On March 24, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National Committee on Science and Technology (COST) of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Prof. Jiang Guibin, Director of RCEES and H. E. Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister of Industry and Handicraft (MIH) signed MoU representing the two sides. Prof. Bai Chunli, President of CAS attended the signing ceremony. Prof. Cao Jinghua, Director General of International Cooperation Bureau, CAS, Mr. Tan Qingsheng, Counselor of China Embassy in Cambodia, Ms. Feng Kai, Deputy Director of International Organization Programmes Division, CAS, also attended the signing ceremony. 

Scientists and researchers from Institutes of CAS including RCEES, Institute of Hydrobiology, Institute of Intelligent Machines, and executives of two Chinese companies also participated in the meeting. And a substantive communication on further cooperation in talent education, technical training and establishment of joint analytical laboratory on water quality was expanded in two sides during the visiting. 

Since 2013, initiated by CAS to enhance scientific cooperation between China and the developing countries, CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Water and Environment (CEWE) of RCEES has increasingly carried out the mutual visits and technical exchanges between China and Cambodia. In September 2014, MoU Between CAS-TWAS CEWE and MIH was signed to promote the bilateral collaboration. In early March this year, Prof. Wang Dongsheng, Deputy Director of CAS-TWAS CEWE led a visiting delegation in advance to Cambodia to clarify the direction and priority of the cooperation for next three years in the field of water and environment. The signing of the MOU of the institute level pushes the follow-up scientific and technological collaboration between China and Cambodia to a new higher level and broader scope. 

CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Water and Environment 

March 27, 2016