The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Vietnamese shop owner rebuilds after attack” plus 8 more

I would like to wish all Australians in Cambodia a very happy Australia Day on 26 January 2014.

Australia and Cambodia continue to enjoy a warm relationship based on historical ties and shared national interests. This relationship is comprehensive, ranging across issues such as regional security, law enforcement and transnational crime, trade and investment, people-to-people links and development cooperation.

People-to-people links in particular add great depth to the connections between Australia and Cambodia.

There is a well-established community of around 30,000 Cambodians who call Australia home. This community makes a positive contribution to Australian society.

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The number of Cambodians studying in Australia is increasing. Since 1994, moreover, Australia has funded over 500 scholarships for Cambodian students to pursue postgraduate study in Australia. On return to Cambodia, many scholarship awardees have gone on to take up positions of influence across all sectors and have made substantial contributions to the development of Cambodia.

Over the coming year, the Australian Government will be conducting a trial of the New Colombo Plan, a program which will involve scholarships to Australia for regional students and opportunities for Australians to gain experience of the Indo-Pacific, through study and internship in the region. We will be working with the Cambodian government to implement the New Colombo Plan here.

One of the most significant relationships between Cambodia and Australia is through tourism. In 2013, more than one hundred thousand Australian tourists visited Cambodia and this number continues to grow.

We are proud of the work of individual Australians who are actively contributing to Cambodian range of sectors: in business, non-government organisations, as researchers and as volunteers. There are currently more than 80 Australians in Cambodia working as Australian Government-supported volunteers in a range of Cambodian organisations helping to alleviate poverty, in addition to the hundreds of others who volunteer outside of Australian Government programs.

There are Australians working as researchers at the Angkor Archaeological Park and others are working towards a Heritage Management Framework to protect Cambodia's priceless cultural heritage. In July, an exhibition featuring archaeological treasures uncovered during excavations conducted at Phum Sophy, Banteay Meanchey Province by a joint Cambodian and Australian archaeological team opened at the National Museum of Cambodia.

In the area of trade and investment, there are some major Australian companies investing in Cambodia, including ANZ and Toll Holdings. Cambodia and Australia are both part of the ASEAN-Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations, and we hope this will continue to help increase trade and investment between our two countries.

Our two countries have continued to cooperate with our ASEAN partners. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Australia-ASEAN relations. Australia was ASEAN's first dialogue partner. The 40th anniversary of relations is an important opportunity for Australia and ASEAN to chart a new strategic direction to our partnership, complementing ASEAN's focus on strengthening regional integration through the ASEAN Community and development of the East Asia Summit.

I would like to wish all Australians and our Cambodian friends a peaceful and successful 2014.

Since its founding more than two decades ago, the Australian Centre for Education has evolved into one of the Kingdom's top choices for English Language Training

IDP Education established the Australian Centre for Education (ACE) in February 1992. In the 22 years since, the school has grown to become widely considered as the leading provider of English Language Training (ELT) in Cambodia, and a leader in the provision of academic English and pre-departure programs.

ACE provides ELT and testing to more than 10,000 students per year from young learners aged eight and upwards to government employees, embassy staff, corporate executives and students who are preparing to study abroad. The teaching take place across three campuses; two in Phnom Penh and one in Siem Reap.

ACE is a truly international ELT school, with students from over 18 countries studying there. Anastasia Kurova, an ACE student from Russia explained that "the reason I chose ACE is simple. My friends advised me and they were right without any doubt – this is the best place to study!"

ACE leads the delivery of high quality ELT in Cambodia and the region and carries out this mission by maintaining an active professional development program for its staff, including facilitating the international CamTESOL Conference, and through making decisions based on empirical evidence of student achievement.

ACE is accredited by the National ELT Accreditation Scheme (NEAS) of Australia. ACE, Phnom Penh Samdech Pan was the second ELT school outside of Australia to be granted this status while ACE Siem Reap and ACE Santhor Mok were the third and fourth respectively.

Graduates from the ACE General English Program (GEP; Level 12, with an overall IELTS score of 5.0) are widely accepted in Cambodia as meeting minimum requirements for employment in an English-speaking environment. ACE's English for Academic Purposes Program (EAP) is highly regarded in the local education and corporate communities. EAP provides students with the essential skills necessary for English-language functionality for work or study to an international standard.

ACE has responded to the rapidly developing ELT needs in Cambodia with a focus on corporate English in preparation for ASEAN Economic Integration in 2015. The ACE Business English Program provides practical language skills for those who require a high level of English for their workplace while the English for Specific Purposes Program (ESP) provides language skills for more specialised purposes.

ACE is also the leading provider of IELTS Preparation Courses and ACE GEP Level 12 graduates receive a free IELTS test. It is the world's most popular high stakes English-language proficiency test with two million tests taken in the last year. Over 8,000 organisations trust and accept IELTS as a secure, valid and reliable indicator of true to life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and professional accreditation.

