Tuesday.
Since 2010 to date, he said, Cambodia has received a total loan of 561 million U.S. dollars and a total grant of 22 million U.S. dollars from South Korea, India, China, Japan and France.
"Of the amount, China's soft loan to Cambodia is 436 million U.S. dollars," he said in an economic conference at the National Assembly. "We show that China is playing very important role to promote Cambodia's agricultural development and irrigation system construction."
The minister said that besides, Cambodia also received the loan of 88 million U.S. dollars from the Asian Development Bank, and 24. 2 million U.S. dollar loan and 17.5 million U.S. dollar grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
He said this financial assistance is very vital for the government of Cambodia to use for developing agricultural sector, especially rice production and export.
Cambodia is an agrarian country. More than 80 percent of the population is farmers. The country produced some 8.25 million tons of paddy rice last year. With the amount, it's estimated that there is around 2.5 million tons of milled rice left over for export this year.
In August, 2010, the government launched the rice export promotion strategy, aiming at exporting one million tons of milled rice by 2015.
Cham Prasidh, Minister of Commerce, said Tuesday that in the first half of this year, the country has exported 92,000 tons of milled rice.

Cambodia to conduct first ever agriculture census next April

PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will hold the first ever agriculture census in April next year, Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said Tuesday.
Speaking at an economic conference at the National Assembly, he said the census is expected to cost 5.3 million U.S. dollars, which will be funded by development partners and Cambodian government.
He said the census will be jointly conducted by the Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of Agriculture. It is aimed at collecting data relevant to exact number of farmers, agricultural land, crop fields, livestock, exact output from agricultural crops and various types of forest land.
According to the document of the Ministry of Planning, it is an urgent need to conduct the census in order to collect data for the development of agricultural sector, especially rice industry. "The census is critical as it has never been conducted in Cambodia," it said.
Agriculture is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia's economy. Last year, the sector contributed 28.4 percent to the country's GDP, said Chan Sarun.

Cambodia's opposition parties to merge as a new party: Joint Statement

PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Sam Rainsy Party, which is the country's main opposition party, and the Human Rights Party announced Tuesday that they would "merge to form a new political party" to compete in the general elections in July next year, according to a joint statement.
The merger plan was made after the two-day meeting on July 16- 17 between Sam Rainsy, the fugitive leader of Sam Rainsy Party, and Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, in Manila, the Philippines.
According to the agreement, Sam Rainsy will be the president of the yet-to-form party and Kem Sokha will be the deputy leader.
Cambodia sets to hold the general elections in July 2013.
The last elections were held in July 2008.
As a result, the Cambodian People's Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen won 90 seats out of the 123 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Sam Rainsy Party with 26 seats, the Human Rights Party 3 seats, the Norodom Ranariddh Party 2 seats and the Funcinpec Party 2 seats.

Cambodian PM to attend G20 Summit in Mexico

2012-06-14 13:47:46

PHNOM PENH, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will lead a high level delegation to attend the G20 Summit to be held on June 18-19 in Los Cabos, Mexico, a press release from the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
The participation is made at the invitation of Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, it said.
Topics such as global economy, enhancement of international financial architecture, promotion of financial inclusion, green growth, infrastructure, food security and job creation will be discussed at the meeting.
During the summit, Hun Sen will address, among others, the issue of food and fuel's price inequality, strengthening of international financial resources and financial governance, it said.
The premier will hold bilateral talks with Hinojosa.