Cambodian ambassador to South Korea Long Dimanche held an online conference call with Yoon Hwa-seop, mayor of the city of Ansan in South Korea, to strengthen their cooperation and to help the community of 600 Cambodians residing and working there.
Dimanche told The Post that the meeting was held on April 19 to strengthen the bonds and cooperation of Ansan City and the Cambodian embassy and to showcase the potential of Cambodia to the Korean side.
He noted that Ansan is located near Seoul on South Korea’s west coast and that it currently had a population of over 700,000 residents – including a diverse multi-cultural community of foreigners from around the globe.
“Ansan is an important city with many foreign communities residing and working there. An estimated 600 Cambodian people are there working in the agricultural and industrial sectors,” he said.
Dimanche said that because the city was recognised internationally and often ranked highly for its diversity and embrace of many different cultures, it was important that Cambodia develop good relations with officials there as well as its business community, which could help attract South Korean investors to Cambodian enterprises.
“Our working group has prepared a presentation to show the cultural, tourism, economic and investment sectors of Cambodia to the leaders and civil servants at Ansan City Hall as well as a group of over 100 members of the public,” he said.
He continued that Cambodian and Ansan City relations had been developing because the two sides had worked together in the past to address various issues encountered by Cambodian migrant workers.
Dimanche explained that, in total, there were over 60,000 Cambodian migrant workers residing in South Korea. Of that number, about 48,000 are working in three sectors – industry, agriculture and construction.
At present, about 400 Cambodian students are studying in South Korea.
Dimanche also noted that the Cambodian community in South Korea includes roughly 7,000 to 8,000 Cambodian women who are married to Korean men.
He said some of the women are naturalised as South Korean citizens, while others are not, but all of them are welcome to call on the Cambodian embassy should they need assistance.
Dimanche noted that in order to help provide information or help to Cambodian people in South Korea, the Cambodian embassy had formed 30 Khmer communities across the country to provide assistance to any Cambodians in their area.
