Cambodia to fill gap in aviation training

[PHNOM PENH POST]

An aviation training centre was being planned that would allow the Kingdom to meet the demands of its surging tourism market, a State Secretariat of Civil Aviation official said yesterday.

About 1.5 million visitors arrived in Cambodia by air in 2011, a 16 per cent jump over the year before, according to Ministry of Tourism figures.

As a result, the SSCA aims to launch a US$5 million facility in Phnom Penh that would help to staff the still-developing industry.

“Our air transportation has been increasing remarkably fast. So we hope that when we have the centre, our aviation industry will have enough qualified human resources,” Soy Sokhan, under-secretary of state at the SSCA and the project’s director, said.

The SSCA proposed the idea, via Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation and the Council for the Development of Cambodia, to the Korea International Co-operation Agency last November, seeking financial and technical assistance.

KOICA delegates had led a team of Korean experts in a meeting with Cambodian officials on Monday, Soy Sokhan said. A feasibility study was  under way with an expected completion date of March 23, he added.

“We hope to start construction by 2013. The centre  will take not only local recruits; we can open it to foreign trainees as well.”

Officials at KOICA could not be reached yesterday for comment.