PHNOM PENH, Dec. 9, 2011 (PRU) – In a meeting with His
Excellency Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Sok An on Friday, the Hungarian Ambassador
said that his country wants to support social projects in Preah Vihear
province, where local people will benefit from vocational training centres.
A Hungarian delegation is to visit some areas in the
province to assess the project and will report to its government, which is
considering to provide aid in the form of soft loan that will benefit Cambodian
villagers, said Ambassador Laszlo Vizi.
“We are not forgetting this project. We are reviewing
it, and we need fact finding about the projects in Preah Vihear”, said Mr.
Vizi.
Dr. Sok An said that more than 1,000 Cambodian
families, who live in harmony with nature, have settled in the area of the
eco-village, where social needs are provided along with vocational and
agricultural training by 16 instructors.
“We built schools, a Buddhist temple and medical
centre”, Dr. Sok An, who is Minister in Charge of the Office of the Council of
Ministers, told the Ambassador.
“The vocational training centres are success stories.
Boys and girls from the nearby villages enjoy their studies. They eat and learn
there. They are very happy”, said Dr. Sok An.
“We now plan to expand the projects in these areas.”
Dr. Sok
An said that Cambodia built a well-designed museum, the Eco-Global Samdech
Techo Hun Sen Museum, as part of the government’s effort to preserve cultural
heritage and attract more tourists to the province.
The
museum’s master plan, which fully took cultural and technical concern into
consideration was designed by cultural experts from UNESCO and Cambodian
experts.
The
museum’s exhibits feature the civilisation, culture and social activities
of ethnic minority known as Kouy, who
pioneered in making metal arrowheads for defending the Khmer Empire.
Dr. Sok
An said that Preah Vihear will soon become a prosperous province given its rich
mineral resources, high agricultural production
and high potential for tourism.
The
Deputy Prime Minister said that cultural tourism is the most dynamic sector
contributing to increased tourist arrivals. He projected that Cambodia could
receive up to 4.5 million tourists in 2015 and 7 millions in 2020. Cambodia has
received around 3 million tourists per year over the last few years.
The
country expects 7 percent GDP growth this year and next.
Ambassador Vizi,
resident in Hanoi, also discussed with H.E. Sok An the future Danube-Mekong
Cooperative Initiative.
“We can diversify cooperation between the two
regions”, said the Ambassador.
Mr. Vizi recalled that Hungary supported Cambodia’s
government after Phnom Penh was freed from the Khmer Rouge in 1979, and
bilateral relations have been smooth since.
Hungary has cancelled part of Cambodia’s debt from
borrowing for social development in the 1980s thanks to “very active
relationship of the two countries”.
Mr. Vizi congratulated Cambodia’s stability and “very
dynamical development”.
