Your Venerable Monks,
Your Excellency Chang Ho-Jin, Ambassador of the Republic of Korean to the Kingdom of Cambodia,
Excellencies Senators, Members of the National Assembly, and Members of the Royal Government of Cambodia,
Mr. Bean Sang Van, Director of Economic Development Cooperation Fund of Korea Ladies and Gentlemen, Representative of Asian Development Bank and Representative of The Australian Government’s Overseas Aid Program
Dear the Compatriots,
Today, it is my great pleasure to officiate the official inauguration of the National Road No.3 from Phnom Penh (Chaom Chaov) to Kampot Town and groundbreaking ceremony for the refurbishment of six roads with total length of 106 kilometers, of which four projects are financed by loans provided by the Republic of Korea, including (1) the National Road No. 31 from Bek Kous to Kampong Trach, (2) the National Road No. 33 from Kampong Trach to the provincial town of Kompot, (3) the Provincial Road No. 117 from Ang Sophy at the intersection of the National Road No. 31 to Ton Hon (Cambodia-Vietnam Border), and (4) bypass road of Kampot Town from Choum Kriel commune intersected with the National Road No. 33 to Kampong Kreng at the intersection of National Road No. 3 and other three projects funded by loans provided by the Asian Development Bank and grant of the Australian Government, including the restoration project of National Road No. 33 from Kampong Trach to Cambodia-Vietnam border, the construction project of border checkpoint at Prek Chak (Kampot) – Sa Sia (Ha Tieng) border and the maintenance project of the National Road No. 3 from Kampot Town to Veal Rinh.
On behalf of the Royal Government and People of Cambodia, I would like to take this opportunity to deeply thank the Government of the Republic of Korea through H.E Chang Ho-Jin, the Republic of Korean’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, for providing unconditional loans through the Economic Development Cooperation Fund for the construction of the national roads mentioned above. I would also like to deeply thank the Asian Development Bank for providing loans and grants and the Australian Government for, most the time, providing grants for socio-economic development effort in Cambodia.
According to H.E. Tram Iv Tek, Minister of Public Works and Transport, the National Road No. 3 construction project, from Cham Chao to the Kampot’s provincial town, which is now officially inaugurated, is the result of my request to the Republic of Korea in ASEAN Plus 3 Summit at Bali, Indonesia in 2004 which was signed by H.E. Hor Nam Hong, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affair and International Cooperation of Cambodia and H.E. Shin Hyun-Suk, the then Republic of Korean’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia on May 08, 2007.
This segment which links to 32.79-kilometer road from Kampot Town to Tropeang Ropov, officially inaugurated on July 03, 2007, is also a result of my request to His Excellency President of the Republic of Korea in the ASEAN Plus 3 Summit in Singapore in 2000. It is also connected with road segment from Tropeang Ropov to Veal Rinh at the intersection of the National Road No. 4, which has been constructed and its maintenance was completed on June 27, 2005 by the loans of the World Bank.
Joining these three segments will transform the National Road No. 3 into an important transport network which effectively contribute to enhance transport efficiency from Phnom Penh to Kampot and Veal Rinh-National Road No. 4 as the National Road No. 3 can now be connected to Cambodia-Vietnam borders at Prek Chak, Lok, Sa Sia through National Road No. 31, National Road No. 33 and National Road No. 117.
These new roads will facilitate and reduce costs of trade activities and exchange of products and services that will effectively contribute to household and national growth as well as strengthening of Cambodia-Vietnam and GMS cooperation. In particular, the road network will facilitate trade of agro-industrial and sea products such as sea salt, seafood, fruits, and the highly-rated Kampot pepper. Along with this, this infrastructure network allow the phosphate fertilizer factory and Chak Krey Ting cement factory to better run their operations in order to serve the agriculture and construction sectors, and promote non-smoke industry sector such as nature tourism at Bok Kor Mountain and Kep coastal area, and Sihanoukville coastal area, which is also the international seaport and the dragon head of the Cambodia’s economy.
We have named the National Road No.3, from Tropeung Rorpov to provincial center of Kampot, as Cambodia-Korea friendship road, so this portion of the road from Phnom Penh to Kampot is also part of Cambodia-Korea friendship road. Besides, the four projects financed by the Republic of Korea, and other 3 projects financed by the Asian Development Bank and grant from Australia that we are holding a construction groundbreaking ceremony for are all strategic infrastructure including the construction of cross-border checkpoint posts, which would promote the effectiveness and convenience of border crossing, and the improvement of a portion of the National Road No. 3 from Kampot provincial center to Veal Rinh would make a connecting road to National Road No. 4, connecting to deep seaport in Sihanoukville province.
