The opportunities and challenges for
Cambodia from the free flow of skilled labour in the
ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has been a topic
of heated discussion amongst the general public,
learners, researchers, skilled workers, people in charge
of skilled labor, as Cambodia prepared to enter the
ASEAN Economic Community at the end of 2015.
A descriptive statistical analysis in the Statistical
Package for the Social Science, version 23.0 shows that
there is optimism on the participation of Cambodia in
the AEC. Firstly, 81 per cent of respondents supported
that free flow of skilled labour as an opportunity for
Cambodians to participate in the job market in ASEAN.
Secondly, 77 per cent of participants accepted that
“Free flow of skilled labour in ASEAN offers
opportunities for Cambodians to get well-paid jobs in
the region of ASEAN.” Thirdly, 84 per cent of
respondents agreed that “free flow of skilled labour in
the ASEAN helps inspire local education”. However,
there were challenges for Cambodia, indicated by 75
per cent of respondents thinking that the country lacks
skilled labour to challenge other ASEAN professionals.
70 per cent of respondents considered the inflow of
foreign skilled labour as a threat to local jobs seekers,
while 81 per cent of respondents agreed with the
statement “the imbalanced agreement implementation
on skilled labour in ASEAN is Another barrier in
ASEAN’s jobs finding for Cambodian skilled workers,”
Toward the solutions to reduce the challenges and
to better the opportunities for Cambodians, suggestions
have been observed; firstly, 72 participants
recommended that education reform, further vocations
and trainings for Cambodians should be better
improved. Secondly, 23 participants advised that
creating more local jobs should be further done and
thirdly, 21 participants commented that Cambodian
skilled workers should improve their knowledge of the
English language, as it is very important in Cambodia,
the ASEAN and the world in pursuing their present and
future’s studies and works.
Keywords : Free Flow of Skilled-Labour, Opportunities and Challenges.