Pursat Province, December 1, 2011
Your Venerable Monks,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Beloved Compatriots,
I am pleased to be here with H.E. Putu
Kamayana, Country Director of the ADB Cambodia Resident Mission; H.E.
Chang Ho-Jin, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of
Cambodia; and Ms. Leena Klossner, Deputy Director of the Nordic
Development Fund in the opening of the construction site for the
pavement of DBST on 505.4 Km-laterite rural roads which is being held in
Pursat Province but represents projects in seven provinces. The
project consists of: (1) one rural road with the length of 68.7 Km in
Kampong Cham, (2) one rural road with the length of 66.2 Km in Kampong
Thom, (3) five rural roads with total length of 72.8 Km in Kampong
Chhnang, (4) two rural roads with total length of 69.4 Km in Kampong
Speu, (5) three rural roads with total length of 72 Km in Battambang,
(6) two rural roads with total length of 75.8 Km in Siemreap and (7)
three rural roads with total length of 80.5 Km in Pursat. I would also
like to extend my warm welcome to Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
distinguished national and international guests who are present in this
event.
Taking this opportunity, on behalf of the Royal
Government, I would like to congratulate the compatriots who live near
the construction areas and travelers on the construction of these
long-awaited DBST roads. Along with this event, three other provinces,
including Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang and Battambang are also
organizing the opening ceremony for the same project. People living
along the roads will no longer be disturbed by dust during dry seasons
while road slipperiness will no longer cause accidents during rainy
seasons, especially for the transport of agricultural products. These
roads do contribute to rural development, improvement of rural
livelihoods and poverty reduction since they provide opportunity to
people in the 7 provinces to absorb their share of benefits from rural
development and accelerate rural development with a view to improvement
of rural livelihoods and reduction of urban-rural gap. These roads
will indeed help improve the livelihoods of nearby people. Taking this
opportunity, I would like to praise the management and all levels of
officials of the Ministry of Rural Development and local authorities
for mobilizing contribution from donors and facilitating the
construction of these roads for long-term use. Reducing people’s
hardship is what we need to do timely and must be prioritized. In this
spirit, I would also like to request all government officials to
further promote and implement such activities because it is the actual
needs of the people and national interest that must be addressed.
Moreover, I would like to deeply thank and highly value
the kind support of the ADB, NDF and the Government of the Republic of
Korea that have provided both technical and financial assistance to
take part in the restoration and development of physical infrastructure
and human capital in the country, especially the restoration of roads
and bridges. I would like to take this opportunity to politely request
H.E. Putu Kamayana, Country Director of ADB Cambodia Resident Mission,
Ms. Leena Klossner, Deputy Director of NDF, and H.E. Chang Ho-Jin,
Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of Cambodia to
forward deep gratitude of the people and Royal Government of Cambodia
to Asia Development Bank, to Nordic Development Fund, and to the people
and Government of the Republic of Korea respectively. The Republic of
Korea is a good friend and an important development partner. The
Republic of Korea has timely provided large amount of financings,
without complicated conditions, to help Cambodia restore and develop all
sectors, in particular, the rural infrastructure sector. This support
is a big contribution to the Royal Government’s effort in promoting
growth and social development after years of civil war. The
construction of physical infrastructure will indeed improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery. Given such
importance, the people as well as the Royal Government of Cambodia
would like to deeply thank the ADB, NDF and the people and Government
of the Republic of Korea and record this kind support in their heart.
Moreover, I would also like to praise the management and
all levels of officials of the Ministry of Rural Development, of
concerned ministries-institutions, local authorities, compatriots and
construction companies for their respective efforts that result in the
successful conduct of feasibility study and the organization of this
event.
I am optimistic that people will greatly benefit from the
construction of these roads. The benefits will even grow bigger when
development partners provide financing for the construction of further
1,000 kilometers of rural roads in the second stage. All levels of
local authority and people who live in target areas can recall that,
after the liberation on January 7, 1979, all these rural roads are
small and difficult to travel, but soon these will become DBST paved
roads. In this sense, we can see the direct benefit of these roads,
including the reduction of transport cost and time and better regional
transport linkage to national roads and provincial roads. Furthermore,
since the 7 provinces are rich in eco-tourism and cultural tourism
destinations, more tourists will be attracted to the area. Moreover,
these provinces are potential areas for industrial and agricultural
sector development. These sectors will grow even faster with these
rural roads improvement which will generate more employment for the
youths.
We all acknowledge that physical infrastructure is the strategic priority, the locomotive
of economic growth that provide a highly effective mean for poverty
alleviation because roads-bridges are the blood streams of our economy
and the key for economic growth which ensure equitable distribution of
fruits of growth for every citizen. In this sense, the government always
believes that wherever there is road there is hope,
and strong transportation network means we could achieve high economic
efficiency because it is the important driving force toward achieving
the poverty reduction goal. Indeed, such reconstructions are important
and have broad implications on the areas of security, health, economic,
agriculture, education, and tourism, particularly for domestic
integration of rural and urban areas as well as for regional integration
of Cambodia. For instance, after these reconstructions the people will
not only benefiting from the ease of travelling but could also
transport their produces to markets in the region or provinces/cities
as well as transporting agricultural production equipments from urban
back to rural areas. These achievements will provide people with the
opportunity to find good markets, avoid price and quality manipulation
that could harm profitability and confidence in farming and
manufacturing, all of which could lead to the abandon of such
professions and result with migration.
