On Jan 25^th early morning, President Yang, Szu-Wei and Prof. Chu, Hai-Cheng departed for Siem Reap in Cambodia. Along with Dr. Chen, Yu-Ren as Cultural Secretary of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City, they visited Mr. Tsai, Vice-Director of Taiwan Commercial Association in Cambodia in the afternoon. It demonstrated the expanding Taiwan-Cambodia relations through Taiwanese connections NTCU had nurtured for years.

On Jan 26^th morning, they visited the Director, the highest position of Siem Reap campus of Build Bright University -Mr. Vutthy Siv, and expressed welcome for students to study in NTCU.
 

On Jan 27^th morning, they met Dr. Nith Bunlay, Vice-Minister of Department of High Education, Ministry of Education in Cambodia. It was memorably the ice-breaking official visit. Dr. Bunlay pointed out that there are 99 universities in Cambodia, 38 of them are public universities, and 61 of them are privately owned. Doctor degrees are only conferred in private universities. In Cambodia, most students choose to major in social sciences and related subjects.

On Jan 28^th morning, they visited Cambodia Mekong University. It was founded in 2003, and composed of three campuses. President Ich Seng mentioned they had academic collaboration with universities in Japan and Korea, and hoped NTCU could offer Chinese courses in commerce and business for their students. Finally, CMU and NTCU successfully signed the memorandum of understanding as partner schools.

On Jan 28^th afternoon, they visited National Institute of Education (as NIE) and CEO-Dr. Sieng Sovanna. NIE is the national institution for conferring the teaching certificates of high and primary schools in Cambodia. It has 18 branches all around the country. Students with Bachelor degrees can study there, free of tuition fee for one year, and after getting the certificate, they can teach in high schools. They feel honored by being granted the certificate from Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of Cambodia. Currently, Japanese, Australian, and French governments provide 2-3 students with full scholarship to study IT.

In the afternoon, they visited Norton University. It was founded in 1996, and composed of 2 campuses. NU is the first private university in Cambodia, and now has close relations with Korean and Malaysian universities. Its president, Dr. Chan Sok Khieng ever visited Taichung City fourteen years ago. The newly-completed magnificent campus is situated next to“Japan Bridge”. In 2015, the university will move to the new campus.

After this, they visited Asia Euro University (AEU) which was established in 2002. President Chhoeun Savorn mentioned they endeavored to promote AEU a more international university, which was proved by the action of setting up Confucius College, Chinese-related departments and hiring overseas teachers.

On Jan 29^th, they visited Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC). The university was established in 1997; it is the first international and comprehensive university with English as main teaching language. It consists of 10 campuses, 7 faculties and 30,000 students; it is ranked top 5 distinguished universities in Cambodia.

Then they visited Build Bright University, the main campus in Phnom Penh. President Diep Seiha and President Yang signed memorandum of understanding, which will commence the academic cooperation between BBU and NTCU.

The final schedule on Jan 29^th was to visit Mr. Lin, Zhi-Long, Director of Taiwan Commercial Association in Cambodia and other important members (Mr. Hung, Dr. Chen, Director Lin, President Yang, Mr. Ji and Ms. Chang, from left to right in the photo). The members of Association bore a hope that Taiwanese government could export professional education and experts to help Cambodian scientific and technical development. They expected to promote Cambodian industry and to make up the gap of human resources as a result of Red Cambodia policy. In their mind, implantation of professional education and training will make practical the so-called policy of “pragmatic diplomacy”. After the visit, President Yang would deliver the message to related departments in the Government.

Conclusion:
President Yang is the first president of national universities in Taiwan, who made a visit to Cambodian institutions of high education and Taiwan Commercial Association. Within six days, the delegation visited two commercial associations, two officers in Ministry of Education, five universities (seven campuses included), five universities; they successfully signed MoU with two partner schools. The great endeavor did pave the ground of exporting educational programs and launching cooperative research with Southeastern Asia. They did the best in the four-days tour and wish they could share the achievements with other interested staffs in NTCU to proceed with Cambodia-Taiwan cooperation (By Prof. Chu, Hai-cheng, Chief of Division of International Affairs)