Nobel laureate to push PM on school reform

The Phnom Penh Post
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 15:03
By Ellie Dyer

Photo by: Rick Valenzuela
Economist and Nobel laureate Eric Maskin speaks at the Hotel Cambodiana on Tuesday.

A NOBEL Prize-winning economist said Tuesday that he intends to discuss the “critical” gap between rich and poor, and emphasise the importance of improving the national education system when he meets with Prime Minister Hun Sen later this week.

Professor Eric Maskin, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2007, is scheduled to meet with the premier on Thursday as part of the International Peace Foundation’s “Bridges for Peace” lecture programme.

In an interview Tuesday, he said he believed the rapid economic growth Cambodia experienced prior to the global economic downturn had left the country with a severe skills gap because the rich had disproportionately benefited from access to education.

It will be necessary to close the chasm that resulted in order to improve the Kingdom’s economic prospects, he said.

“I think education is critically important for Cambodia. I don’t think an economy can truly prosper when an equality gap is too high,” he said.

“It can be a socially and politically disruptive force if people are living in such different circumstances, and I’m afraid the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow.”

He added: “I’d like to raise this with Hun Sen. I feel strongly that on the basis of the evidence and the data that education has to be a priority of the government in development.”

Maskin will deliver a lecture titled “Why Global Markets Fail to Reduce Equality” at the University of Cambodia today at 2pm.

NGOs want larger role in national planning

The Phnom Penh Post
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 15:04
By Sebastian Strangio

CIVIL society representatives have called on the government to allow for more input on Cambodia’s national planning process, repeating earlier criticisms that NGOs were not given enough of an opportunity to help shape the draft National Strategic Development Plan Update for 2009-13 (NSDP).

Chith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum in Cambodia, said the three-week period slated for civil society comment on the NSDP draft, which closed on January 14, was too short to be meaningful.

“Sufficient information should be given before consultations take place,” he said during a workshop in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. “In order to ensure the participation is successful, sufficient time should be given.”

The NSDP for 2009-13 – a key planning document that creates a framework for the country’s development – carries forward a similar plan for 2006-10, though it has been adjusted to account for the effects of the global financial crisis, said Theng Pagnathun, deputy director general at the Ministry of Planning.

He said the government’s consultation process over the new draft began last May with the issuing of a circular and the organisation of workshops for its distribution. “There has been the involvement of NGOs, CSOs [civil society organisations] and donors,” he said. “This is the consultation we’ve been having – it’s not perfect.”

The NSDP draft is due to be signed by the King in May or June, at which point it will be disseminated widely, he added.

Nobel Laureate: Human Resource is the Major Problem Facing Cambodia

By Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
19 January 2010

David Jonathan Gross

As other developing countries in the world, the major problem facing Cambodia is the serious lack of human resources for the country’s development, according to Professor David Jonathan Gross, a Nobel Laureate for Physics.

Prof. Gross said through his lecture and dialogue with some participants and people he met, he observes that there are quite a lot of brilliant young people in Cambodia, which will be important for Cambodia’s future development, but the most important thing is whether they are given opportunity to develop their skills.

“It’s a major problem - human resources,” Gross said in a phone interview with VOA Khmer during his visit to Cambodia’s Siem Reap province. “I’ve met a lot of very hopeful people. You know that’s the most important thing. People are very optimistic about the future. Cambodia has a lot of great resources. I have a lot of faith in young people, very brilliant young minds that could do great things just given the opportunity. I have tried to tell them that they should dream big. I have talked to people about giving young people opportunity.”

Prof. Gross is a Nobel Laureate for Physics in 2004. He has discovered and explored the force that binds particles inside an atomic nucleus. This phenomenon led to a whole new physical theory and enabled scientists to complete the standard model of particle physics, which describes the fundamental particles in nature, and how they interact with one another.

Gross said there are two kinds of human resources. While the majority of people are just working forces, others have special talents and great minds, who make great contributions to the country’s development. This kind of people should be given special opportunity.

"And then, very gifted people, whose minds you really don’t want to waste and who will contribute very important contributions to the society,’’ Prof. Gross said. ‘’And it’s important to make sure you don’t lose those really special people, and you give them opportunities. You will have to enable them to go abroad. It’s also important to identify very brilliant people and give them special opportunities because those people can make important contributions.”

Chek Chan Oeun, a physics lecturer at Royal University of Phnom Penh, who participated in the Professor Gross’s lecture, said the lecture paves the way for participants, especially for students to a broader scientific research and open their minds to how science can help social development.

“Through this lecture, we have acquired some knowledge related to universe, dark energy, dark materials, and the evolution of the universe,” Chek Chan Oeun said. “In addition, it encourages students to find out what has been discovered by scientists, what is still unknown, and what they are doing to help the world.”

“In the future I want to be like him and discover new things to meet the needs of the world,” said Sun Limhour, a 4th year student in physics department of Royal University of Phnom Penh. “I have loved electronics since I was young. It is a true science.”

The visit by Prof. David Jonathan Gross intends to strengthen the relationship among nations in Southeast Asia and ASEAN with the rest of the world, according to the organizer.

“It’s our aim really to build these bridges not only with Nobel laureates from the United States or Europe and the societies here in Southeast Asia, but between the societies in ASEAN to reach more cooperation on the level of education because education as we think is basic for peace and that’s why we are doing this program at the universities and at schools here in Cambodia and also in other countries in the region,” said Morawetz, director of International Peace Foundation.

Born in Washington, D.C., Professor David Jonathan Gross, received his undergraduate degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1962 and then continued his education at University of California, Berkley, from where he received his Ph.D. in physics in 1966. He then served as a junior fellow at Harvard University. Professor Gross is now a director and holder of the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of California in Santa Barbara and a member of the Advisory Board of the Intentional Peace Foundation.

As part of the “Bridges” program by the International Peace Foundation, the next Nobel Laureate who will pay a visit to Cambodia on January 20 is Professor Eric Stark Maskin, a 2007 Nobel Laureate for Economics.