ACE has recently introduced innovative new schemes including the ACE Lecture Series, which invites prominent speakers from prestigious overseas universities to give presentations on contemporary subjects to local and international attendees.

As an Australian-owned business, ACE is immensely proud of its role in providing ELT to many thousands of Cambodians since 1992 and the respected place it now holds in the Cambodian community and ACE has been greatly privileged to welcome the resident Australian ambassador to jointly open each of its new campuses. The staff and students of ACE wish everyone a Happy Australia Day 2014!

Australian institutions educate over 400,000 international students per year and since 2010, more than 550 Cambodians have chosen to study in Australia. For many, the most powerful lure is the quality and the diversity of Australia's education system.

Seang Sophana studied a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, Adelaide in 2009. Reflecting on his time studying in Australia, he said, "The experience of living overseas had a significant impact on me. It gave me the confidence and motivation that enabled me to pioneer and build a successful business and to have the confidence to travel and work throughout the region."

Studying in Australia encourages creative, innovative and independent thinking. Students learn the essential skills required for effective teamwork including communicating with others and developing abilities to become global citizens.

Kieng Rotana completed a Master of Health Professions Education at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and returned to Cambodia in July 1999. "Before 2000 there were no private universities in Cambodia. It was as a direct result of meetings I had with other Australian alumni that the idea was born to start private universities based on the Australian University model and in this way contribute and give back to Cambodia."

The Oz-funded Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain is boosting farm productivity and upgrading important infrastructure in the Cambodian countryside

Chhin Sokun and her husband own almost 5.5 hectares of land in Porng Toeuk village in Kampot province. Since their marriage about 13 years ago, she and her husband have been growing rice, as well as a little corn, banana and taro, around their house.

Like many other farmers in her area, Sokun used to only be able to grow one crop of rice each year. That was because she didn't have access to year-round water through an irrigation system. "I could grow only one time per year. I grew traditional rice which relies on rain and takes around six months to grow. I got a yield of two to two and a half tons per hectare at most," she said. However, things have now changed for Sokun and her community.

The Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain (CAVAC) program is an initiative funded by Australian aid. The program aims to accelerate the growth of agricultural production in rice and vegetable farming. One of the things CAVAC focuses on is the rehabilitation and construction of irrigation schemes. As of January 2014, the program has already completed around 20 irrigation schemes. This includes the Sbove Andeth canal, which now brings water within reach of Sokun's farm.

Sokun is a curious person and she always discusses how to grow rice with other farmers. She learnt that farmers in other areas with canals can grow the IR variety of rice, and get higher yields.

"I also want to grow the IR variety because I saw farmers in the next district who got the canal before me can grow it and had high yields, but I couldn't grow like them because of not having enough water," she said. "After the canal was rehabilitated, I switched to the IR variety, and I can grow two crops per year. The yield also went up quite significantly. Now we get four and a half to five tons per hectare," Sokun said.

The extra rice means extra income for their family.

"When we did traditional rice cultivation we made between three and four million riel ($750-$1,000) in profit per year. Now that we are doing dry season rice cultivation, we make six million riel in profit per season, so in total we are making 12 million riel in profit per year," she said.

Sokun and her family are not the only ones reaping the benefits from the rehabilitated canal. The canal allows nearly 700 hectares to be irrigated, benefitting around 1,000 households. The extra rice that is produced each year is worth around $600,000.

Irrigation canals built by CAVAC can bring other benefits to communities. For instance, CAVAC typically constructs a simple roadway alongside each canal. Sokun sells some of her produce in Touk Meas market, around 15 kilometres from her home.

"Before, I drove to the market on a road that was long and difficult, but now I drive on a shorter, smoother road," she said.

The larger harvest and better road access has also led to an increase in the number of rice traders in her area. Now Sokun can simply sell her paddy to traders immediately after harvest, without the difficulty of having to transport the rice like before.

Melbourne native Joe Farrugia is one of the growing number of Australian managers involved in Cambodia's development

As nonprofit, governmental and commercial interactions between Australia and Cambodia continue to deepen, more and more Australian professionals are living and working in the Kingdom – some of them long enough to think of Cambodia as home.

Joe Farrugia, CEO of Hong Leong Bank (Cambodia), embodies this trend, which he says not only provides companies from Australia and elsewhere access to the dynamic Cambodian economy, but also facilitates a large-scale knowledge and skill transfer to the next generation of local management.

"I enjoy being able to share my knowledge and experience with Cambodians and see them grow professionally," Farrugia said. "What the local talent pool here lacks in experience, it makes up for with passion and commitment."

