A group of six American economics teachers arrived in Phnom Penh recently as part

of an Asia Foundation-sponsored program to provide training for government officials,

business people and university students.

Topics for the 16-week course include principles of management, small business marketing,

general accounting, business terminology, introduction to economics, exercises in

management accounting, research and development of business plans, and banking, credit

and taxation.

Eighteen Cambodian women and 32 men from a total 167 applicants were selected for

the training course after a battery of written and verbal tests.

Speaking at a ceremony on Oct. 8 to welcome the teachers, a student representative

hailed the training program as a symbol of friendship and cooperation between Cambodia

and the United States, adding that it was "essential for Cambodia which has

just come out of a central planning economy to the free market economy."

The Asia Foundation, with financial support from the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID), agreed to arrange the course following a request by Prince Sisowath

Sirirath in late December 1991.

A similar three-month training program, attended by 54 students was held earlier

this year at the same institute.

Fifty four students including 19 women were admitted to this first course, which

covered areas such as management, marketing, managerial accounting, general accounting,

banking and English business terminology.

The results of the first course were admirably satisfactory with 95% of the participants

scoring "good" and the rest "fairly good". Recalling the success

of the inaugural program, institute director Iv Thong said, "I hope that the

second program will also produce a fruitful result."

In his closing speech to the meeting, Twining thanked the institute's professors

and those from the Georgetown University for their efforts to sow the sprouts for

a new generation of competent economists for Cambodia. He also cited this training

program as an opportunity for the United States to be involved in the rehabilitation

of the-war-torn country.

"It is the honor for the United States in this way and other ways to participate

in the building of the future of the Kingdom of Cambodia," he concluded.