Interview: Close ties with China provide enormous benefits to Cambodia's development, students say

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- For Veng Bunheang, a 31-year-old master's student at the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC), Cambodia's relations with China are at the best period in history, and that has brought substantial benefits to Cambodia's development in various fields.

"I think the Cambodia-China relations are currently at an all-time high in our history thanks to the frequent exchanges between the top leaders of the two countries," said Bunheang, a master's student at the RAC's International Chinese Education and Teachers Institute (ICETI).

Bunheang said this close relationship has encouraged a lot of Chinese investors and tourists to come to Cambodia.

"Their presence has significantly contributed to Cambodia's socio-economic development and poverty reduction by generating hundreds of thousands of jobs for Cambodian people," he said.

For Veng Sreyleak, a third-year student at the ICETI, China is a key contributor to the development of every field in Cambodia.

"There are a lot of China-backed projects in Cambodia, such as expressway, airports, hydropower plants, special economic zones, stadiums, health and education (projects)," she told Xinhua.

Sreyleak said the Cambodia-China ties are based on mutual trust, respect, help and support, and should be a model for state-to-state relations.

"As the younger generation of Cambodia, we will do our best to continue maintaining and fostering Cambodia-China relations for the continuous benefits of the two countries and peoples," the 24-year-old student said.

Lim Kimheak, another third-year student at the ICETI, said China was the first country to help Cambodia in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, providing the Southeast Asian nation with medical equipment, experts and vaccines to fight the pandemic.

"With China's timely supply of the vaccines, Cambodia has successfully controlled the spread of COVID-19, protecting millions of Cambodian people's lives," she told Xinhua.

In education, Kimheak said China has also played a crucial role as it helped develop human capital for Cambodia by granting many scholarships to Cambodian students every year, while in agriculture, Cambodia's exports of agricultural products such as rice, banana and mango to the Chinese market have seen a steady rise from year to year.

"All in all, Cambodia and China are true friends and real brothers who have always provided mutual help, and no one can break our fraternal friendship," the 25-year-old student said.

"I believe that with the high commitment made by the top leaders of our two countries, our plan to build a community with a shared future between Cambodia and China will be achievable," she added.