AKP Phnom Penh, April 21, 2022 --

Siem Reap Tourism Club (STC), a social enterprise established by local tourism-related business leaders and community leaders in SiemReap province has signed a cooperation memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. (NK), a leading international engineering firm headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

The MoU was inked on April 21 between Mr. Phillip Kao, President of Siem Reap Tourism Club and Nishino Ken, Managing Director of Nippon Koei, under the witness of H.E. Ly Se, Director General of Angkor Enterprise and H.E. Kawaguchi Masaki, Consul of Consular Office of Japan in Siem Reap.

The MoU will further complement and promote the public sector's activities to transform Siem Reap into a smart city, towards a Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Smart City in a World Heritage Tourism City.

The project will also create value-added smart tourism business by the utilisation of Open Data and improve the environment in the tourist destination and develop the human resources based on Evidence-Based Policy Making through co-creation efforts between the tourism businesses and local communities. 

Through these activities, the project aims to form a new smart tourism business ecosystem in Siem Reap via digitalisation and incorporate the surrounding communities that have been left out of the traditional tourism ecosystem.

in Siem Reap, home to the World Heritage Site of Angkor, NK has intermittently worked to resolve the social issues faced by this world-class tourist city, since assigned to JICA's "The Study on Integrated Master Plan for Sustainable Development of Siem Reap-Angkor Town" from 2004 to 2006.

By Chea Vannak