“I’ve talked with the prime minister about this [lack of
qualified workers]…. We take it very seriously. But education and vocational
training is not a government affair alone... How can we from the government
side or parents from their side think about engineers yet… when, for example,
we don’t have enough oil and gas to provide jobs in that sector. You need to
show there is more confidence in that sector first... Investors must provide
proper training to do something for vocational training. We will add it to the
new law,” he said.
Council for Development
of Cambodia secretary-general Sok Chenda, 28 November 2013
“People are coming into the sector [banking] without vocational skills…financial
analysis, risk analysis…. We aim to recreate an efficient body to provide
fundamental-level training for entry-level bankers.”
CEO of ANZ Royal Bank Grant Knuckey, 28 November 2103
Is passing the
education bucket to private sector a creative idea, or just a confirmation of
the government disinterest in technical education, or its incompetence, or all
of the above?
Sok Chenda
sounds reasonable when expecting the local oil and gas industry to be
commercially viable first before the government and parents can think about engineering
schools for children. There is no point of committing resources into anything
that is not viable.
However, the
government has not really cared that much for any viable industry. The banking
sector has been for years consolidating and flourishing; yet, ANZ Royal Bank
still finds it difficult to find local qualified workers for the bank. Why is
it so? Assuming other banks have the same staff problem, and based on Sok
Chenda’s thinking, this means the government’s confidence in the banking sector
has not yet reached a point where it will move decisively to improve the
banking vocational skill.
Anyway, it
seems the ANZ Royal Bank is prepared to train its own new staff. Is this
because it is so profitable that it can afford the additional cost? Or does it
plan to increase interest rate and fees to cover the costs later? Or is it
strategically too late for now for the Bank to divest?
Meanwhile, just
to make sure, Sok Chenda now plans to legally force the private sector to fund
their own training program for their new workers. Will this additional cost to
investors encourage new investments into any industry in Cambodia?
Nevertheless,
if the intended passing-the-bucket law works out, then this semi-government
will be relieved of a responsibility that a normal full government takes on.
UBA
30xi13
(Disclosure:
My spouse is a shareholder of ANZ Bank Ltd, which partly owns ANZ Royal Bank.)
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