Upgrading Cambodia’s quality infrastructure

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft (MIH), in partnership with the Republic of Korea, have conducted a training programme to sensitize policymakers to the requirements for upgrading the country’s quality infrastructure (QI). The course on standards and QI for innovation conveyed basic principles of quality policies and metrology, while initiating a cross-institutional dialogue on how to ready the country for the upcoming challenges related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Participants included 23 officials from various government ministries.

At the opening, Chen Seng Heang, Deputy Director of Cambodia’s Institute of Standards at the MIH, thanked UNIDO for its continued support through capacity development for officials from MIH and other relevant line ministries. He stated that he hoped the course would contribute significantly to improve the standards of Cambodian products and services in order to enhance the country’s competitiveness regionally and internationally.

The capacity-building programme is the third in a series of four courses on industrial policy development under the UNIDO project, “Support to the Royal Government of Cambodia in its effective implementation of a major development strategy and policy through institutional capacity-building”.

The project is formulated within the framework of the Programme for Country Partnership (PCP) 2018-2023 between the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and UNIDO. A Joint Declaration on this between LI Yong, UNIDO Director General and H.E. Kitti Setha Pandita Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister of Industry and Handicraft on behalf of the RGC, was signed in November 2017. The PCP is a platform for synchronizing development efforts and for resource mobilization, as well as a supporting tool to increase the impact of Cambodia’s Industrial Development Policy.