YOU Saokeo Khantey

Research Associate

Ms YOU Saokeo Khantey obtained her Master Degree of Public Policy from KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea and joined CDRI as a Research Associate in 2018. Her area of research interests includes entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education, gender and inclusive development, and behavioral economics.

Email : khantey@cdri.org.kh


YOU Saokeo Khantey


Policy Briefs 5

A recent survey study conducted by CDRI found that university students in Cambodia were keen to pursue an entrepreneurial career. The study also found that a simple provision of entrepreneurship education and support programmes at universities fell short of converting those interests into actions. This policy brief presents five recommendations th...

Cambodia Development Review 27 - 1

This study explored students’ entrepreneurial intention (EI) and identified the factors influencing EI under individual, social and educational dimensions. Using a nationally representative survey conducted in 2021 with 834 university students, we found that many students had a strong EI. From the regression analysis, we can confirm that the develo...

Working Papers 136

Entrepreneurship is crucial to advancing the economy of Cambodia and fostering the development of society. The Royal Government of Cambodia has recognised the importance of entrepreneurship and included the promotion and entrepreneurship education in multiple policies and strategy. Universities and higher education institutes have been more active...

International Publications

Understanding what determines a worker’s passion for skills training has important policy implications, particularly in the current context of the fourth industrial revolution, in which knowledge is deemed obsolete within several years. The purpose of this study is to answer a specific question: are higher-ability garment workers more likely to eng...

Working Papers 126

This study aimed to identify the current skills of Cambodian garment workers, whether or not they wanted to gain new skills and, if so, what those were. The results revealed that the greatest percentage – 60 – had acquired sewing skills, followed by quality control and packaging skills. More than two-thirds were also able to read, write and calcula...

Cambodia Development Review 25 - 1

Developing skills for current workforce is indispensable in today’s economy. In an attempt to promote investment in skill training for workers in a Cambodian backbone sector, namely garment and textile, this study explores and identifies the problem of underinvestment in their skill training. A total of 787 individual workers are randomly selected...


This project is part of Education Development Trust (EDT)‘s multi-year research program aimed at improving the overall understanding of the impact of Gender Responsive Pedagogy (GRP) and its potential to improve learning outcomes for both boys and girls. In the first year (2022), CDRI, in partnership with EDT conducted a research study on "Students...


The World Bank project on “Evidence Based Policy Study: Supply and Demand Solutions for Accessibility and Affordable Childcare Services in Cambodia” examines the interlink between supply and demand for childcare services to analyze the correlation between the supply and demand for daycare centers and employment rates. This is an emerging concern...


This is a part of the Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education (SHARE), a five-year cooperative agreement with the University of Notre Dame (UND) supported by the USAID’s new Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation/Center for Education (DDI/EDU), to advance global education learning priorities to improve learning outcomes....


The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about educational disruptions from pre-school to higher education in Cambodia and around the world. Although the impact of the pandemic in Cambodia was relatively low in comparison to other countries in the region and the world in 2020, and schools were able to reopen its door again in early 2021, the February 20,...


This three-year programme is supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through The Asia Foundation (TAF)’s Ponlok Chomnes Programme: Data and Dialogue for Development in Cambodia. In this programme CDRI aims at strengthening the capacity of knowledge-sector institutions to undertake quality research, informing publi...


With a steady economic growth hovering between 7-8 percent over the past two decades, Cambodia achieved a lower-middle-income in 2015. Building on this progress, the government aspires to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050.  Several key issues need to be urgently addressed if Cambodia is to realise the a...


Cambodia has achieved strong growth in the past two decades, and the country has graduated to lower-middle-income status with a per capita income of about USD1,215 (2015). A feat that neighbouring Vietnam achieved in 2010 and Laos in 2011. Building on this achievement, Cambodia aspires to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-inc...


A five-year project called ‘Education Research for Effective Policy Reforms’ with a total funding of USD446,713 aims to produce independent, objective, high quality policy-relevant higher education research, and to maximise the accessibility of this knowledge to policymakers, influencers and stakeholders, and its policy impact. This project also wo...