11 November 2007By Keo Pech Metta
Radio Free AsiaTranslated from Khmer by SocheataA number of NGO officials who are working on Cambodian youth issues indicated that among Cambodian youth, especially those who completed their degrees in high schools and universities, the majority of them cannot find a job currently, and that this issue will bring hardships to the Cambodian society in the future if there is no timely resolution to this matter.
Mak Sarat, a coordinating official for the Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC), indicated that, based on civil society’s observation on the youth, each year between 300,000 to 350,000 Cambodian youth are looking for jobs to make a living, however, among all these youths, only 50,000 to 60,000 of them can find work. Therefore the joblessness problem is a major issue that the government must resolve.
Mak Sarat indicated: “The government is responsible as the ruler of the country, and it should organize to create a large job market by attracting investments, or by sending the youths to work overseas based on clear regulations. The youths themselves should put in their effort by considering themselves as part of the labor force, they should obtain the ability to produce, just like factory workers who must learn expertise, and these youths should have a true purpose and be honest.”
Regarding the joblessness issue among high school and university students, Rong Chhun, President of the Cambodia Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA), said that it is necessary for the government to further expand the job market for the people because from one year to another, the number of jobless people keeps on increasing, especially among the many tens of thousands of youths who completed their schooling, but ended up facing joblessness instead.
Rong Chhun added: “Each year, several tens of thousands finish school, but only about 10% of them find jobs, and those who are jobless amount to 90%. This problem is one that the government leader must bear responsibility for, if he neglects this issue and allows Cambodian students to remain jobless, our society will face problems in the future.”
In response to the issues raised above, Oum Mean, the deputy secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training (MoLVT), said that his ministry, like the government itself, is working hard in the past and currently to attract various companies to invest in Cambodia, such as garment factories and other type of companies, in order to create a job market for the population, including students who completed their studies.
Oum Mean added that, besides this, the government is also looking at overseas markets, such as South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, etc… so that Cambodian workers can go to work there. Currently, there are about 20,000 Cambodians who are working overseas in various countries.
Oum Mean said: “Therefore the ministry (MoLVT) is putting its effort so that investors remain and that they will continue to invest, and we are also attracting other investors to invest in Cambodia. When there are investments, there will be factories, companies, farms, or service industry such as the hotel industry for example, then our people will have jobs.”
Chiming on this issue, Osman Hassan, the MoLVT secretary of state, indicated that the provision of overseas jobs benefits also those with low level of education, because his ministry has set up good relationships between the ministry and companies which also include a short training for workers before they leave to work overseas.
Osman Hassan said: “In fact, it is the ministry (MoLVT) which puts its effort to seek a job market, both for workers with low level of education, and for students with higher education. In fact, since we put in our effort, there are a number of countries where our workers went, such as South Korea and among these, there are some students who went also. However, the salary in South Korea is high, in average, the lowest salary is between $500 to 600, and some even get up $1,500. Therefore, for our students, when they hear about going to South Korea, a lot of them want to go work there also.”
Mak Sarat said also that in order to resolve the joblessness issue for Cambodian youths who are currently facing difficulties, a number of NGOs, including the YCC and the Youth Stars of Cambodia, are setting up a program to provide volunteer service by high school and university students so that they can gain experience with various organizations and institutions, or within the community. These opportunities will provide an assets for these youths to help them find a job in the future also.
Mak Sarat indicated: “Normally in Cambodia, experience is needed, even if we finish school, if we don’t have experience, it’s hard to find a job. Therefore, now there are volunteers in 9 of the provinces and municipalities who constitute a network of volunteer youth from the YCC, there are almost 2,000 participants, and in 402 communes, we can see that when they participate in either the YCC or other NGOs (volunteer work), they have the opportunity to find work.”
Osman Hassan indicated also that for the MoLVT and the government, besides the help they provided to find a job market for the population, they are also cooperating with local and overseas investment companies to expand the search for job markets with various countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Arabic countries.
Regarding the job market issue, Robert Zoellik, President of the World Bank, who recently visited Cambodia, said also that Cambodia needs to provide a job market to at least 300,000 people each year in order to respond to the jobs demand in the country.
