Cambodia is looking for broad educational assistance through China's Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to forge closer relationships with countries along old trade routes, a senior education official said.

"We want to increase the number of Cambodian students who come to study in China, especially for science and technology, as well as for vocational and technical education," said Pit Chamnan, secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.

"It's the need of Cambodia's economic development in the next few years, and the need of our reform process in education," he said while attending the eighth China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week in China this month.