Cambodia academy plans three AI agreements with European partners
The proposed partnerships include training 60 AI specialists over four years and giving Cambodian researchers access to computing resources in Romania.
The Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT) plans to sign three agreements with partners from France and Romania on November 15 at Phnom Penh’s FrancoTech forum. CADT president Seng Sopheap said the arrangements would cover research training, computing resources and open-source artificial intelligence.
Speaking in a November 14 interview after the forum’s opening roundtable, Sopheap said a proposed partnership with a university in Grenoble, France, aims to train 60 AI specialists over four years. Cooperation with a Bucharest university would give Cambodian researchers access to a Romanian high-performance computing network for developing AI models.
Under the third agreement, CADT would work with a French open-source AI company. Sopheap said this would help researchers create tools they could run themselves. He also said roundtable participants had discussed shared research centres, training programmes and the risks involved in deploying AI tools.
A separate proposal for a National AI Centre is being developed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Huy Siveu, AFD’s lead for energy and digital projects, said the facility would support AI skills development and accommodate graphics processing units used for training and running models.
A model of the proposed centre shown at FrancoTech emerged from a student architecture competition organised jointly by AFD, CADT and the ministry. The forum runs until November 16 alongside the 20th Francophonie Summit, with eight roundtables planned. Further sessions are expected to address topics including digital government, financial technology, agriculture and tourism.
