Your Venerable Monks,
Mr. SUN HONG SHUI, Director of Sinohydro Corporation and colleagues,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen Distinguished National and International Guests,
Beloved Compatriots!
It is my pleasure to be here to inaugurate the 193.2 MW-Kamchay Hydropower Plant which is located in Kampot Province. On behalf of the people and Royal Government of Cambodia, I would like to congratulate Sinohydro Corporation
on the successful construction and opening of the plant today. This
achievement is another evidence of our contribution to socio-economic
development and improvement of people’s livelihoods.
To attain this goal, the Royal Government has invested
substantially on the public sector and mobilized the private sector to
take part in developing power supply sources to reduce electricity cost
and ensure adequate supply for enterprises’ operation and people’s
everyday use. Moreover, the Royal Government believes that these power
sources are catalysts with great potential for reviving the economic
dynamics and ensuring growth, ensuring growth sustainability and social
welfare. In this spirit, the Royal Government is convinced that
hydropower is our highly potential source of power. Therefore, the Royal
Government encourages both domestic and foreign investors to consider
and invest in this sector. As a result, numerous project proposals have
been submitted for approval from the Council for Development of
Cambodia. Those projects are now being implemented. Among those, some
projects have been completed and put to operation, for instance, the
Kirirom hydropower plant project. We believe that the Kamchay
hydropower plant will be a great boost of our power supply capacity to
serve the needs of our socio-economic activities.
As having been raised by H.E. Mr. Suy Sem,
Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy on the general development of
the electricity sector in Cambodia, we can see these activities are the
actual implementation of the socio-economic framework of the Rectangular Strategy – Phase II
which focuses on restoring and building physical infrastructure such
as irrigation systems, electricity supply systems, telecommunication
systems and building human capital, as I have often simply referred as water, roads, electricity and human.
In this sense, the continued agenda on developing electricity sector
is an effective answer to our increasing demand of electricity with low
cost, more specifically speaking, this is one of the most important
agenda of the socio-economic development policy of the Royal Government
of the Fourth Legislature of the National Assembly. That is the reason
the Royal Government prioritizes the participation of the private
sector to produce and supply electricity in provinces and urban areas
and implement rural electrification projects with the view of low-cost
and reliable electricity supply. Moreover, the Royal Government is also
paying attention to accelerating the construction of electricity
transmission line to connect to neighboring countries, ASEAN and GMS
electricity.
Royal Governments of the previous terms of the National
Assembly have successfully restored electricity supply in Phnom Penh
and other urban areas as well as rural areas, albeit temporary and
expensive. But, the development of our electricity sector has now
reached another milestone, that is the Royal Government’s plan for
constructing transmission lines and reliable and cheap sources of power
supply as well as provincial and municipal electricity sub-stations so
that we can supply the electricity produced by this hydropower plant
to other provinces and rural areas across the country. This effort is
not only the development of electricity supply foundation that aims at
providing adequate supply of electricity to provinces and rural areas,
but also assurance of stable, quality and cheap electricity supply in
Cambodia.
Along with the development of the electricity supply
foundation, the Royal Government also pays great attention to the
future electricity security for Cambodia by promoting the development
of domestic electricity sources, efficiently and fully utilizing those
sources, and diversifying the sources of electricity supply so that we
can minimize the future risk of overreliance on a single source. In
this spirit, the Royal Government continues to provide priority to
attracting the private sector participation in the development of
electricity infrastructure, both the electricity production and
transmission, by striking the balance between public and private
interests. Along with this, the Royal Government also gives attention
to improving regional electricity trade through bilateral and
multilateral cooperation.
In the face of the constantly rising global crude oil
price, GMS and ASEAN countries are strongly encouraging the development
of alternative sources of energy. Cambodia, in particular, has the
maximum potential of 10,000 MW of hydropower, adding to the existence
of oil, gas, coals, and renewable energy sources such as biomass energy
sources, solar energy and small-scale hydropower plant. In this sense,
to harness natural resources and current technologies, we are also
accelerating the feasibility study on the use of these highly potential
sources of energy for providing additional electricity supply to ensure
supply adequacy in the future. However, we believe that hydropower is a
priority among other sources of energy that must receive the Royal
Government’s attention because it substitutes the construction of
fossil fuel power stations. We have been aware that, in spite of
progress in the construction of domestic hydropower plants and import
of electricity from neighboring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam,
we also need to build coal-fired power stations to ensure stability of
electricity supply during both seasons, because of water shortage
during dry seasons. Based on this, as part of our future electricity
supply will rely the import of coals, the price of our electricity will
fluctuate according to the global coal price which is now constantly
increasing. Moreover, according the preliminary notice from Loa,
Thailand and Vietnam, the price of our imported electricity will be
substantially increased in 2012.
