More than a year after it was scheduled to commence, construction of a South Korean-funded commercial-aviation training center at Phnom Penh International Airport finally began Friday.
Say Sokhan, an undersecretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), said on Sunday that Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and South Korean Ambassador Kim Han-soo presided over a groundbreaking ceremony for the $10-million facility, which is expected to be completed in 2017.
According to the SSCA, the training center will offer instruction to air-traffic controllers, flight attendants, airport security guards and pilots, who are in particular short supply with Cambodia’s roughly 20 active airmen having all been trained in the Soviet Union.
“Korea has offered this center for us to develop human resources in Cambodia’s aviation sector,”
Mr. Sokhan said, adding that 16 Cambodians have been sent to South Korea to acquire the necessary skills to become instructors in the aviation sector back home.
He said they were studying in five main areas: air-traffic control, aviation safety, air-navigation equipment, airport operations and airport security.
