I- Introduction and Background

       Cambodia has a land area of 181,035 square kilometers in the southwestern part of the Indochina peninsula, about 20 percent of which is used for agriculture. It lies completely within the tropics with its southemmost points slightly more than 10 degree above the Equator. The country's capital city is Phnom Penh. International borders are shared with Thailand and the Lao PDR on the west and on the north, the Socialism Republic of Vietnam on the east and the southeast and Gulf of Thailand on the southwest.

       The total population of Cambodia is 10.7 million people with 5.6 million females, 52,2 percent, and 5.1 million males, 47.8 percent, according to a survery taken in March 1996 in preparation for the country's first census since 1962. Literacy among men over 15 is 81.8 percent, living in a rural areas while only 14.4 percent live in urban. Population growth is 2.6 percent while the death rate is 1.2 percent. There are approximately 2 million households in the country with average size of 5.3 people. One quarter of the households, 25.8 percent, are headed by females.

       In 1979, after the genocidal regime and almost two decades of warfare, Cambodia was just a baby, urgently needing to rehabilitate and develop all sectors of its economy and society. Planning economics policies were adpted, but these were few. Economics study was firt established in 1984 with its 5-years undergraduate program. The first batch of economics students was enrolled in 1984. For the first seven batches run between 1984 and 1990 the students were trained on the Centrally Planned Economic theory. Both the curriculum and teaching of Vietnam's Hanoi Economics and Planning Institute were involved in the cooperative effort.

       The economic reform was started in 1989 by the restoration of private property ownership. This resulted the giving up of collective production in agriculture organized under "solidarity" groups. In addition, the role of prices in the economic allocation system has changed and all prices have been brought closer to international prices. The two prices system for rice, introduced in 1984, under which farmers were taxed indirectly by being compelled to sell a portion of their output to the state at below market prices, was abolished in 1989.

        Along with that, in 1991 from th 8^th batch, the Economics students has been trained in Free Market Oriented Economy theory with the support of the Government of France. The central planning curriculum has benn completely change.

        On the other had, the Economics field of study, from 8^th batch, was separated from the Ex-Institute of Economics, and has now joined with the Faculty of Law to become the Faculty of Law and   Economics Sciences in 1994 according to the Sub-decree of the Council of Ministers on December 25, 1992.

II- Economic Reform

       The process of peace and national reconciliation set the Paris Accord of 23 September 1991 has fundamentally changed the overall situation of Cambodia. Assisted by the international community, the free and democratic election help in 1993 led to adoption of the constitution, the establishment of the National assembly, and the formation of the Royal Goverment of Cambodia. Cambodia is now a full-fledged democratic society and it is operating a free market economic system.

        The Government has a policy to encourage and foster a strong and stable private sector through, indirect means such as legislation, regulation, fiscal policy, credit or monetary policies.
       The other goal is to reintergrate the Cambodia economy into the regional and world economic system, which involves opening the country to private foreign investment.

       To achieve these policies, administrators trained in modern economic theory are necessary. To train them, lecturers trained in modern economic theory are necessary too.

 III- Economic Teaching and Training

         The Faculty of Law and Economics has benn developing its curriculum. Some new subjects have been introduced into curriculum, such as The South-East Asian Economy,Human Resource Management, Administrative Law and English Language. Since the beginning of this academic year, we have established two option: 1). Economic Analysis and 2). Economic Management, for the 4^th and 5^th year students. We will change these two options according to the ongoing economics situation and the teachers ideas and training.

       Besides the 5-year program, we organized 2 other training programs. These include:

1. A 3-years program in Professional Accounting was started in 1994. We have recruited the graduates from secondary shcool.
   
2. A 1-year pre-master program or BBA program. For this program, we recruited only students who have completed at least the third year from every University Faculty in the Kingdom of Cambodia. This program begin in 1994.

At present, the Department of Economics of the FLES has a total number of students, as follows:

      Bachelor Program in economics ( 5 years)   : 789 students
      Accounting Professional Program (3 Years) : 52 Students
      Pre-master or BBA Program  ( 3+1 Year)   : 17 Students

* Objectives of these three programs are:

1. To equip the students with knowedge understanding of basic economic problems, with emphasis on fundamental concepts and analytical tools, particularly those relevant to the situation of economics of the country.

2. To develop the students'ability to form reasoned options on current issues and to utilize the tools of economics for critical analysis

* Admission

Each year in August, the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport organizes an entrance examination for all applicants.
The FLSE admits 240 students for the bachelor program, 120 for Bachelor Program in Economics, 120 for Bachelor Program in Law, and 15 student for the BBA and 30 students for the Accounting Professional Program. Each student can make his/her own choice on field of student from the beginning of the admission.

* Academic year

The academic year is divided into two 16 weeks semesters, the first semesster from the first week of September to the end of January and the second semester from the third week of February to the end of June.

* Courses and Credit

All the courses are credited according to the number of hours for the whole program. Each coures has class lectures and tutorial classes.

* Grading system

The work of undergraduates, professional accounting and BBA students are graded at the end of each semester.

    Grade Point
      Grade point are assigned to follow the French grading system as 20/20
        20/20  = is an excellent grade
        16/20-19/20 = very good
        14/20-16/20 = Good
        12/20-14/20 = fair

   Grade point average
      * Each undergraduate is required to maintain a 10/20 grade point average to remain in good staning
      * Each gradate student whose grade fall beloww a 10/20 for each course has to take a second examination.
      * Failture to achive the average point for each semester and at the end of the year, means that the student has to repeat that year.
.....................................x.xxx.x.........................................

IV-Recommendations

1. GMSR should organize some experts to visit our faculty, and to develop teaching methods and curriculum in collaboration with the french team.
   
2. Help existing teachers to attend training course on Economics reform for Transitional Economics for short and long term at the developed countries in the region
   
3. GMSR should provide funds to do research.

 V-Conclusion

          We are in the same region, most of us are going through the same transition process but some who started earlier than others are further advanced along the way. They have acquired much experience as they have moved away from a command to a market economy, We share the region and its resources, we share the transition. Let us cooperate and share the experience as well as the success.

Back Top of Page