Policy Talk

The Asia Foundation and Future Forum are co-organizing a Virtual Policy Talk on “Foresighting Cambodia Economic Development 2040: New Challenges Brought by COVID-19” on Thursday, 30 July 2020, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. via Zoom.

About the Talk

The Talk will center around how the Cambodian economy is likely to develop by 2040. The Talk is motivated by Future Forum’s recent publication on “Cambodia 2040: Economic Development” which took place just before the COVID-19 outbreak. The publication aims to contribute to policy development in Cambodia by envisioning ideal development outcomes for Cambodia in 2040. However, with the new challenges brought by COVID-19, there are a number of questions that may of great interest to the public and related stakeholders. Would this pandemic crisis affect the proposed policy roadmap? How would the crisis affect the overall development of Cambodia in the long term?

The guest speakers in this talk include:

• Mr. Chean Sithykun, Former Senior Economist;
• Ms. Din Darathtey, Independent Communication Specialist;
• Mr. Ou Virak, Founder, Future Forum; and
• Ms. San Sophany, Research Associate, Cambodia Development Resource Institute, will be the moderator.

About the panelist and moderator

Mr. Chean Sithykun: Mr. Sithykun hols Master of Public Policy in Economic Policy, Australian National University, in 2017 and Bachelor degree in Economic Sciences from Royal University of Law and Economics in 2005. Mr. Sithykun is currently engaging in private sector. Prior to that, he is a former senior economist, General Department of Policy, Ministry of Economy and Finance and has had over 6 years experience in credit operations, commercial banks in Cambodia. Mr. Sithykun’s research interest is in the field of tax policy and energy economics.

Ms. Din Darathtey: Mr. Darathtey holds BA in International Relations at Pannasastra University of Cambodia in 2013; in 2016, Ms. Darathtey was awarded Chevening, a prestigious UK government scholarship, to pursue a one-year postgraduate study in the UK where she studied MA in Global Media and Communication. Currently, Ms. Darathtey is an independent Communication Specialist currently based in Auckland, New Zealand. She previously worked with organisations such as British Embassy Phnom Penh and UNICEF Cambodia. Ms. Darathtey’s research interest is in the field of memory and identity focusing on Cambodia.

Mr. Ou Virak: Mr. Virak holds an MA in Economics from California State University of San Jose. Mr. Virak is the founder and president of Future Forum. He is one of Cambodia’s most prominent and principled political analysts and human rights activists, with proven expertise in strengthening grassroots movements, conducting political economy analyses, spearheading organizational development and directing risk assessments. Prior to founding Future Forum in late 2015, Virak led the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, one of Cambodia’s premier human rights organizations, where he turned the organization around and rebuilt it from the ground up after significant losses in both staff and funding. He has led successful campaigns to free human rights activists and tackled some of the most controversial issues in Cambodia: rule of law, freedom of expression, racism, LGBT rights, forced evictions and more.

Ms. San Sophany: Ms. Sophany holds Master’s degrees in Gender and Development Studies from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, and in Educational Leadership from Pannasastra University of Cambodia.  Currently, she is a research associate at Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). She has an extensive experience of more than 5 years in managing research projects and provide training to NGOs staff on gender analysis, gender mainstreaming and social inclusion for gender equality. Her fields of expertise include gender analysis, social enterprise and organizational development, gender-responsive development planning, gender and governance, human rights and environment.