Professor Hwang Seong-hyeok of the Division of Agricultural Economics and Agri‑Food Marketing and PhD candidate CHEN Sokhan received the Best Paper Award at the recent Autumn Conference of the Korean Association for International Agricultural Development.

The awarded paper, published in the Journal of the Korean Association for International Agricultural Development, "Analysis of Export Competitiveness of Cambodian Natural Rubber Using RCA and TSI Indices," was highly evaluated for its empirical contribution to international agricultural development research and its scholarly completeness.

The study quantitatively examined the international competitiveness of Cambodia's natural rubber industry by analyzing trade data over a 20-year period from 2002 to 2022.

In particular, the research was recognized for proposing an analytical model for assessing the trade competitiveness of agricultural products from developing countries by applying RCA (Revealed Comparative Advantage) and TSI (Trade Specialization Index) in combination.

Professor Hwang Seong-hyeok (Division of Agricultural Economics and Agri‑Food Marketing) said, "This study is a meaningful achievement that empirically applied international trade theory to clarify the export competitiveness of Cambodian agriculture. I hope to develop this work into research on measures to strengthen the international competitiveness of agricultural products in developing countries."

PhD candidate CHEN Sokhan expressed gratitude, saying, "Thanks to the professor's careful guidance and the department's support, we were able to achieve good results. I hope to continue conducting competitive research in the field of international agriculture."