Scientists, engineers and heads of technical schools from around the world will converge

on Phnom Penh in ten days for what the seminar organiser says will be a significant

event in the process of reintegrating Cambodia back into the international community.

"This is the first time for the new Cambodia that there is an international

event of this level of importance," said Bernard Cavaille, Director of the Cambodian

Institute of Technology (CIT).

Cavaille was referring the the upcoming, Jan 23-25 "Sixth International Technology

Days (JIT 6)" Conference at which more than 150 deans, presidents, directors

and professors from technical and engineering schools in the Francophone world will

meet in Phnom Penh to discuss such issues as the information superhighway, systems

of technical training, how to improve technical curricula, and international technical

cooperation.

Participants are coming from disparate parts of the globe such as Senegal, Algeria,

Canada, Belgium, Vietnam, France, Haiti, Romania, Madagascar and Laos.

The link that's bringing them together in Phnom Penh is their use of the French language,

especially as it relates to technology and how to teach people about it.

JIT 6 is being sponsored and funded by AUPELF, the umbrella organization representing

more than 300 universities in French-speaking countries.

Every three years the group sponsors a conference to bring together those members

interested in discussing the latest technological advances as they relate to the

educational institutions that focus on them. The last JIT was held in Tunis in l992.

The JIT 6 meetings are for invitees only, which will include representatives from

all the Kingdom's institutes of higher education.

However, the meetings will be complemented by a Technology Exposition at the CIT

where Cambodian and foreign companies will display a variety of products and services

currently available in the Kingdom.

Those firms which have agreed to set up displays include: TOTAL Cambodge, Angkor

Beer, RM Asia, JMK Technology, COMIN Tech, HYDRO-QUEBEC, and Dumez.

Cavaille says that the public is more than welcome to come by the Institute of Technology

and have a browse through the Technology Exhibition.