|
Congratulations Graduates!
|
 |
The University of Cambodia would
like to extend a special
congratulations to the class of
2008. The 140 graduates who
received diplomas in the
university’s 4th Commencement
Ceremony on October 16, 2008.
Also honored in this year’s
ceremonies were three recipients
of Honorary Doctorate degrees:
|
Lok Chumteav Bun Rany Hun Sen of
The Kingdom of Cambodia received an
Honorary Doctorate in Humanities
H.E. Jose Venecia, Jr. of the
Philippines received an Honorary
Doctorate in International Relations
Dr. Horst Posdorf of Germany
received an Honorary Doctorate in Public
Administration
New Course to Dispel Myths About
the Garment Industry
|
The garment industry might
conjure up some paradoxical
thoughts among the young and
educated students of UC. While
many are eager to wear the
latest fashions, they see
factory work as a grungy job
they will steadily avoid.
However, according to figures
figures from leading
organizations in the garment
industry that say 80 percent of
Cambodia’s exports and nearly
300,000 of its jobs stemming
from the garment trade, is this
an industry that up-and-coming
Cambodian professionals should
give consideration to?
|
 |
The Garment Industry Productivity Center
(GIPC) thinks so and, along with USAID,
is funding a new course at The
University of Cambodia that will put the
garment industry in the scope of the
global economy. As part of UC’s
International Business degree program
that is being revived this year, “IBS
309: Textiles and Garments in the Global
Economy” will teach students the ins and
outs of the garment industry and what it
has to offer educated managers.
UC received books, reading materials,
PowerPoint presentations and brochures
from GIPC, all to be used to aid the
professors’ lectures in the classroom.
Gina Lopez, Associate Dean in the
College of Management who is
spear-heading this new course, also said
the students will investigate case
studies and take a site visit to the
Adrian Ross’ New Island Clothing
factory, which she says isone of the
finest run garment factories in the
country.
In the course launch, which took place
October 8, representatives from GIPC,
USAID and the garment industry came to
UC to rally students enrolled in the
course around the benefits that this
course will bring them and their future
careers.
“First of all, the garment industry will
never go away,” said GIPC Chief of Party
Jane O’Dell to the students. “Second, in
the garment industry, you will learn how
to manage production and manufacturing.
Then you can take that expertise to
other industries.”
As Van Sou Ieng, Chairman of the
Garments Manufacturers’ Association in
Cambodia (GMAC), pointed out, there are
nearly 300 garment factories in Cambodia
that hire 25 to 30 managers each. Still,
the country’s industry isn’t as
productive as in neighboring countries,
so there is a desperate need for
educated Cambodians to take over
management positions and improve the
industry.
“We need Cambodian managers so we can
send expats back to their countries and
lower costs,” he said. He also added
that recent graduates need not hang on
to those preconceived notions that a
career in garments means you’ll be
working in a dirty sweatshop for meager
pay. He pays his accountant $500 per
month and his managers $750 per month.
The University of Cambodia is one of the
first recipients of this new program
initiated by GIPC that aims to build
local capacity in the garment industry
in order to allow Cambodia to compete in
the global arena.
“The University of Cambodia was one of
the highest rated,” O’Dell said about
the universities that GIPC surveyed to
take part in the program. “It has good
programs and programs that are focused
on the employability of students, as
well as how students can contribute to
society and, of course, be rewarded with
good pay."
Currently, nearly 100 students are
enrolled in the course, which meets
during all three sessions on Tuesday and
Thursday and during the weekend
sessions. Depending on the student
response to the inauguration of this
course, it might continue to be offered
next term. |
|
With global financial markets currently
treading through rocky waters and the
Asian stocks taking a swift plunge in
October, this year’s Asia Economic Forum
could not have been more strategically
placed.
“Indeed, this financial crisis has
negatively affected millions of people,
particularly those in Asia, and mounted
to obstacles against development and
poverty reduction that we can hardly
achieve so far,” Prime Minister Samdech
Hun Sen said in his keynote, which
opened the conference.
How appropriate, then, that the
convening of the 4th Asia Economic
Forum, The University of Cambodia’s
independently run think-tank, brought in
experts from around the region and the
world October 14 and 15 to examine,
analyze, discuss and exchange views on
such issues as stable development,
global competition, poverty reduction
and environmental sustainability. This
year’s forum focused on the topic “Asia
in a Globalizing World: Challenges,
Priorities, Leadership and Future
Directions,” and a focus on the
financial crisis was the thread that
linked the conference’s four sessions
together.
