On October 16, 2020, the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) on Cooperation and Partnership in Joint Policy Research and Capacity Development.
Both parties agreed to work on policy, legislative and subject matter research and capacity development in areas of mutual interest, focused on the following: Research exchange, joint activities on research and publication; joint activities on participating and organizing workshops, conferences, technical consultations, and others; and exchange of academic and research documents and other academic and research activities.
PIC’s Executive Director, Mr. Dararith KIM-YEAT, and CDRI’s Executive Director, Dr. PECH Sokhem, officially sign the memorandum of understanding held at the CDRI offices in Phnom Penh. In his welcoming remarks, Dr. PECH Sokhem stressed that the partnership will strengthen the institutional capacity of both CDRI and PIC to deliver research service to stakeholders. “CDRI, as a 30 years old think tank, has taken further steps to broaden their research capacity in technical methodologies and thematic research areas that are required by socio-economic development of Cambodia”, he added. Mr. Dararith KIM-YEAT emphasized that the MoU will create an environment for both CDRI and PIC to complement each other, conducting research in similar thematic areas, but with different approaches. He detailed how in Cambodia, CDRI tends to focus on producing primary research for the executive branch, including some key ministries in the government, while PIC focuses on providing capacity building services to parliamentary staff, enabling them to conduct parliamentary research for the legislative branch – the Senate and National Assembly. He went on to express that the partnership could also help to strengthen capacity building activities among parliaments in the region.
CDRI is an independent and resilient center of research excellence for innovative ideas to influence policy that impacts on Cambodia’s development. CDRI works to produce independent, objective, high quality policy-relevant development research, to maximize its accessibility to policy makers, influencers and stakeholders.
The Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia was founded in 2011 as an independent and non-partisan capacity development institute to contribute to strengthening the capacity of parliamentary staff, initially in Cambodia, and now to the region, fulfilling the memorandum of understanding with the AIPA Secretariat and confirmed by a resolution of the AIPA General Assembly.