Originally from Melbourne, Farrugia first lived in Phnom Penh from 2006 to 2011, during which time he was the head of ANZ Royal's retail banking division. After a short stint in Vietnam, Farrugia returned to Cambodia in 2012, taking the reins at Malaysian-based Hong Leong's operations in the Kingdom. He told the Post that he felt privileged to be involved in Cambodia's development.

"Seven years may not sound like long, but so much has happened during that time," he said. "All the new buildings and roads and improvements in general infrastructure have been good for the economy. The transformation of the landscape in the last few years has truly been remarkable."

The last few years have been exciting, but they have also been a time of increased competition, which Farrugia sees as a positive development for Cambodia.

"Greater competition forces everyone to raise their standards and improve the quality of their services or offerings," he said.

For the time being, Farrugia will be focused on developing Hong Leong's brand in Cambodia and is working on setting up a community education program for the underprivileged. He is also an active member of the Australian Business Association, Cambodia Business Association and Bankers Association of Cambodia.

"Being actively involved in these associations has given me the opportunity to meet so many nice people from Cambodia and around the globe, and to establish long-term relationships," he said.

As for the long term, however, Farrugia views his role in Phnom Penh as helping pave the way for a new generation of Cambodian business leaders.

"The Cambodians that I work with approach their jobs with genuine passion. I see junior executives today who will be senior executives in the near future. When I retire, I look forward to passing the torch to Cambodians," Farrugia said.

Business aside, Phnom Penh is a great place to raise a family, said Farrugia, who lives in the Northbridge Communities. He and his wife are parents of nine-year-old twins that he says feel more connected to Cambodia than to Australia.

"They think of Cambodia as home," he said. "We've travelled all over the country, and they have friends from all walks of life. We absolutely love this place, we have no intention of leaving anytime soon."

Dana Sreng hopes to improve life for poor and handicapped

Dana Sreng is a Cambodian-Australian with a typical past but a strong desire to make a difference in his native Cambodia. He was raised in Phnom Penh but fled with his family to Kandal province in 1975 and then to Thailand during the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. His early story reflects many of the Pol Pot regime survivors' tales, of difficult times surviving in the refugee camps before being offered an opportunity for a fresh start in a new country – in Sreng's case, in Adelaide, Australia.

He arrived in Adelaide in 1980 with his mother and sister as a shy, skinny 12-year-old kid with no English-language skills but with a haunting past. He and his sister were sent to language centre for three months where they studied an intensive English-language program to prepare them for high school. Because of the language barrier they faced, they had to study extra hard to keep up with the other students in high school, but with hard work and persistence they eventually succeeded. Sreng was rewarded for his hard work by being accepted into Adelaide University to study for a Bachelor of General Science.

During his later school and university years, Sreng was elected as president of the Cambodian Youth of South Australia, which had a key objective to help young, recently arrived Cambodians to integrate into Australian society. While working with many young new arrivals, and helping them to settle into the Australian way of life, he learned much about the tragedies and struggles of other Cambodian families, and he realised it was in his nature to help others, particularly young people.

After graduating from university, he worked in a range of jobs and occupations in Adelaide and Melbourne until he decided to return to Cambodia in 1993 to visit his homeland and to look for relatives who might have survived the Khmer Rouge. He was immediately touched by how much Cambodia was in need of development assistance. He decided that, with his experiences in Australia and his desire to make a difference to the people of Cambodia, he would stay in Cambodia to help push forward the development of the people and nation.

Sreng immediately became involved in an urgent need he saw – helping mine accident victims and others with various disabilities. He met a young Cambodian-American, who is one of his best friends to this day, working as a volunteer for an American war veteran organisation. He then continued to help, directly and indirectly, people with disabilities through supporting training programs which help disadvantaged people integrate into society through equal employment opportunity programs.

In 2012, Sreng decided to leave a well-paid job as a manager for Mobitel to start an outsourcing company, Dynamic Outsourcing Services (DOS), with the key objective to create more employment opportunities for young Cambodians, including people with financial and physical difficulties. DOS has now been successfully established as one of the top outsourcing firms in Cambodia, covering a range of call centre services, scanning and data processing, staff outsourcing and IT services.

The good news is that Sreng has been successful in creating many new jobs for young Cambodians, many from the countryside and disadvantaged backgrounds, who are starting out life in the workforce. He is now giving to young Cambodians what Australia offered him as a young man – opportunities for a better start in life.

Western Australian volunteers focus on teaching Cambodian children vital life skills

Since 2006, administrators, teachers and support staff from many schools in Western Australia have been providing educational resources and teaching support to Cambodian sister schools in Kampong Speu province, which is located 50 kilometres south of Phnom Penh.

The ANGKOR Project, managed by volunteer educators from Western Australia, is supported by the director-general of the Department of Education, Sharyn O'Neill, the Cambodian Ministry of Education and the regional director of Kampong Speu province, Sam Samenta.

