35,000 qualified engineering professionals are needed in Cambodia from 2018 to 2020 to fulfill the high demand of the current labor market, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) report.

The statement was made during the 2017 Annual Report Seminar of the Cambodia Board of Engineers at the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT) on 26 April.

“Counting until December 2017, the Board of Engineers Cambodia has trained and legally registered a total of 3,045 engineers of whom 76 percent are specialised in civil engineering,” said H.E. Pich Sophorn, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training during the seminar.

“However, this number is still very low comparing to the actual need of the current labor market in Cambodia nowadays. We still need about 35,000 engineers from 2018 to 2020 according to research by JICA,” he added.

This high demand for engineering professionals is due to the rapid increase of construction projects in Cambodia over the past decade. Between the years 2000 and 2017, Cambodia has had a total of 39,903 construction projects nationwide worth more than USD37 billion, according to the annual report by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC).

In 2017 alone, 3,052 construction projects were recorded representing an increase of 22.31 percent year-on-year from 2016.

“Therefore, Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training is also working hard to train and create more and more qualified engineering professionals, and the board of engineers has played a very important role in doing this significant task,” said H.E. Sophorn.