(Photo: the Embassy of Sweden to Cambodia)
Sweden provided $268,000 to the Arbitration Council Foundation (ACF) to boost up Cambodia’s industrial relations and labor market conditions.
At the signing ceremony on 6 March 2019, Samuel Hurtig, Sweden’s Head of Development Cooperation, pointed out that the Sweden has been supporting the ACF for many years and that the education and labor market has been significant issues for Sweden’s development cooperation with Cambodia.
“Sweden has supported the ACF to promote social dialogues to contribute to a sound industrial relation environment in Cambodia since 2014,” Mr Hurtig said.
According to the Embassy of Sweden to Cambodia’s press release, Sweden contributed more than $1.2 million to the ACF between 2014 and 2018 to provide efficient labor market environment and support social development through “the provision of a well-functioning and credible labor dispute arbitration system.”
Men Nimith, ACF executive director, said that because of the Sweden’s contribution, the ACF has achieved positive results in labor dispute resolution and was able to handle 2,765 cases relating to more than 1.07 million workers in the industrial and service sectors.
“Among all cases received, the council achieved an extraordinary 73.20 percent resolution success rate.” he said.
Furthermore, Men showed ATC’s appreciation for Sweden’s donation and ATC’s commitment toward labour dispute resolution services in the future.
“We are so grateful for generous support from development partners,” he said.
“We are committed to providing labour dispute resolution services that help hundreds of businesses and investors and several thousands of Cambodia’s workforces across the country.”