Similarly, we all know that physical infrastructure
network is the priority of the Royal Government’s development agenda as
stipulated in the “Rectangular Strategy”, however we
cannot implement such strategy in a hurry because it requires
appropriate time, ability and capacity. Through this, I have laid out
the “Frog’s leap” strategy for the development and
reconstruction of our country where each leap always provides us with
new outcomes such as these apparent achievements. In addition, we will
make further step toward achieving new outcomes for the benefit of our
society.
For instance, the opening of today’s construction sites
occurs at the same time when the government is paying greater attention
and taking thorough actions in the development of all sectors,
especially in accelerating rural development activities and reducing
poverty while having to face with flood. The recent Mekong’s flooding
has affected people living in various 18 provinces/municipalities and
687 cities/districts/khans, whereas 220,781 homes were submerged, and
698 of which were completely destroyed claiming 300 lives and injuring
23 people. Moreover, 1,289 schools, 427 temples, and 101 health centers
were submerged. A total of 406,389 hectare of rice field has submerged
and 233,484 hectare of which were destroyed. 761 hectare of paddy rice
has submerged and 722 of which were destroyed. At the same time, 20,019
hectare of other farming crops has submerged and 13,689 hectare of
which were destroyed. 2,936 kms of national and provincial road, 2,936
kms of small road, 177 bridges, 496 kms of irrigation, and 11,789 ms of
river bank have submerged and destroyed.
I would like to once again take this opportunity to
express my appreciation for those friendly countries that have recently
provided financial reliefs and supports for flood victims in Cambodia.
A the same time, on behalf of the people and government of Cambodia I
would also like to thank the government of the People Republic of China
for agreeing to provide 500 million USD worth of loan annually for the
reconstruction of roads and building new ones in Cambodia. I would
also like to thank the management, and officials of government
ministries/institutions, enterprises, private companies, national and
international donors for having recently provided financial supports,
food, equipments, and medicines for flood victims across the country.
At the same time, I would also like to praise the
management and official of the Ministry of Rural Development and
relevant government ministries/institutions, all levels of local
authorities, development partners and people from all walks of life for
their tireless efforts and close cooperation in achieving such
outcomes as witnessed today. Rural Development leads to human resource
development and vice versa, and rural road development with broad
participation of all relevant stakeholders can ensure effective poverty
reduction and narrowing rural and urban gap. In this sense, in order
to improve work efficiency and continue to achieve new outcomes I would
like to offer the following recommendations:
- The Ministry of Rural Development and relevant
ministries/institutions, all levels of local authorities should enhance
the reconstruction of rural roads to ease the people’s travelling,
especially at flood affected areas, because we have the allocated
budget for temporary and permanent construction of these roads.
- The Ministry of Rural Development should prepare policy
paper on rural roads and other relevant legal documents to ensure
highly effective management, construction and rehabilitation of rural
roads, particularly to successfully preventing the travelling of
overloaded vehicles on these roads. Basically, all levels local
authorities must take strict measures on those overloaded vehicles to
avoid negative externality.
- The Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of
Economy and Finance and other relevant ministries/institutions must
cooperate with one another to increase public investment on rural road
development by paying particular focus on the maintenance,
reconstruction, and improvement of rural roads from using red laterite
to paving double DBST for upgrading our people’s living standard and
for supporting socio-economic development.
From now on, on behalf of the Royal Government of
Cambodia I will always take a firm stance in providing full support for
the development and rehabilitation of physical infrastructure, a
prioritized policy of the government. On the other hand, I would like
to support the Ministry of Rural Development’s direction in improving
rural roads condition by paving DBST to ensure transportation with high
economic efficiency. In this sense, I would also like to urge the
municipal/provincial authorities to seek the possibility of
reconstructing and rehabilitating those important road blocks by paving
DBST to ensure transportation quality, economic efficiency and improve
appearance. Once again, I would like to thank development countries and
agencies, and all donors for having always provide material and
spiritual supports for the rehabilitation of our country.
Starting with these new achievements, on behalf of the
Royal Government of Cambodia, I would like to take this opportunity to
further appeal to all development countries and agencies to provide
continuous support and contribution for the cause of rehabilitation and
development of Cambodia’s economy and society. Meanwhile, I would also
like to urge all levels of local authorities to monitor the conditions
of these hard earned roads/bridges in order to ensure that they are
here for long-term usage by the people in the region. Moreover, I would
also like to urge people living in this area to continue to provide
good cooperation with local authorities in protecting these roads.
Finally, along with the official Opening of Reconstruction Sites for the Improvement of 505.4 km-Rural Roads of the 7 Provinces,
I would like to wish Your Venerable Monks, Excellencies, Ladies and
Gentlemen, National and International Guests Five Gems of Buddhist
Blessing.
EndItem.