Vietnam helps Cambodia’s schools get connected

Vietnam’s Viettel signed an agreement today with Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MOEYS) to provide free Internet access to all schools in 24 provinces and municipalities in Cambodia.

The memorandum of understanding stipulates that Viettel, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vietnamese military, funds the project in Cambodian education sector in three phases.

MOEYS’s 300 schools and institutions will be connected to the Internet via Viettel-run Internet Service Provider, Metfone. The second phase, between 2010 and 2012, 500 schools will be able to go online.

The project’s final year, 2015, will get all universities, schools, and colleges, and MOEYS’s offices connected. The $5 million funding project, including computer facilities, is seen as a milestone after several attempts by international funding agencies in assisting Cambodia in building its Internet infrastructure. Via VietnamPlus (in Vietnamese language).

Schoolboys playing online game in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. Photo by Tharum Bun