SEMINAR	  ON	  EDUCATION	  	  IN	  DEVELOPING	  COUNTRIES	  Date:	  April	  21	  2016	  Venue:	  Conference	  Room,	  Dep.	  Human	  Development	  (2nd	  floor),	  Kobe	  University	  Education is widely accepted as the key to inclusive growth and sustainable development. Generally, newtechnology - a crucial factor in improving productivity and economic output - is associated with uncertain
returns and up-front costs of adoption. The speed at which producers and employees can adapt to a changing
set of production possibilities partly depends on their human capital and their knowledge of the newtechnology. Education and information is believed to play an important role in reducing adoption costs anduncertainty, and thereby raise the probability of technology adoption.
Cambodia aspires to reach the status of an upper-middle income country and a high-income country by 2030
and 2050, respectively. The Cambodian government has set out policy documents which highlight education
as one of the significant factors to direct the country toward this goal. Cambodia needs to prepare itself for
those ambitious plans by speeding up reform efforts in the education sector to provide youth and adults withhigh quality education and to equip them with skills that are relevant and responsive to domestic demand andto the ASEAN region’s labor market.
Tentative ScheduleTime
16:00-16:15

Opening Remarks

16:15-17:15

Lecture on Education and Development Issues in Cambodia by His Excellency, Dr. Kol
Pheng, President of Pannhasastra University of Cambodia (PUC)

17-15-17:45

Q & A session

17:45-18:00
18:30-20:30

Closing Remarks
Welcome Dinner & MOU Discussion in Takigawa Memorial Hall

Biography of Dr Kol Pheng
Dr. Kol Pheng is president and founder of Paññāsāstra University ofCambodia (PUC), a private and independent higher education
institution that uses English-based instructions and adopts
international standard programs and curricula. Dr. Kol was Senior
Minister and Vice Chairman of the Supreme National Council on
Education in the 4th legislative mandate of the Royal Government ofCambodia. Dr. Kol Pheng was Senior Minister and Minister ofEducation, Youth and Sports of the 3rd legislative mandate of theRoyal Government. As Minister of Education, Youth and Sports andUniversity President, Dr. Kol has promoted loving-kindness, peaceand friendship and cooperation through extracurricular for youth
training and seminars. He always advocates for peace, non-violence,and lovingkindness.
Prior to his appointment as Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Dr. Kol was a member of parliamentand Secretary-General of the National Assembly (1998-2003). In addition, he was a founding member andSecretary-General of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace established in September 1999 inDhaka, Bangladesh. In this capacity, Dr. Kol has participated in several peace summit religious interfaith,(i.e., Buddhist in Cambodia, India, and Philippines).
While in the United States of America, Dr. Kol Pheng founded the Cambodian Network Council (CNC),
which was an umbrella organization representing over 50 Cambodian-American Mutual Associations inthe country. Then, he served as president of the CNC, the organization that assisted and empoweredrefugee communities in the U.S. to adjust to the new social and economic environment. At the same time,
he was the founder of a USAID funded project called Cambodian-American National Development
Organization (CANDO) that enlisted Cambodian and American college graduates to work as volunteers inCambodia with various local and international organizations and agencies before and during the UN Peace
Development Process in Cambodia.
Notably, Dr. Kol Pheng has also engaged himself with the public sector in Cambodia and in the UnitedStates. In Cambodia, he served the Ministry of Economy and Finance for eleven years (1963-1974) as aFinance Officer prior to his graduate studies in the U.S. In the U.S., he worked for more than six years as
Budget Analyst and Senior Research Economist in the State of Missouri, the Department of Revenue andthe Public Service Commission respectively.
Before returning to Cambodia in 1998, Dr. Kol had served more than fifteen years at the Public Utility
Commission of the State of Texas (PUCT), holding different positions as Manager of Cost of Service andElectric Rates Analysis, Chief Economist, and Deputy Director of the Commission administration,respectively. While at the Commission of the State of Texas, Dr. Kol was also a guest lecturer in economicRegulations at LBJ School of Public Administration, University of Texas at Austin, Texas.
Dr. Kol Pheng received his Diploma Superior of Commerce - Insurance from École des Arts et Métiers ofParis, his B.S. in Economics from the Royal University of Phnom-Penh, his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in
Economics from the University of Missouri at Columbia, Missouri, United States of America.
Dr. Kol Pheng is a writer since he was young. He received the National Literature Contest Award for hisnovel entitled “The Destiny of an Orphan” while he was in senior High School. Lately, he has written apopular Buddhist Literature book entitled “Bodhisattva: On Becoming Buddha”, describing lives ofhardship and long struggles of Gautama Buddha for the development of his perfect virtues prior to his fullenlightenment, along with the Ten Great Birth Stories of Bodhisattva. He is the co-author with Professor
Michael O. Forney of The Principles Microeconomics and Macroeconomics textbooks.