![]() Though the school is a charitable project, but it is decidedly not a cut-rate operation – in fact, it is the exact opposite, expensively kitted out to full spec. Lining the corridor are photographs of Prince group management with the Prime minister and other government officials, illustrating the Cambodian government’s support for the school.Īs a visitor, stepping into the school is surreal: a stark transition from the chaotic streets of Phnom Penh into clean, cool, and quiet classrooms filled with the best tools. While unassuming on the outside, the school’s lobby makes it obvious the building is special. Despite being tucked away a distance from the main road, the school is incongruous, sitting in an area mostly filled with a mishmash of stores, backpacker hotels, and even an international school. The place of learningĪlready in its final stages of setup during my visit in late February, the school is in the Chrouy Changvar district of eastern Phnom Penh, housed in a nondescript building just a few streets away the Mekong River. Evidence is found along the streets of Phnom Penh, which are filled with workshops selling second-hand car and truck engines. Anything that can be salvaged is fixed and reused, rather than discarded. While Cambodia’s recent, tragic history also means its people value objects and repair them. The formal reception room inside the Prince group building, lined with the flags of Cambodia and Chinaįor cultural and historical reasons, the people of Cambodia are well suited to watchmaking, despite it being a completely new vocation. The country has a rich history of woodworking and stone carving – exemplified by the magnificent treasures in the ancient city of Angkor built by the Khmer Empire. ![]() It has also expanded into hotels, supermarkets, farming, and in 2017, the group set up the country’s newest airline, Cambodia Airways. The Prince group has completed, or is close to completing, some one million square metres of commercial and residential space – with another 20 million square metres in the works. The school is funded by the charitable arm of Prince Real Estate Group, a conglomerate founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. Founded only in 2015, the Prince group has swiftly become one of the largest companies in Cambodia, with a real estate portfolio worth some US$2 billion. One driver behind the turbocharged growth in recent years has been China, which accounted for over 40% of the country’s foreign-direct investment in 2019, especially after Cambodia became a key part of Belt and Road Initiative. As it happens, the school was made possible, in part, because of Chinese investment in Cambodia. ![]() While sometime criticised for his authoritarian tendencies, his rule has brought cultivated political stability, which in turn has led to rapid economic growth, averaging almost 8% a year since 1998, making Cambodia one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The current prime minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, took office in 1985 and has been in power since, making him the longest-serving, non-royal ruler in Asia. The regime wiped out a quarter of the country’s population, with an emphasis on ridding the country of its educated class, in an attempt to turn back the clock and return Cambodia to a pre-industrial agricultural society. ![]() The country’s privation can be traced back to the Khmer Rouge, in power for a brief but disastrous three years until 1979, setting back the nation’s development by decades. An ancient kingdom of artisansīordered by Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos, Cambodia is one of Southeast’s Asia poorer countries, with a gross domestic product per capita (at purchasing power parity) just one quarter of Thailand’s. Now in its third round of admissions interviews and tests, the school will start its term in early June 2020 (though the COVID-19 coronavirus might delay that), with the inaugural class of eight students graduating in 2022, becoming the first watchmakers in Cambodia trained in their native country.
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