As the opening speaker of the first
plenary session, “Issues and Challenges
Confronting Asia,” Lord George Carey of
the UK offered an outsider’s perspective
on how the fragile state of the economy
has affected Asian countries. Although
East Asia holds some of the weakest
economies, he said, the buoyancy of East
Asain trade has guarded the region
against the global economic downturn.
“It is undeniably the case that Asia has
been blessed with able and inventive
people and enriched by ancient
cultures,” Lord Carey said.
However, this safeguard is a structure
the AEF panelists considered could
impede economic development. Much
discussion during the session led to
concerns about how East Asia countries
face the challenge of not only competing
regionally with countries like China and
India, but competing on the global scale
as well. According to the panelists,
challenges such as rising expectations
in regards to poverty, the environment
and disease control, as well as the
challenge of educating people to improve
human resources and technology have to
be balanced alongside current economic
concerns like rising food and oil
prices.
Moving into session two, “Current
Priorities for Asia,” the panelists gave
their personal viewpoints on what Asia
needs to focus on in order to be able to
compete globally. Concern for education,
community building and sustainability –
both environmental and economical –
ranked high as “should-be” focal points
for Asia’s leaders.
“Some problems of education have yet to
be addressed, such as lack of school
facilities, very low teacher-to-student
ratio and the inadequacy of
curriculums,” said Imron Cotan,
Secretary General of Indonesia’s
Department of Foreign Affairs. “The
solution to this problem is
conscientious national planning with an
eye to the goal of universal
education.”
During day two of the conference, the
session opened up discussion on the
topics “The Role of Asian Leadership in
the World” and “Asia’s Future
Directions.” In the former, the
panelists highlighted qualities they
would like to see in their leaders as
Asia continues on the path toward
globalization, including a service
attitude, aggression toward achievement
and logical thinking, as well as what
issues the leaders need to think
critically about. The conference ended
with thoughts on future directions for
the continent.
“East Asia’s combination of intelligent
interventionist states and visionary
entrepreneurs willing to think long-term
should enable our home region to pace
global growth all over again – as it did
between 1960 and 1990,” said Jose de
Venecia, Jr., Congressman in the
Philippines’ House of Representatives
and Chairman of CDI Asia Pacific.
AEF International Coordinator Bandol Lim
saw the discussions at this year’s
conference as vital to helping influence
the current economic climate changes in
Asia.
“Given the current financial events, I
hope that the discussions will be used
to guide policy decisions. We must learn
to manage natural resources and deal
with climate change in order to have a
stable global economy because everyone’s
economies are tied together,” he said.
Asia is especially important to analyze,
he added, because of the economic growth
Asia as a whole is seeing.
“In this century, China and India will
surpass the U.S. economy. If the
preemptive formation of the ASEAN
Community is truly realized, Asia will
have three of the largest economies in
the world.”
The dialogue will continue next year as
the AEF adds another facet to include
the Australian perspective. According to
UC President Kao Kim Hourn, there will
be two conferences, one in Phnom Penh
and another in Perth, Australia.
AFDD Aims for Change Through
Exploration of Many Religious
Perspectives
|
 |
The Asia Faiths Development
Dialogue, in its second year,
brought together people from
different religious faiths and
different professions from
different parts (too many
different) of the world in one
to share a ideas about how
common discussion among people
with varying beliefs can achieve
peace, cooperation and harmony
in Asia and today's world.
This year’s conference entitled
“Building Peace, Cooperation and
Harmony Through Inter-Faiths
Dialogue” took place on October
17 and built upon the AFDD’s
first conference held in
December 2006 by adding in the
concept of cooperation.
|
|
“This dialogue is needed
because, despite countless
intersections, the worlds do not
meet comfortably and we are
still groping to find bridges,”
said Katherine Marshall, who is
involved in the World Faiths
Development Dialogue and served
as former adviser to the World
Bank president, in her keynote
remarks. “The vocabulary, the
images and stories, and the
intellectual constructs of
different worlds, can be very
discordant and seem far removed.
But in reality they overlap and
are intertwined.”
The conference addressed this
issue of cooperation – or as
Marshall put it, “building
bridges” – as well as the ideas
of peace and harmony in three
plenary sessions. The first
looked at Cambodian
perspectives, the second took a
regional and international point
of view, while the third
explored what inter-faiths
dialogue will lead to in the
future.
