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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