Kyodo, November 4, 1999

                    JAPAN, U.S. DONORS HELPING BUILD CAMBODIAN SCHOOLS

                    PHNOM PENH, Nov. 4 (Kyodo) - Donors from Japan and the United States
                    have helped build three schools in Preah Vihear Province, the first
                    educational facilities in a remote part of Cambodia to be equipped with
                    computers and access to the Internet.

                    Some 200 new schools are to be built in remote parts of the country,
                    with half the total cost to come from the World Bank, the other half to
                    be supplied by Japan Relief for Cambodia and about 20 individual
                    donor-communities in the U.S.

                    Each school is estimated to cost 30,000 dollars to build and equip.
                    Former Japanese Minister of Environment Wakako Hironaka and Bernard
                    Krisher, chairman of American Assistance for Cambodia, inaugurated the
                    first three schools in Preah Vihear, which borders on Thailand, on Thursday.

                    Hironaka said the village children are being taught to use computers to
                    provide them with skills that will allow them to benefit from services
                    and knowledge that would not be possible without access to the Internet.

                    She said one of the three schools is already equipped with two
                    solar-panels that provide enough power to operate a computer for several
                    hours each day.

                    With nearly 43% of the Cambodian population under 15 years of age, and
                    nearly one in three from 7 to 14 years old unable to attend school, the
                    prospect of breaking out of poverty without improved education is grim.

                    Japan Relief for Cambodia, in a statement on the project, said, ''Many
                    donors are average people who believe education for village children
                    will assure a more stable and peaceful environment in the future for Cambodia.''