Representatives of Cambodian
Islamic, Protestant and Buddhist
faiths in the first session all
highlighted education as the
most important means of
promoting peace, cooperation and
harmony among the different
religious sects.
The panelists of the second
session reiterated the need for
education and called for
religious leaders to disseminate
ideas of peace and cooperation
among their followers. At the
heart of this, said Jose de
Venecia, Jr., is the need for
people with different ideas to
begin talking to one another.
“There cannot be peace among
nations unless there’s peace
among religions. There cannot be
peace among religions unless
there’s dialogue,” he said.
In the third session, the
panelists took different
perspectives on how to take the
efforts of the AFDD in a forward
moving direction in resolving
world conflicts. Chou Bun Eng,
Secretary of State to the
Ministry of Interior, pointed
out that people can use their
similarities to understand their
differences, while Tepsakha Khi
Sovanratana, Vice Director at
Preah Sihanuraja University,
pointed out that Buddhists
believe that world peace cannot
be achieved without peace within
individuals.
Overall, the panelists had a
common consensus that the
diversity of faiths and cultures
need to be preserved and valued,
especially in the changing
landscape of the 21st century.
As Marshall mentioned, the
inter-faiths movement is
becoming a global trend seen on
the regional, national and
international levels.
“The modern interfaith movement
largely reflects changes linked
to modernization and
globalization,” she said.
“First, one’s religion today, in
most modern societies, is not a
simple given, an inherited
identity, and second, religions
are far more intertwined today,
with different groups living
together all over the world,
than they generally were in the
past. Thus, a product of
modernization is the emergence
of plural societies and
interfaith work is one avenue to
address the implications of this
vast social change.”
The goal of AFDD is to bring
that global movement to a more
regional level in Asia.
“We hope that it will be an
additional tool and provide a
different perspective using
faith based understanding to
help develop a culture of
peace,” coordinator Bandol Lim
said.
According to Samrang Kamsan,
moderator of session one and the
initiator of this forum for
dialogue, peace and development
are directly linked.
“Without peace, there is no
development,” he said. “We would
like to ask interfaith groups to
educate about peace to work
toward harmony in society so we
have no more conflicts.”
The AFDD will convene in a third
conference, but that date has
yet to be determined. For more
information on the AFDD, visit
www.afdd.org.kh.
Former Archbishop Speaks on
Importance of Religion to
Leadership
From Buddha and Abraham to
Mohammed and Jesus, religious
leaders have impacted the world
in unchangeable and unthinkable
ways, creating new modes of
thought and influencing
generations of followers. Lord
George Carey, the former
Archbishop of Canterbury and a
religious leader of his own
time, encouraged people of all
faiths to lead in such a way
that promotes peace.
Lord Carey spoke to about 200 UC
students and community members,
addressing the topic, “Does
Religion Have Anything to
Contribute Towards Leadership?”
as part of the Asia Leadership
Center’s Eminent Leaders Lecture
Series. According to him,
religion contributes to societal
leadership in three ways:
through transcendentalism,
morality and service to others.
“From these three principles,
religious leaders have led by
example, have put others first
and sought to build a better
world,” Lord Carey said in his
presentation.
Applying a transcendental
mindset, he explained, gives
humans a point of accountability
and a sense of humility. Put
simply, “Religion reminds us of
our creatureliness.”
Religions also operate under
moral codes, which, he said,
sets an example for the way
society as a whole should
operate. When a leader lives by
a moral standard, it keeps him
or her thinking about the
benefits of the group, avoiding
selfish behaviors.
Finally, Lord Carey touched on
the idea of a service attitude.
Effective leadership, he said,
does not come from a person who
wishes to make money, get famous
or pursue other selfish desires.
It comes in service to the
community.
Lord Carey laid these ideas amid
the greater context of what
makes an effective leader,
citing influential leaders like
Ghandi, Winston Churchill and
Nelson Mandela, who have used
their authority as leaders to
build a more harmonious world.
Lord Carey served 70 million
Anglicans as the 103rd
Archbishop of Canterbury from
1991 to 2002. After receiving
his Master’s in Theology and PhD
for his research on the origins
of Christian ministry, he
continued on to be a Fellow of
the Library of Congress, a
Trustee of the World Faiths
Development Dialogue and the
Co-Chair of the Council of 100,
which seeks to bridge the gap
between the Western and Islamic
worlds, as well as serving at
various universities in the
United Kingdom and authoring 14
books.
|
|
