Phnom Penh: Mr. Heng Sour, Minister of Labor and Vocational Training, met with Ms. Xiaoyan Qian, Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) for Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, on the morning of April 22, 2026, at the Ministry’s office. The meeting focused on the progress of cooperation and exchanging views on exploring opportunities to implement projects and initiatives towards human resource development, especially skills training in line with evolving market needs.
On that occasion, the Minister expressed his deep gratitude for the ILO’s long-standing support for the strong partnership with Cambodia. He highlighted the important cooperation under the ILO-China Partnership Programme, especially in promoting skills development and TVET systems, promoting social justice, labour rights and decent work in Cambodia.
Ms. Xiaoyan Qian noted the great progress of the “Decent Work” programme in Cambodia, which has received great praise not only from the ILO but also from the Even the new UN coordinator was very impressed by this good result. She is very pleased with the progress of Cambodia’s Global Accelerator implementation, which can attract more development partners to participate.
She deeply appreciates the trust, support and cooperation of the Ministry of Labor and hopes that the Minister may be invited to share more experiences at the global or UN level “on the implementation of the Global Accelerator Project” Because this is what the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund) wants to achieve.
In response, Mr. Heng Sour stated that from the beginning, Cambodia has been committed to working hard to implement the GA to become one of the “Champions” countries, and Cambodia will continue to play an active role in participating in all levels of relevant activities, including on the international stage, sharing good experiences and providing comments, etc. However, the Minister stated that if we look at the activities of the countries that received funds and GA members, they have not yet reached the expected level, which requires us to find ways to push the program to a higher level. Mr. Heng Sour considered the participation of development partners to be very important because many programs, such as social protection and decent work, cannot rely only on existing funds, but need additional resources to be implemented quickly and effectively.
At the same time, the two sides also discussed the progress of the process of preparing the Recognition of Prior Skills (RPL) test for citizens, especially for former workers from Thailand, and the strengthening of the Sector Skills Council (SSC) to strengthen skills development in line with the labor market. At the same time, the two sides exchanged views on continuing and promoting operational cooperation on skills training funded by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), and on the program of handing over national vocational standards and training manuals, which are gifts from China on the National Technical and Vocational Education and Training Day in June.
Cambodia welcomes these new initiatives, which will contribute to strengthening curriculum development and skills promotion in Cambodia, and reaffirms its commitment to respecting ILO principles and international labor standards, and is always ready to continue new cooperation.
