The Royal Academy of Cambodia on Thursday inaugurated its new building which will primarily serve as a research centre and centre for foreign language translation and interpretation.

Prime Minister Hun Sen who presided over the inauguration ceremony said from now on, the Royal Academy of Cambodia will be using the “Indra Devi” building for teaching along with a new building called “Khemarak Pitu”.

“In the future, we plan to gather all intellectuals and foreign language experts to translate authorised documents deemed valuable to the country.

“We think that if those documents are [translated] in Khmer, researchers and students will have an easier time understanding the texts,” said the president of Royal Academy of Cambodia Sok Touch.

Touch said the building would also be used for workshops, conferences, and other round-table discussions to talk about prevailing issues in the social, political, economic, and technological realms.

“In short, this building will serve as a place for researchers specialising in the natural and social sciences to come up with research plans that would contribute to social development.”

He said in the 20 years since its establishment, the Royal Academy of Cambodia had completed many types of research and had collaborated with numerous international educational institutions from around the world.

Hun Sen advised the academy to align its researches to the current social and economic climate and to only expend resources for the things that benefit the academy.

“It doesn’t mean that once you send the research document to me, I will forward it to government institutions to apply it,” Hun Sen clarified.

The prime minister agreed to provide the Royal Academy with a $200,000 laboratory equipped with materials used for plant breeding. He also approved Touch’s request to start offering a tourism course at the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

Touch said the building has three floors with 24 rooms – an administration room, a meeting room, a room for thesis defence, 18 classrooms, two laboratories, and a conference hall. The total expense for the building was over $1.5 million.