Pharos, 8th
On Wednesday 15, July 2015, German ambassador, H.E. Joachim Baron Von Marschall came to CDRI as a guest speaker in the 8th Pharaoh session. Along with opening remarks from Dr. Chem Rethy, he also introduced the three topics that are going be discussed, which are the Relationship between Germany and Cambodia, European Union and ASEAN Economic Community, and Cambodian Youth for Country Development.
The Relationship between Cambodia and Germany started more than 50 years ago. But it was cut during the Khmer Rough regime and later continued in the 1980s. The ambassador addressed the relationship between Germany and Cambodia as Development Partnership. The German and Cambodian government have been working together on three main sectors such as Health Sector, Land Reform and Good Governance. More than that, the German government also focuses on Trade Aspect and the Security Aspects (combating terrorist, crime and drug) between the two countries as well. He viewed Cambodia now as the country that has political stability and cultural dialog that the opposition and the ruling party are now working together for country development. He also viewed the two-country-relationship, in a very good cooperation in all the mentioned sectors and this relationship really attracted German investors and businessman to look at Cambodia as the focus point. However, H.E. ambassador also mentioned things that Cambodian government needs to look at in order to attract more investors and maintain good partnership. They are for example, Law and Justice system in Cambodia; he suggested this system has to be predictable and trustable in the way that foreign investors can trust. Ambassador also suggested that Cambodian government should follow Merit Based System, which is the process of promoting, and hiring government officers based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. After the first session ended, there was a question asking on the three points that Cambodia should focus on in the next five years. The answer to this, the ambassador suggested three points. The first one is Education, Cambodia need to improve the quality of human resource, which is the key of development. He also stressed that Cambodia doesn’t need oil resource in gulf of Thailand and gold mine in Ratanakiri as long as there are enough number of qualified human resource specifically skilled workers. Secondly, Role of Law is also one of the main factors that Cambodia has to look at, he has mentioned during the first session, law and justice system has to be predictable and trustable. The third point is Infrastructure, specifically transportation. He suggested that Cambodia has to think about the railway system in order to fasten the flow of trade system both export and import. H.E ambassador also briefed about today’s European Union situation, specifically Greek and Ukraine situation. Beside that he mention about what can ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) learn from European Union (EU). He stressed five main points that AEC should learn from EU. The first one, He said AEC should keep EU as a Role Model in the way of integrating country members together, and maintaining peace, social stability and trade flow. Secondly, AEC should also keep EU as a Lesson Learnt. There are several problems and crisis happened in EU that AEC should learn from and avoid facing it. Thirdly, AEC should Decentralized its power. In this way, it can help avoid conflict among members and it can help work faster. Fourthly, AEC and its members need to be Flexible to the changing environment. He mentioned that there will be some unexpected things happen and AEC has to be ready in anytime. And finally, Don’t be in debt. He mentioned about the Greek situation as well as other countries who are facing debt problem which lead to EU problem as a whole. Lastly, as part of session, he also mentioned about Cambodian youth for country development. He stressed two important things that Cambodia youth should do for their country development. The first thing is Be Dynamic, he suggested that youth need to think more about their strengths rather than their weaknesses. When you outlook far beyond your weakness, the quality of your work must be dynamic. And the second thing is Choose what you are passionate at. He advised that everyone should do what they love to do, both in their study and work. When people do what they love to, they are going to produce quality outcome and products |