[August 06, 2014]
CNV: 06/08/2014
Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Distinguished Delegates,
National and International Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen!
National and International Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Today I am pleased to participate in the closing ceremony of the “5th University Scholars Leadership Symposium 2014”held under the theme of “Dream It, Plan It, Do It“.
At the outset, I would like to thank the Humanitarian Affairs UK, the
youth and distinguished guests for supporting and choosing Cambodia as
the host of the 5th University Scholars Leadership Symposium 2014” held from 1st to 7th August 2014, in Phnom Penh Capital City.
Seizing
this opportunity, I would like to highly commend and value the
cooperation effort between the Ministry of Tourism, the Union of Youth
Federations of Cambodia, the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport, the
Ministry of Environment, and relevant ministries-institutions for
successfully organizing this 5th Symposium
with the participation of promising youth—the young intellectuals
coming from universities around the world. I am also very thankful to
the national and international guest speakers for having shared your
knowledge, know-how, new concepts, best practices and valuable
experience in this 5-day Symposium, along with my great appreciation for
the dynamic contribution from all national and international
participants in a sense of responsibility and in the spirit of sharing
and friendship for the development and triumph for all.
As mentioned in the report by H.E Mr. HUN MANY, the President of the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia, this Symposium is held under the theme of “Dream It, Plan It, Do It”, which is not only the international conference contributing to the promotional campaign of Cambodia’s tourism potentials “Cambodia: Kingdom of Wonder”
on the international scene, but also provides the opportunities for the
Cambodian youth to exchange knowledge and best experiences with the
others, a great chance to understand and communicate between each other,
especially to swap experiences with speakers who are well versed in
humanity, society, and environment along with new inspiration from
well-known and highly experienced professors in the region and the
world.
I
believe that this event will continue to serve as a platform for
Cambodian youth to have better understanding about their roles and
obligations in respect of humanitarian, social and environmental fronts
which are valuable contribution to sustainable development, growth and
equitable distribution of growth responding to the Royal Government’s
policy on “Cambodian Youth Development”,
aimed at developing youth to become physically, mentally and morally
qualified individuals in a bid to make them become good citizens. This
Symposium is also a great opportunity for the youth to build the
capacities in on top of will, commitment, and professional conscience.
In
fact, this international conference is held in a country that has
passed through prolonged wars, genocide and internal divisions for
several decades as a result of the outsiders’ interference into
Cambodian society and the political ideology of the cold war. In the
pursuit of full peace, reconciliation, and harmony witnessed today, this
unfortunate territory and nation has passed through enormous and
unprecedented losses, suffering and tragedy. To date, even though
Cambodia and Cambodian nationals have managed to achieve peace,
security, and national reconciliation under the umbrella of single
Constitution, King, and Royal Government, but our nation has yet to be
able to completely overcome both physical and non-physical consequences,
scars and residues left by the prolonged wars and tragedies in the
past.
Cambodia
has been enjoying full peace, security, political stability, social
order, and development of all sectors. In 2013 we achieved the economic
growth of approximately 7.6% while GDP increased to more than USD 15
billion and GDP per capita increased to USD 1,036. The 2014 economic
growth rate is projected to be 7.5%. This optimistic growth prospect can
be achieved through the contribution of all people, in particular youth
who are the potential active labor force. In this sense, I highly value
this important theme of the Symposium, which clearly reflects the
experience sharing of outstanding youth from all over the world as well
as Cambodia. The reflection of reality of youth’s life progress and
constant social evolution through teaching youth how to be creative and
innovative and better understand themselves in the social context while
we are all aware that sometimes due to their immaturity, boldness and
vigorousness, youth are becoming the objective of political exploitation
and victims, made easy by their lack of consideration and easy
acceptance of political ideology and irresponsible political propaganda.
In this connection, I am delighted to see the maturity of Cambodian
youth reflected through their bold activities aiming to support the
efforts of the Royal Government and people of Cambodia as a whole to
ensure peace, security, political stability, social order, and the pace
of development in order for the nation’s progress and prosperity for the
Cambodian people from all walks of life.
Overall,
the deliberation of the theme of this Symposium enable youth to better
understand themselves by starting from being able to initiate and plan
to carrying out real activities in any business in the cause of new
achievements for individual and social interest. In this regard, youth
participation is needed and invaluable for the development of the
country. In other words, given the current context we can say that “Youth
spearheads change and innovation and they are the strong pillars for
propelling countries toward development, progress, peace and social
stability“, which requires us to provide them with enough knowledge
and opportunity to engage in all social activities, including charitable
activities, social activities, economy, culture, environment, etc. On
behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I would like to call for all
relevant ministries-institutions, national and international
organizations, private sector “to work together for youth development and youth empowerment”.
In this context, we must consider “youth the core of socio-economic
development opportunities” requiring all the youth to be competent and
creative to integrate themselves into the new political trends and
fiercely competing and rapidly evolving socio-economic activities in the
context of globalization.
