EDITORIAL
Samdech Techo Hun Sen’s
“Open-Skies Policy”:
His Irrefutable Achievement,
an Invaluable Success for Cambodian People
War seriously
damaged Cambodia tourism industry in the 1970s and the1980s. Cambodia was
searching for reconciliation, peace and security during the early part of the
1990s. The win-win policy achieved by Samdech Techo Hun Sen in 1998 laid the
ground work for national reconciliation, political stability, internal
security, social harmony, and friendly and peaceful relations with countries in
the region and all over the world. Despite laudable efforts by the Royal
Government of Cambodia (RGC) to have Angkor Wat with the surrounding area of 400
Km2 clustered with hundreds of ancient temples successfully placed on he list
of World Heritage Site in 1992, which conferred to Cambodia a legitimate
tourism destination status on the world map, internal insecurity and political
instability continued to be a hindrance on Cambodia tourism industry in the
1990s. The 2000s saw the resurgence of Cambodia tourism industry, which was
regarded as one among the five pillars of growth and development of Cambodia
economy, namely agriculture, garment industry, tourism, construction, and remittances
by oversea Cambodian nationals and migrant workers.
Since late 1999,
in his political discourse to the nation, Samdech Techo Hun Sen has the wisdom
and the foresight to include tourism within the framework of the government
policy, which has been selectively illustrated as follows:
On 21 December
1999, Samdech Techo Hun Sen began to tackle the tourism issue with his very
firm conviction, by showing that the country currently has comparative
advantages within some sectors of its economy, in particular the agricultural
sector, the agro-industrial businesses, labor intensive manufacturing and
tourism. These sectors should form the foundation for the take-off of the
Cambodian economy.”
On 7 February
2001, Samdech Techo Hun Sen laid out the foundation of his policy framework in
order “to build up potential of tourism sector to become an important engine
for economic growth and poverty reduction through job creation, increased
income, and improving standard of living.”
On 27 February
2002 Samdech Techo Hun Sen pointed out that “political stability and security
in the country are vital for tourism development.”
On 3 November
2002 Samdech Techo Hun Sen advanced the practical relationship between tourism
and the internal market development by saying that “tourism opens up borders
and economies, yet enables opportunities to develop internal markets for a wide
variety of high value-added production activities, employment and services.
Also in 2002, in
four separate speeches, on 28 February, on 18 March, on 20 June, and on 1 July
Samdech Techo Hun Sen insisted on the development of infrastructure, and other
tourism related facilities, including comprehensive road network to link
Cambodia’s economic and tourism opportunities, internally and with other
countries of ASEAN.
Most
importantly, on 6 December 2002, Samdech Techo Hun Sen made “open-skies policy”
announcement, saying: “Open-skies policy is the key policy innovation that will
enable the rapid growth of our tourism industry”. “Open-Skies policy” is understood to be a
strategy of opening up aviation markets, which can be pursued on a bilateral,
regional or multilateral basis.
For a period of 10 years, up to 2011, the result of this “Open-Skies
policy” was staggering.
Prior to 2002,
only a trickle of international flights in and out of Phnom and Siem Reap
linked Cambodia to the region and the world. Nowadays, there are several daily
and several more frequently international flights per day in and out of Phnom
Penh and Siem Reap from and to Bangkok, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Hong Kong,
Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei, Vientiane and
Inchon. The number of foreign tourists jumped to 3
million in 2011, (a government estimation based on the 6 month-result in 2011)
from nearly half million (466,365) in 2000. In
2010 Cambodia achieved tourism growth of 16% with international tourist
arrivals of around 2.5 million and internal tourists of around 7 million, an
increase of 7% from the year before.
In his address at the
Official Opening of ASEAN Tourism Forum 2011 (ATF 2011) in Phnom Penh, on 18
January 2011, Samdech Techo Hun Sen stressed the benefits of the win-win policy
achieved in 1999 and the “Open-Skies policy” by saying that “Cambodia not just
only enjoys peace, political stability, security, safety, but also has
well-developed infrastructure linkage, good resorts, good services and stable
economic environment. These positive achievements have come from the effort in
actively implementing the tourism promotional campaign ‘Cambodia-Kingdom of
Wonders’ along with competitive movement ‘Clean City, Clean Resort, Good
Service’ with active participation from relevant institutions, private sector
and the people.”
It is
noteworthy to mention that in the 2000s, Samdech Techo Hun Sen had made no
lesser than 50 speeches covering all the aspects of the Cambodian tourism
industries, from tourism products and infrastructure to hospitality, government
tourism promotion policies, and especially partnership in the promotion and
marketing of tourism products between the government, the private sector,
foreign investments and NGOs.
It should be
added that the listing of the Cambodia’s bay as the member of the Club of Most
Beautiful Bays in the World, officially inaugurated on 11 July 2011 in Sihanouk
province during a ceremony presided over by Samdech Techo Hun Sen irrefutably
illustrates his on-going quest to put Cambodia on the world map of a must-visit
tourism destination. Why? – The goal, his goal, his dream is immortal and it
can be found in his speech on 7 February 2001, that is “to build
up potential of tourism sector to become an important engine for economic growth
and poverty reduction through job creation, increased income, and improving standard
of living.”
The doubters, the skeptics, and the opposition
must check the results of Samdech Techo Hun Sen’s “Open-Skies Policy” for the
past 10 years, and simply give objective, honest and fair judgment. They cannot
stubbornly ignore the realities and the whole truth. For us, members of PRU,
and we strongly believe that it is also for the overwhelming majority of Cambodian
people, Samdech Techo Hun Sen’s “Open-Skies
Policy” is and will remain his irrefutable achievement gratefully remembered by
posterity, an invaluable success for Cambodian people thanks to his wise and
foresighted leadership.
13 January 2012
Press and Quick
Reaction Unit
Office of the Council
of Ministers