PHNOM PENH:  10th January 2024 – His Excellency Sok Soken, Minister of Tourism, receives a courtesy call from Mr Markus Beurli, Director of Cooperation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The meeting discussed opportunities for tourism cooperation through the Skills Development Programme (SDP) implemented by Swisscontact and Decent Employment for Youths (DEY) implemented by ILO, which contribute to promoting tourism vocational skills, enhance tourism services under National and ASEAN Standards, especially to contribute to the Royal Governance of Cambodia mandate seven's policy to provide vocational and education training to 1.5 million disadvantage youths in Cambodia.

According to the press release, H.E. Minister warmly welcomed Mr Markus Beurli and presented the joint strategic initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, known as “BUILD+3Ds”, with the vision to turn Cambodia into a vibrant, competitive, sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism destination. To accomplish the vision, human resources development is one of the priorities, which SDCs's supported recently.

Mr. Markus Beurly congratulated His Excellency Minister on his appointment as Minister of Tourism for the seventh mandate and demonstrated the strong support of Switzerland under the Swiss Regional Cooperation Programme 2022-2025 which focuses on (1) Government and Citizen participation (2) Inclusive Economic Development (especially in TVET), and (3) Climate Change and Natural Resources Management.

In this regard, H.E. Minister and Mr. Markus Beurly further discussed promoting tourism vocational training by implementing the Skills Development Programme Phase III 2024-2028, developing tourism national qualification, establishing electronic recognition of prior learning assessment platform (E-RPL), and supporting the destination management as well.

Moreover, the H.E. Minister also expressed his appreciation for SDC's support in providing a hospitality training programme (HoKa) to more than 4,000 disadvantaged youths in the ten target provinces as well as the expansion of HoKa training to Koh Kong and Kompong Chhnang provinces from 2024 onward.

Finally, His Excellency Minister and His Excellency Ambassador expressed their commitment to further strengthen and expand tourism cooperation through tourism vocational training through the above programmes and promote destination management for the attractive and competitive tourism destination.