Taking
this auspicious occasion, in a sense to promote youth participation and
youth empowerment, I would like to provide the following
recommendations:
- Increasing opportunities for youth participation in economic development
At
present, Cambodia is a country with the largest percentage of young
population in the ASEAN region, i.e. around 5 million people, equivalent
to 30% of the population, age between 15 to 29 years old, and this
number will increase to 40% of the total population in 2020. Given this,
I request the relevant ministries-institutions, private sector,
national and international organizations to step up the collaboration,
jointly strive to improve the job market and youth entrepreneurship and
strengthen partnerships with youth from all walks of life by providing
education, training and experience to enable them participate in the
liberalized job market. In this respect, I would propose the
establishment of a movement widely participated by all stakeholders that
include public sector, private sector, local communities, national and
international organizations, social organizations to prepare youth
development program in each entity aimed to provide career orientation
for youth to better seize market opportunities, to encourage more active
participation of youth in social activities, to strengthen youth’s role
and participation in public service, and to provide opportunities for
and support youth entrepreneurship.
- Improving education and skill development for youth:
Overall,
the Royal Government of Cambodia has been focusing on promoting
socio-economic development to achieve new progress and high
competitiveness compared to countries in the region and create job
opportunities for youth from all walks of life. In this regard, I
request the relevant ministries-institutions, national and international
organizations, and development partners to further contribute to
providing quality and effective education and training to strengthen
competency, knowledge and skill of Cambodian youth and jointly increase
job opportunities to help address youth unemployment. Moreover, we must
strengthen and expand skill training program for youth who dropped out
of school or failed to complete high school in order for them to have
required skill and earn their living.
- Promoting professionalization of youth
To
this end, I wish encourage the private sector to offer more
opportunities to students who are studying in the university or
technical training and education institutions to carry out an internship
before graduating in order for them to get not only theoretical
knowledge and practical skill, but also new opportunity through their
direct involvement with the real work environment. In addition, in order
to promote professionalism, competence, knowledge and skill on top of
what they learn from educational institutions, I would propose the
establishment of a permanent platform for sharing knowledge, experiences
and success stories among youth in the job market and youth attending
educational institutions through the creation of Youth Development
Directorate System.
- Promoting youth participation in public and social service
In
the context of globalization, constantly evolving society and
relentless development that require us to take into account the
principle of environmental sustainability, youth participation through
their knowledge and skill has been playing an important role in the
field of environment and heritage. Actually, their contribution to
humanitarian activities, voluntary work in communities, preparation of
small projects to respond to community’s needs, participation in
environmental activities, trees planting, the preservation and
conservation of cultural heritage all contribute to the effective
protection and preservation of the environment and culture. It is true
that youth has a special potential in increasing and creating
initiatives, innovation, creativity in new fields with boldness, clear
conscience and determination that contribute to economic, social,
environmental and cultural development. In particular, I would like to
highly commend the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia for
contributing to social, humanitarian and environmental activities of the
Royal Government of Cambodia, especially the successful annual
organization of “Angkor Sankranta”
highlighting the role of youth in promoting and enhancing the values of
culture and heritage as well as Cambodian tourism attractiveness.
Meanwhile, I call for more opportunities for youth to participate in the
provision of public services to local communities through the creation
of field trip and encourage youth staff of all firms to involve in
social and environment activities through encouraging firms to have
their own program for their staff to actively participate in
humanitarian, social and environmental activities. In this sense, I call
on the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia to collaborate with
relevant ministries-institutions to set up a national volunteering
platform for both Cambodian and international youth by supporting the
movement of tree planting, environment cleaning, training, experience
exchange and provision of assistance to local communities and so on. I
believe that accepting foreign volunteers to work in Cambodia is a
catalyst for attracting tourists, especially more inflow of youth as
volunteer tourists, international tourists along with dynamic flow of
domestic tourists. In this context, I deeply appreciate the spirit of
this Symposium which has initiated establishment of a common platform
for the development of volunteer tourism in Cambodia, which will act as a
platform facilitating foreign students or experts to find voluntary
works in Cambodia and promoting the development of comprehensive
programs for accepting volunteers to Cambodia, especially youth.
Once
again, I would like to express my deep thanks to the national and
international guest speakers for having shared knowledge, know-how, new
concept, experience and best practices in the Symposium. I highly
appreciate the lively contribution from all national and international
participants in a sense of responsibility, sharing and friendship for
the development and triumph for all to this 5-day event, “The 5th University Scholars Leadership Symposium 2014” held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I would like to lend my full support to the “Joint Declaration on the Outcome of the 5th Symposium“,
which is a common voice of all parties involved especially youth, and
is expected to become a roadmap for the development of youth in Cambodia
and the whole world.
Before
closing, I strongly hope that this Symposium will provide many benefits
for the youth to learn and gain knowledge, new concepts, leadership and
best practices through presentation of and communication with our
well-known and experienced speakers. This knowledge will inspire youth
to understand and prepare themselves for contribution to national
development in a sense of responsibility and in accordance with the
spirit of the youth development policy of the Royal Government of
Cambodia.
Finally,
I wish Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Distinguished Delegates, National
and International Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen happiness, prosperity in
all your endeavors, and four gems of the Buddhist Blessings: Longevity,
Nobility, Healthiness, and Strength.
May I now declare the closing of “The 5th University Scholars Leadership Symposium 2014”.