Singapore on July 12 shared its knowledge and experience on smart city planning via a video conference attended by Cambodian officials from both the national and sub-national administrations in an effort to build capacity.
Cambodia’s Royal School of Administration (RSA) and the Ministry of Civil Service held the conference with the Civil Service College of Singapore with support from the Temasek Foundation under the theme Planning for Smart Cities.
Civil service minister Prum Sokha, Temasek Foundation executive director Benedict Cheong and Singapore ambassador to Cambodia Teo Lay Cheng chaired the conference, which was attended by more than 200 Singaporean and Cambodian officials and experts.
The conference is part of a project to build Cambodian officials’ capacity between Cambodia’s civil service ministry and the Civil Service College of Singapore, with RSA as facilitator, according to a joint press release issued by the RSA and ministry on July 12.
The project is supported by the Temasek Foundation, which started in late 2019 and will be completed by the end of this year.
Singaporean experts shared their knowledge with Cambodian officials on leadership for positive change and smart city building.
The press release said Cambodian officials have learned about leadership in setting and achieving clear goals, learning from the past and how to adapt to the current situation.
“[Officials] must be able to predict, be ready and take appropriate measures for future change to build a society of development and sustainable prosperity,” it said.
According to the press release, Prum Sokha spoke in support of ASEAN’s creative leadership in establishing a smart city network.
“Good governance of smart city management will help all people with being livable,” he said.
The press release quoted Prum Sokha as saying that a strong system of governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen has helped Cambodia fight the Covid-19 crisis.
RSA deputy director Sung Vinntik did not respond to request for further comment on July 13.
On July 13, the RSA in collaboration with the Civil Service College of Singapore organised an online study tour on leadership development for reform over three days from July 13-15.
The purpose of this programme is to share knowledge and experience to about 30 Cambodian officials from various ministries and institutions about the government’s approach to planning and implementing national priorities and strategies to promote innovation in governance.
The programme also aims to increase the understanding of the role of leaders, civil servants and institutions in supporting public administration reform.
