On 8 February 2024, from 10:30 am – 12:00pm, at AmCam Exchange, the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies (CCRS) hosted a roundtable discussion between 15 undergraduate students from Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan, led by Dr. Hiromu Miyashita, Associate Professor, Meijo University and 17 CCRS’ researchers. Mr. Him Raksmey, Executive Director of CCRS, started the roundtable by warmly welcoming the Japanese guests and all researchers from CCRS.
At the request of the Japanese students, Mr. Him Rotha, Deputy Executive Director of CCRS, did a presentation on an overview of how Cambodia achieved peace through national reconciliation among the Khmer leaders and the invaluable efforts made by the International Community with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements in October 1991. He mentioned that positive peace requires many keys factors which come together from enduring government efforts such as: well-functioning good governance, equitable distribution of natural resources, high level of human capital, social justice, freedom, low level of corruption, good relations with neighbors, just to name a few.
Mr. Him Raksmey also shared his view about how Cambodia has been working hard to reduce poverty and promote sound development through the transformation of various 5-year National Strategic Development Plans which coordinate the government strategies, policies and spending towards the attainment of overall development goals of Cambodia. With these various stages of development plans, the government has been able to reduce poverty substantially while remain committed to overcoming other challenges that hold back Cambodia’s potential of becoming a prosperous nation.
A group of 4 Japanese female students also shared their perspectives about child poverty issues in Japan. As developed as Japan, child poverty remains a concerning issue that need to be addressed. They discussed factors that led to child poverty in Japan, including low household income, high cost of education, and impacts of single parents.
The two side also exchanged their views and had a Q&A session on various aspects of the socioeconomic developments in Cambodia and Japan respectively.
Amb. Pou Sothirak, Distinguished Senior Advisor to CCRS, applauded the roundtable where the exchanges between young students are useful and important to promote greater understanding and mutual respect as well as deepen excellent relations between Cambodia and Japan as well as facilitate the friendly partnership between CCRS’ researchers as they aspire to get to know Meijo University students better and vise versa. He encouraged more interactions between the two sides and suggested CCRS and Meijo University to explore possibilities to sign a MoU to promote academic exchanges and joint research undertakings.
At the end of the roundtable, Dr. Hiromu Miyashita expressed sincere appreciation to CCRS for organizing this excellent roundtable discussion. The meeting ended in a friendly and cordial atmosphere.
