For the past years, tremendous efforts have been paid by all concerned parties, in order to achieve AUN/SEED-Net's goal to improve educational and research capacities of member institutions in this ASEAN region, with academic support from the Japanese Supporting University Consortium. Among other achievements, for example, the first phase of the Project has provided a total of 445 scholarships to study at graduate level in ASEAN or Japan. So far, we have seen 201 scholars successfully graduating from the program, and we are expecting another few hundreds to follow in the coming few years, which I believe will bring a great impact on the improvement of the member institutions' educational and research capacity.

Based on all the achievements and the impact of the Project to the region, it was encouraged by all parties concerned that the Project should be continued to the second phase, to further improve education and research capacity of the member institutions and to ensure the sustainable engineering network within the region. After long series of intensive discussions and preparation by all members to lay out the framework for the second phase, I am very pleased to inform you again that finally the request for the support to the AUN/SEED-Net's Phase II was officially approved by the Government of Japan and JICA in October 2007, with the duration of 5 years starting from March 2008 until March 2013.

Recently ASEAN has made one greater step forward by agreeing on the ASEAN Charter, the Constitution of ASEAN, which definitely will further accelerate and strengthen the integration and solidarity of the region. I strongly believe AUN/SEED-Net, as a sub-network of AUN, has been contributing to this ultimate goal of ASEAN, by bringing leading engineering schools in the region together to cooperate for human resource development and research activities inevitable for the region's development and integration. I believe Phase II will continue to meet the needs of ASEAN, as it plans to continue its effort to produce leading engineering human resource, put more efforts in collaborative research activities for industry and community by promoting interdisciplinary research areas addressing common needs and issues of the region, create or strengthen the existing regional academic network, and also try to work out our way towards the concept of Graduate School of Engineering Consortium among ASEAN and Japan. JICA is very pleased to be a partner of ASEAN in this great endeavour for the region's sustainable social and economic development, which is perfectly in line with the Official Development Assistance policy of the Japanese Government.

On this great occasion, please allow me to wish you all a successful implantation of the second phase of the Project in the future.

Cambodia has been well placed to benefit from rapid infrastructural development after peace returned, and because of our strengths, flexibility, dynamism, complementarities between our economies, and competitiveness of our open economy. Cambodia is now in period of economic development booming of merchandise import-export market and investments. Great advantages have been achieved since this country normalized diplomatic relations to many countries in the world.

Because engineering education play an important role both for the country's competitive advantages as well as for the ongoing work of creating sustainable development in local communities, that engineering education is a key element to the successful development of a society is well discussed and accepted in the literature on socioeconomic development, along with health, water, nutrition and housing, etc.

The Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC) is a multilateral cooperation managed and assisted by board administration and board director to explore collaboration with seven university networks, i.e., AUN/SEED-Net, Coopération universitaire pour le development (Belgium), Agence universitaire de la Francophone, France Coopération, Ambassade de France au Cambodge, GMSARN, and School of Internet (SOI) project.

To meet the national and international standard, the development of faculty staffs is in long term prospective. Under collaboration with AUN/SEED-Net program during the first phase, the achievement of project activities can be shown as following:

• 53 scholarships were awarded to students and faculty staffs (41 masters and 12 doctors);
• 4 field-wise seminars were hosted in Phnom Penh (Geological Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering);
• 80 staffs from member institutions attended field-wise seminars in Phnom Penh;
• 5 staffs joined the Short-term Visit within Member Institutions Program;
• 9 staffs joined the Short-term Visit to Japan Program;
• 33 promotional visits received; and
• 20 masters graduates returned to Cambodia.

ITC acts as a core institution for engineering education in Cambodia, determining to produce human resources to work with ministries, authorities, NGOs, private sectors. ITC is therefore grateful for the willingness of some prominent graduates to serve on its academic programs. It then encourages senior students to apply for AUN/SEED-Net scholarships so that young graduates become teaching staff after their completion. Some masters graduates are pursuing PhD degree in ASEAN and Japan.

Future plans for ITC include capacity enhancement, hosting international conferences, continuing research into engineering education, and conducting further/exchange courses. In the second phase of AUN/SEED-Net, ITC has been sought to establish links with other member institutions to enhance research and development activities. Propositions were adopted during the 13th AUN/SEED-Net Steering Committee Meeting, including:

• Joint interdisciplinary research activities in Biotechnology, Natural Materials & Resources, New/Renewable Energy, Global Environment and Disaster Management
• MOU among the member institutions and Japanese supporting universities
• Enhancement of understanding and relationship within the alumni network and promotion of the network recognition

The faculty development strategic plan of ITC is to provide client institutes, colleges and instructional departments with an array of services to improve the accountability outcomes of their instructional programs. In the process, the expectations of our students, trustees and other stakeholders will be systematically surpassed.

Engineering education, technological education and transfer of technology are inextricably linked to regional development in a complexity that goes beyond investment by foreign companies. Education, training, availability of lab facilities, access to facilities for new subjects and others will certainly strengthen quality of engineering education in Cambodia.

Lastly, ITC would like to thank AUN/SEED-Net, JICA, the member institutions, and the Japanese supporting universities for their continuing support to our strategic plan.