Speech by H.E. Im Sethy, Minister of Education, Youth and Sport
At the "Official Handover Ceremony of e-Learning Center"
Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
May 4th, 2012

Excellency KIM Han Soo, Korean Ambassador to Cambodia
Dr. SHIN Eui Cheol, Representative of KOICA Cambodia Office
Dr. OM Romny, Director of Institute of Technology of Cambodia
Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,

First allow me to express our pleasure being with Your Excellencies, Lork Chumteav, national and international guests, and all participants at this handover ceremony of e-Learning Center to be held here on May 4th, 2012 at Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
At this auspicious occasion, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the Government of the Republic of Korea, particularly Excellency KIM Han Soo, Korean Ambassador to Cambodia and Dr. SHIN Eui Cheol, Representative of KOICA Cambodia Office for providing support and kind assistance to establish e-Learning Center at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia.

Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

Concerning the establishment of e-Learning Center, I would like to brief an initiative of the ASEAN Community. There will be a major movement in the Southeast Asian region by the year 2015. An ASEAN Community will be established for the purpose of ensuring durable peace, stability, and shared prosperity in the region. The ASEAN Leaders agreed to accelerate the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015. At the same time, ASEAN Economic Community will establish ASEAN as a single market and regional production base, with free flows of goods, services, investment, facilitated movement of business persons, professionals, talents and skilled labors, and “freer” movement of capital. The ASEAN integration will stimulate greater mobility of professionals within and across the region. Sooner or later, it will pose a significant impact not only on higher education circle but also on every sector of the society. As ASEAN has embarked upon the movement toward the ASEAN Community, higher education could play a key role in nurturing our citizens to serve as the driving force for the realization of this common goal.

In connection to this initiative, the vision and mission of universities in the region, especially in Cambodia, need to be reviewed and redirected in order to allow the universities to have more engagement with the regional agenda, and make greater contribution to the future regional undertakings.


-Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

In line with the above mentioned, we satisfied "the project for the Strengthening CLMV capacity for ASEAN Cyber University for Cambodia". This project have an objective, firstly, to build the capacity of Cambodia's ICT human resources for the establishment of ASEAN Cyber University through establishing the e-Learning Center at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia and the transfer of Korean experience and knowledge; Secondly, to contribute to narrowing the digital technological gap and enhance the ICT cooperation between both countries based on the success of the project. The period of the project was implemented over a period of three years starting from 2010 till 2012.

In contribution to this establishment e-learning center, we encourage e-Learning Center to be more active in their interaction and become more engaged in their participation in the joint endeavor of e-Learning among members in CLMV countries and Korea. Its objective is to provide member institutions with a clear idea about joint research project implementation, the contents development and research, the production of lecture using infrastructure in the multimedia-studio, management module and service module as well as a providing e-learning service system and database for necessary information, …etc.

Undertakings this mission and to make the Center moving smoothly, we have the plan that must be established, operation and management of the center such organization chart of the center, recruitment of responsible staffs, operators and instructors for the center, training curriculum of the center, budget plan for the operation of the center and establish steering committee for the operation and management of the center. Also, the expansions of e-Learning Center by linking to other local institutions are also taken into account of our initiative.

-Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen

It is clear from the facts and reports that there is an ever-increasing exchange of students and staffs among CLMV members and regional and connection had shown a promising future for our interaction and contacts. This is simply because our exchange endeavor is driven by the interests of our partners and our attempts to find a larger number of partner universities throughout the connection ASEAN-ROK Cyber University to match each other's interests and to build strong linkage within the ASEAN University Network.  

Also, our objective would leads participating universities to embrace university responsibility which

- provide better opportunity for access to higher education to general public by providing low cost,
- life-long education to students and general public on-line through the internet,
- building confidence among partners,
- brings universities' innovation and knowledge to collaborate with society, and
- bearing in mind our mutual benefit in inspiring global competence to human resources in an increasing complex world.

-Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I believe that our gathering and handover ceremony of new e-Learning Center will be the occasion for all of us to have more opportunity to acquaint with one another. I firmly believe that an exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences through the connection IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) of project TEIN-3 (Trans-Eurasia Information Network) via VinaRen with the capacity of 10 megabit per second will bring Cambodia to the world and enhance us to interact with one another more frequently and more qualitatively which leads to more effective and efficient education, that feeding to the initiative of Rectangular Strategies of the Royal Government of Cambodia.

Through the establishment of this new e-Learning Center, I feel confident that CLMV countries as well as ASEAN will participate and contribute their experiences to set a better direction for ASEAN Cyber University and enhancing the academic cooperation among members.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks for your present at this ceremony, and again I would like to express our gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Korea for providing supports to Cambodian education development by establishment of a human resources development center, technical education, particularly the kind assistance to establish e-Learning Center at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia leading Cambodia to build strong linkage and cooperation with the world .

I would like to declare e-Learning Center be started from now on.