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.
