PHNOM PENH, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 60-million-U.S. dollar loan to boost the skills and competitiveness of Cambodia's growing labor force, as the Cambodian government seeks to transition its economy from a low-skilled, labor-intensive growth model to a skills-driven one.
The loan aims to help Cambodia diversify and modernize the country's industrial sector by upgrading the facilities and equipment of selected technical training institutes (TTIs) around the country, improving the curriculum and skills of TTI trainers, and forging stronger ties with the government and business community to meet the needs of the labor market, the Manila-based lender said in a statement on Tuesday.
Cambodia is ranked 110th out of 140 economies in the 2018 Global Competitiveness Report, based on business reporting on the difficulty of finding highly skilled employees to fill technical roles, it said.
The country's technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs are not meeting the needs of the current labor market, with most diploma programs focusing on jobs in the service sector, it added.
"Having a highly skilled labor force is essential for a country like Cambodia, which has a fast-growing economy and an expanding workforce," said ADB Education Specialist for Southeast Asia Yumiko Yamakawa.
"The ADB loan will focus on improving the skills of workers employed in high-growth sectors to fuel the country's development," she said. "We are also making sure that all stakeholders, especially the government and the private sector, are working together to boost worker skills."
The release said the Skills for Competitiveness Project will help produce 18,000 qualified technicians, 28 percent of whom are women, with higher employability and technical skills in four priority sectors, namely manufacturing, construction, electricity, and electronics.
This will be done through efforts in five TTIs around Cambodia, including the upgrading of 16 new training facilities, the provision of advanced and industry-grade training equipment, capacity development training for trainers, and the provision of merit-based stipends to selected students, it said.
The five TTIs identified for the project are the Battambang Institute of Technology, the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, the National Polytechnic Institute of Angkor, the National Technical Training Institute for TVET Park, and the Regional Polytechnic Institute Techo Sen Svay Rieng, the statement said.
