Cambodia’s ambassador to the UN and permanent representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva boarded a plane at Pochentong Airport on Tuesday with a piece of advice: It is time to “change from old blood to new blood” in Cambodia’s economic approach.
Interviewed just before he boarded a flight to Geneva, Suos Someth, who took his position as ambassador seven months ago, said the country was “on track” with its WTO accession process, but the country’s laborers still lacked the skills to be competitive in a globalized economy.
The ambassador said he would like to see Cambodia in the world trade body by 2003, but even if that happened, he was concerned about how the local labor force could afford to compete in domestic and international trade with the country’s other 144 members.
“If we are not a member, we will be an isolated country that stands far away to watch 144 countries join hands together,” he said. “Then we cannot ask them, ‘Please buy my products.’”
Cambodia will have to “change from old blood to new blood,” eschewing the traditional workers’ skill in agriculture for new skills in a high-tech world.
“The labor force has to be skillful on computers and anything high-tech before and after a country can become a member of WTO,” Suos Someth said. “We cannot do the same thing today as the day before. We have to look for new skills,” such as information technology.
Malaysia’s labor force, for example, was quickly adapting to the demands of a global marketplace and building new skills, he said.
For Cambodia, the future will be in computers, he said. “We have to change our education program. I want Cambodia [to have] a flood of computers and programs.”
He suggested the government devise a tariff strategy that encouraged the import of computers, business and commercial programs and new technologies.
Educators must also teach computer and other technological skills, and the government should encourage the brightest students to study abroad to bring home more skills, he said. Those skills will meet Cambodia’s commercial needs if it becomes a full WTO member.
“Cambodian people do not need to worry about money,” he said. “If we can organize a proper economic policy, the money will run to us. If each school is able to set up 50 to 60 computers, in the near future, there will be enough human resources to work with local or foreign investors.”
