Friday, March 16, 2007

Youth ‘Face Uncertain Future,’ World Bank Says

An estimated 70 percent of Cambodia's population is under 30 years old. (Photo: Int'l Children's Care Australia)

Mony Mony
VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
15/03/2007

Cambodia lacks appropriate human resources for its youth, due to the country’s poor development, a World Bank representative said Thursday.

“Studies show that the young people in Cambodia face an uncertain future,” Nisha Agrawal, country manager of the World Bank, said. “They are faced with hopelessness, and this loss of hope resulted from scarce work opportunities.”

The Bank’s World Development Report for 2007 highlighted problems faced by youth in developing countries.

A number of Cambodian youth have fallen into drugs, theft, pick-pocketing and gang membership, Agrawal said.

“With 70 percent of the population under the age of 30 years old, it is an issue," she said.

Minister of Education Kol Pheng said the report unfairly compared Cambodia with other countries and that comparisons should be made within context.

“Comparing one country to another is not fair,” he said. “We cannot compare a bananas' sweetness to honey, and a mangoes' sweetness to cherries and apples. We are comparing [our past performance] to ourselves.”

Negative talk about the youth only discourages them, he said.

“If we reveal pessimism about the younger generation, what they see is societies being bleak,” he said, “so there is no light, no exit, [and] our societies cannot be corrected.”

The problems with Cambodia’s youth could be helped by better employment opportunities, Chin Mardy, director of the Cambodia Youth Development Organization, said.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

From 70-75 lots of youth died fighting Viet,then

75-79 lots of youth died from Viet agents DK execution, starvation , no medicine...

79-93 lots of youth died from same Viet agents order to build K-5 and Viet secretive executions.

93-2007 lots of youth are deprived of good education,skills, and secutiry when reaching retirement age.

Keep voting for CPP for another 10 years,so Hun Sen will make sure to put leashes on this 30'ish generation for good.

Anonymous said...

Is this AH HUN SEN achievement for Cambodia since 1985? ahahahah

Folk prepare the rope!

Anonymous said...

What's uncertain about it? Guaranteed unemployment.

Anonymous said...

This is accredited to CPP and Ah Hun Sen as leader....

Create no future for our childrens