These interwoven roads complement each other in their role as sea corridor, corresponding with the importance placed by international community, in particular by Greater Mekong Sub-region countries and by Cambodia-Vietnam bilateral cooperation, as these roads not only serve the transport from Phnom Penh to other parts and seaports of Cambodia, but they also diversify traffic to reduce traffic accidents, which are causing disability, deaths, as well as losses of public and private properties. This bypass road would also reduce the travelling time and transport cost to save people money and reduce poverty incidence of our citizens in the Great Mekong Sub-region countries.
In general, National Road No. 3 and other roads connecting to national road No. 3 are of great importance in facilitating the economic and trade exchanges in all sectors from South-West corridor to Thailand and from this coastal area corridor to Phnom Penh, Vietnam and Laos through land routes with ease and low costs. Hence, our development partners have set this development as part of the Southern coastal sub-corridor of Greater Mekong Sub-region, connecting to ASEAN Road No. 123 at the Veal Rinh intersection and to Vietnam passing through Cambodia (Kampot – Prek Chak) – Vietnam (Ha Tieng – Sa Sia) border checkpoint along National Road No. 33 and through Phnom Dinh border checkpoint and through National Road No. 2 (Phnom Den border checkpoint), which could accelerate the internal integration of Cambodia in all sectors, allowing the Royal Government realize its growth targets and promote people living standard.
With the optimistic view on the efforts of the Royal Government and our competent officials in the rehabilitation and development of physical infrastructure and human resources, I would like to further support and encourage the members of the Royal Government and local authorities at all levels and officials of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and relevant institutions to further cooperate and work hard together to build and maintain roads and bridges in order to ensure continuity of the effectiveness of transport, to reduce transport time from remote and border areas to urban areas and Phnom Penh in particular, so that we can get closer to neighbouring countries and the world to bolster economic and trade exchanges, cooperation in all sectors, in particular in economy, culture, education, health.
On behalf of the Royal Government and People of Cambodia, I would like to express my gratitude to the Government and the people of our friends’ countries, and all development partners for providing financial, technical and material support to help the Royal Government and the people of Cambodia in the rehabilitation, development and maintenance of its infrastructure in order to promote economic growth and accelerate the development and poverty reduction of Cambodia.
At the same time, I would like to praise Korea’s Kok Dong Engineering and Construction Company, Korea’s international technical consultancy company in cooperation with Korea’s Yusin Company, as well as the two domestic technical consultancy companies, Kesec and Vido, that have been in charge of the construction and technical inspection of national road No.3 from ChaomChao to Kampot provincial centre, for completing the construction on time, with quality and beauty.
Also, I would like to leave a message for Korea’s Kok Dong Engineering and Construction Company cooperating with Korea’s Kum Hwa Industrial Co. in charge of construction of national road No. 31, 33 and 117, and the bypass road of Kampot provincial centre and the Korea International Construction Technical Inspection Company Sambo, Korea’ Fast Road Construction Cooperation with cooperation from the domestic technical advisory companies, Kesec and Vido to ensure the road construction are completed on time with quality. I would like to request Lim Sarin company, tasked to construct, and French company Egis (Egis-Bceom) International, responsible for technical supervision, for refurbishment projects of national road 33, national road 31 and border check-point financed by ADB loan and grant from Australia government, to implement the projects on time with quality.
With pride and joy from smooth traveling on these interwoven roads, I would like to remind all compatriots to obey traffic law in order to avoid road accidents, to ensure safety, live and wealth by driving carefully within legal speed limit and fastening seatbelts if driving cars or wearing helmets if riding motorbikes. Before and during driving, please do not consume alcohol. If you feel sleepy, do not drive. We must also prevent overweight loading which can damage roads and bridges.
Before ending, I would like to wish all venerable monks, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished international and national guests, government officials, teachers and students four gems of Buddhist blessings.
May I now declare the inauguration of national road 3 from Chom Chao, Phnom Penh to Kampot and opening of the construction site for restoration national road 31-33-117 and Kampot bypass road and construction site for restoration of the road 33 from Kampot provincial capital to Veal Rinh and construction of Cambodia-Vietnam border check-points Prek Chak (Kampot) to Sa Xia (Ha Tien).
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