The Secretary General of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and the Director General of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department visit Cambodia to discuss cooperation in the capacity strengthening of parliamentary staff
From 4 to 6 June 2018, the Cambodian Parliament and the PIC welcomed Atty. Cesar Strait Pareja, Secretary General of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and Dr. Romulo Emmanuel M. Miral, Jr., Director General of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD).
At a meeting, H.E. Oum Sarith, Secretary General of the Cambodian Senate and Chair of the Board of Directors of PIC, and H.E. Leng Peng Long, Secretary General of the Cambodian National Assembly, commented that Parliaments needed well-trained and skilled human resources to fulfill their constitutional functions. However, such capacity development had a cost that most Parliaments had limited financial resources to meet. The Knowledge Sharing Program initiated by the PIC aims to answer the need to strengthen parliamentary capacity in the region; this program is aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 in taking concrete action to enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building to support national plans through North-South, South-North and South-South cooperation.
During a discussion about potential areas of cooperation between the PIC and the House of Representatives of the Philippines, Mr. Dararith Kim-Yeat, Executive Director of PIC, highlighted the organization’s working principles of impartiality and non-partisanship, focusing on capacity development. He added: ‘PIC’s parliamentary capacity strengthening projects are part of a wider Knowledge Sharing Program, the aim of which is to offer a range of learning opportunities to parliamentary staff in the region within the framework of technical cooperation with AIPA.’ He appreciated the good results from past learning exchange activities with the House of Representatives of the Philippines through the Regional Fellowship Program and the study mission to the CPBRD.
In response, Atty. Cesar Strait Pareja expressed interest in a number of proposed areas of cooperation including further training in budget analysis, the establishment of a regional information exchange program to enhance the research network in ASEAN Parliaments, and training on parliamentary diplomacy. Both parties stressed that they would seek ways to materialize this proposed cooperation as soon as possible.