The project was established to enhance the learning environments of local schools and develop the capacity of Cambodian teachers. It also enables Western Australian school students to develop a greater understanding of Asia, Cambodia, global poverty and global issues.

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During the past seven years, principals, teachers and other Department of Education staff have funded their own trips to Cambodia to support sister schools in Kampong Speu.

In Western Australia, children have fund-raised in local primary and secondary schools to purchase teaching and learning resources, water fountains, toilets, electrical services and to build classrooms to enable Cambodian children to receive a better education.

The slogan of the project, "Children Helping Children", highlights the importance of children being able to make a difference in other children's lives. Schools have embraced fund-raising ventures to ensure every cent is spent to improve the education and well-being of children and their teachers in Cambodia. All funds are directly sent to sister schools with sponsorship by ANZ Bank.

Teachers not only provide resources and infrastructure to their sister schools but spend time in Cambodian classrooms modelling effective teaching and learning methods and promoting collaborative strategies.

Other initiatives of the ANGKOR Project include annual leadership conferences for Cambodian sister school head teachers and study tours for Western Australian teachers. ANGKOR Project committee members and education officers from Kampong Speu Regional Education Office work hard to ensure the project is successful.

On January 13, 2014 three teachers from Perth – Natalie Tarr, Mandy Rubinich and Megan Ross – hosted a conference with 46 Cambodian teachers from Kampong Speu primary and secondary schools.

The focus of the day was improving literacy through the teaching of effective reading strategies. A Khmer-speaking interpreter translated for the presenters and teachers involved in the conference.

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Teachers from Kampong Speu commented that conference was excellent and enjoyable. The buzz in the room throughout the day showed teachers were engaged and willing to try out new strategies to motivate their students and provide more collaborative learning in their classrooms.

Samenta, regional director of Kampong Speu, said: "The ANGKOR Project is helping Cambodian teachers improve their teaching through seeing how Australian children are learning and being taught."

One of the teachers in attendance commented: "With over 60 children in some of our classrooms, it is important that we know how to cater for them all."

Natalie Tarr, associate principal at Highgate Primary School, emphasised the importance of understanding and valuing the teaching context of Cambodian schools.

"It is important that all the strategies can be transferred into a Cambodian classroom," she said. "With few computers and no photocopiers, activities need to be hands-on, engaging and provide opportunities for all children to meaningfully participate."

Megan Ross, a teacher from Highgate Primary School, modelled reading activities on her visit earlier this month to Amphet Phnom School. She also introduced French cricket and effective maths activities using dice. Megan also provided stationery and resources to the teachers at the school from funds raised through raffles and silent auctions.

This year, schools from Western Australia will continue to undertake fund-raising activities in order to improve the education and lives of children in Cambodian schools.

For further information on the ANGKOR Project visit the Department of Education Western Australia website. A journal of the visit from 2013 is available at natperth.blogspot.com.

When living or travelling abroad, a taste of one's home can be more than just another meal, it can be a reminder of who you are and where you come from. This Australia Day, Phnom Penh's Australian community will come together to celebrate at Aussie XL, the city's most popular Australian restaurant and pub.

For the past four years, Aussie XL has been serving authentic Australian food to hungry Australians as well as diners from around Cambodia and the world. Its friendly staff and warm atmosphere have made it an institution on Rue de Pasteur.

Adelaide native Peter Stewart and his nephew Brian Stewart took the reins of Aussie XL a little more than a year ago and are frequently around the restaurant chatting with regulars or making new friends.

"Our goal with Aussie XL is to make it a home away from home for Australians and New Zealanders here in Phnom Penh," the elder Stewart said.

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In addition to Aussies, Kiwis and other foreigners, it is common to find Cambodians at Aussie XL, some coming alone and others with their Australian co-workers or friends. Stewart said his restaurant's hamburgers and wood-fired pizzas were particularly popular with locals.

Australian cuisine features many dishes common in other cultures around the world – a reflection of the diversity of the immigrants that have populated the country during the 288 years following the arrival of the first British ships at Sydney Cove in 1788.

Aussie XL's menu reflects these different influences, which range from English to Greek and Italian to Cantonese.

But for the uninitiated, there are some truly Australian experiences on offer at the restaurant, including Aussie Parma schnitzel, sausage rolls, pies, and of course, Aussie-style mixed grill. Diners in search of a complete Aussie dining experience can also choose from Australian wines by Yellow Tail and cold bottles of Coopers pale ale or sparkling ale.

As any Australian will tell you, Australia Day is not just an excuse to eat and drink one's fill, it is also the day that people across the country turn on their radios for the annual Triple J Top 100 Countdown, which Stewart said will be broadcast live.​ In addition to the countdown, Aussie XL will be offering specials on roast lamb as well as $4 bottles of Coopers.

Aussie XL is located at Number 205A, Rue de Pasteur (Street 51) in BKK1.