The China-funded Lancang-Mekong Vocational Education Training Center, along with the Cambodia Luban Workshop, was inaugurated in Phnom Penh on Sunday.
The center was established under the cooperation between the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia (NPIC) and China's Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences. It is located in the compound of the NPIC in the northwestern outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Ith Samheng, Cambodian Minister of Labor and Vocational Training, and Li Hongzhong, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s Central Committee and Secretary of the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, jointly unveiled the center.
Samheng said the project came online following an initiative made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2016 to set up vocational education training centers in the Lancang-Mekong countries.
"I believe that the center will play an important role in providing quality education and training and in transferring the latest technological development to our youth," he said.
The minister said that the center would recruit not only Cambodian students, but also those of the Lancang-Mekong countries.
He added that the center would serve as a pillar for strengthening regional friendship, harmonizing regional cooperation, and promoting socio-economic development towards a community of shared destiny.
Zhao Haishan, deputy mayor of Tianjin Municipality, said the Luban workshop was the first project of international cooperation on vocational training supported by the Tianjin Municipality.
"From now on, the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee and the Municipal Hall will strongly lend support to the development of this center and workshop," he said.
NPIC president Bun Phearin said among the Luban workshops in the Lancang-Mekong countries, the workshop in Cambodia is the biggest of all. He added that the Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences has also sent professors to teach at the center and the workshop.
The Lancang-Mekong countries consist of China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
