The Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC), the developer of Koh Pich, is to invest $5 million to build the Canadian International School of Phnom Penh (CISP).

Owned by Pung Carolyne, a daughter of well-known businessman Pung Kheav Se, the CISP building officially broke ground yesterday on Koh Pich, targeting students from wealthy Cambodian and other foreign families in Phnom Penh.  

“It is expensive,” said Donna Trafford, principal of CISP. “But we aim to provide an internationally diverse student body with an exceptional education and support them to pursue their dream and goals.”

The new school building has four floors, is constructed on three hectares of land and covers 9,500 square metres.  Touch Samnag, deputy director of OCIC, said the school building is expected to finish in mid-2015.

This new building is the second phase of OCIC investment in an international school in Cambodia, with the intention of creating a seamless journey for students from pre-school through to grade 12.

Pech Polene, chairman and CEO of Westline Education Group, a private school in Phnom Penh, told the Post that the number of international schools in Phnom Penh is increasing in correspondence to the improving economic situation and a growing number of young people in the country.  

“I do not think [CISP] is our competitor because we have a different market segment,” Polene said. “The industry is currently seeing healthy growth and healthy competition.”

CISP representatives would not reveal the school’s tuition yesterday, but said it will be expensive.