Three women have been granted awards for their contributions to the technology sector in Cambodia.
The winners, who were among 30 candidates for the Cambodia Women in Tech awards, received the commendations from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
Fat Si Em, a transport and planning manager at a telecomm company, won the ICT Engineer Award; Long Leakhena, a businesswoman, won the Woman ICT Entrepreneur award; and Chan Penh Leak, an open data practitioner, won the ICT For Community award.
The nominees were judged based on their past successes, experience, skills and contributions to society, according to Tan Sodany, director of the government’s IT policy department.
“We evaluated their job’s impact on their communities. We evaluated their fame and their commitment, whether they are going to keep doing this in the future,” she said.
It was the first time the award ceremony, which is aimed at encouraging more women to enter the technology field, was held.
Kan Chan Meta, secretary of state at the ministry, said the number of women working in the tech sector was limited because there were not enough visible role models and pressure from society to follow a more traditional path.
Only about one in five people globally in the tech sector are women, according to a recent UNESCO report.
Si Em said: “This field is very interesting. The more I do it, the more I love it because it keeps updating.”