In this context, we hope that the effort in the
development of hydropower plant will help resolve the challenge of
rising costs of electricity generated by imported charcoals and of
imported electricity from neighboring countries, because the production
of electricity with hydropower plant is cheaper than the production of
electricity with imported charcoals. In parallel, for the development
of each hydropower project, the Royal Government has thoroughly
evaluated the environmental impacts. Taking this opportunity, I would
like to inform Excellencies, Lok Chom Teav, ladies and gentlemen and
our compatriots that we cannot only think about development without
thinking about the impact on the environment and society, otherwise we
would not be able to ensure appropriate environment for long-lasting and
sustainable socio-economic development for future generations. In this
regard, the Royal Government has established concrete and appropriate
mechanisms for environmental and developmental issues by evaluating and
maintaining the proper balance between development and environmental
conservation, such as monitoring and evaluating mechanisms for
environmental and developmental issues, in short since the first study
phase for master plan until the evaluation phase of achievements of
each project, and the results of this evaluation will be used as an
input for the decision-making in the investment negotiations, for the
decision-making in investment and the implementation of investment
projects. In addition, in the process of the development of each
project, the strategy of the Royal Government is use full capability of
the project to reduce impacts on environment and society.
Today, the Kingdom of Cambodia will inaugurate the operation of the 1st major hydropower plant in the country, which is Kamchay Hydropower Plant. This project is invested in by Sino-Hydro Corporation from the People’s Republic of China in the form of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), with the amount of USD 280.54 million. This
Kamchay hydropower plant project is a project that Cambodian people
always wish to see since 45 years ago, and now it has come into reality
and in physical form that we all witness here, and this
hydropower plant will provide many benefits for the socio-economic
development for us now and in the future. Taking opportunity, on behalf
of the Royal Government and Cambodian people nationwide I would like to
express my congratulations Sino-Hydro Corporation
for the effort in the construction until the inauguration of the
operation. Also, I would like to extend my gratitude toward the
government of People’s Republic of China for the close cooperation with
the Royal Government of Cambodia as a strategic partner, making this
investment successful with the completion of this hydropower plant. The
investment in the construction of Kamchay Hydropower Plant
project is not only a big investment in the electricity sector in the
Kingdom of Cambodia, but this investment also reflects the confidence
of the foreign investment companies in political stability and
development strategy of the Royal Government of Cambodia that has
implemented in the 3rd mandate and has continued to implement in the
4th mandate.
Taking this opportunity, on behalf of the Royal Government
and I myself would like to express my admiration to the management and
all personnel of the Sino-Hydro Corporation
for paying lots of attention and taking high responsibility in the
management process of this construction and electricity business,
complying with technical standards, quality and safety aspects to
ensure the advantage of the project for the benefits of the
socio-economic development of Cambodia and the concerned company. I
would like to encourage the company to continue steady cooperation with
the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME), local authorities
of Kampot province, Electricity Authority of Cambodia as well as
relevant ministries-institutions to ensure that operation and the
business go smoothly. In parallel, I would like to request the Ministry
of Industry, Mines and Energy, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and
relevant ministries-institutions to pay attention to the performance
of their duties and their capability with high effectiveness in the
spirit of the implementation agreement of the project and sale-purchase
agreement of electricity that are in effect.
At the same time, I would like to request all ministries,
institutions, local authorities, and relevant units and all people to
continue good cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and
Energy in order to push the implementation of other projects such as
hydropower plants, transmission lines projects and charcoals generating
electricity as such in order to make our country have sufficient
electricity to use with reasonable prices, stable and independent
supply and sale of electricity to neighboring countries in the region.
I would like to thank the government and international financial
institutions such as the government of German Federation as well as
financial institution KFW, LBT company of Germany, Asian Development Bank (ADB), JICA, World Bank, and NORDIC
Foundation that have been actively involved with the provision of
grants and credits that led to achieve timely construction of
electricity physical infrastructure in the southern region.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my
sincere admiration to the Inter-Ministerial Negotiation Committee
including the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, the Ministry of
Economy and Finance, Electricity Authority of Cambodia and Electricité
du Cambodge (EDC) for having fulfilled their tasks with utmost efforts
and capability until accomplishing this proud achievement; since the
discussion phase on technical and financing documents as well as the
contract negotiation, all of which have also contributed to the
fruitful success of the project as witnessed here today.
Finally, along with the Inauguration of this Kamchay Hydropower Plant,
I would like to wish venerable Buddhist monks, excellencies, ladies
and gentlemen, national and international guests, armed forces,
compatriots, teachers, students, management board and personnel of
Sino-Hydro corporation the four gems of Buddhist blessings: Longevity, Nobility, Healthiness and Strength.
EndItem.