can be tricky because he is a high-profile figure in Cambodia whose life is mostly documented through official organizational pages and news snippets.

Little is publicly documented about Ly Chheng’s earliest years under the French Protectorate, but he emerged into the national consciousness during the late 1950s and 1960s under Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People’s Socialist Community). Unlike the clandestine communists hiding in the jungle, Chheng operated in the fragile legal spaces of Phnom Penh. He became a leading figure in the nascent trade union movement, advocating for dockworkers, factory laborers, and printers. His ideology was not one of peasant revolution, but of urban social democracy—a belief that Cambodia could modernize through collective bargaining and legal protections.

, which discusses the impact of AI and digital transformation on student learning. Dr. Chheng Ly (Pediatric Researcher)

April 17, 1975, ended the Republic. As the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, Ly Chheng did not flee. Like many intellectuals and city dwellers, he believed—or hoped—that a new, independent Cambodia would rise. He was wrong.

Ly Chheng’s journey into large-scale education began on , when he founded the BELTEI International Institute. What started as a single private institution quickly evolved into the BELTEI Group , which now operates dozens of BELTEI International School campuses throughout Phnom Penh.