Cambodia Plans To Establish The First Aviation School

Cambodia plans to establish its first civil aviation school to help improve the country’s aviation industry using a grant from South Korea.

According to Xinhua online media, Cambodia plans to set up the first ever Civil Aviation Training Centre with South Korean assistance to train more people in aviation related skills.

The Council of Ministers’ Press Unit deputy director, Ek Tha, was quoted as saying: “South Korea agreed to provide US$10.1 million in a grant to Cambodia for the project.”

It has taken more than a year to get to the announcement stage after Cambodia and South Korea signed off on an agreement detailing the project.

Most of the delays reaching an accord were understood to be related to the need to have checks and balances in place to ensure transparency in the grant’s accounting.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An and Baek Sook Hee, head of the Korean International Cooperation Agency in Cambodia, signed the project agreement on earlier this month, he said.

The deputy director cited: “The project is very crucial because Cambodia needs to acquire knowledge and technology necessary to improve its aviation industry.”

The construction of the centre will start in the second half of 2014 in the eastern compound of the Phnom Penh International Airport on a plot of 8,000 square metres, he said.

The construction will be completed in a year with necessary facilities for training airline staff, he said.

In addition, South Korea will send experts and instructors to train Cambodian airline crew at the centre until 2017.

The local media also quoted the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation undersecretary, Say Sokhan, as saying: “Once the facility is complete, Korean experts will train Cambodians to become pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants and airport security guards.”

“There are only about 20 Cambodian pilots right now…and they were all trained in the Soviet Union,” he said, adding that SSCA officials are currently required to travel oversees for training.

Cambodia received 4.3 million air passengers in 2012, up 14.7% year-on-year, according to the Cambodia Airports’ data.

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