No Meeting with Workers/Employees for Three Months
I hope you are all fine. I am so happy today to be able to resume what I did since 2017 to meet with our workers/employees. We had not been able to do so for over three months – firstly, for the elections campaigns, during which law forbade any kind of donations at all and if I were to meet you, I might have to hand out some gifts to workers/employees and women in pregnancy; secondly, for the establishment of the Royal Government, which is now 53 days old; and right after the formation of the Royal Government, I had to take care of some works and international meetings and conferences in foreign countries […] we have postponed our scheduled meeting to a later date and it has today come to the end of October […]
Voting Is Tantamount to Fulfilling Two Obligations
Taking this moment, please allow me to express my sincere thanks for the warm hospitality of nephews and nieces workers/employees, as well as our people in the whole country for fulfilling two important obligations – firstly, supported and participated in the democratic process through exercising your rights to vote. Voters’ turnout was recorded at 83% of registered voters, a high rate if compared with some advanced countries. Such turnout has failed this campaign to stay home to win […] secondly, as nearly 78% voted for the Cambodian People’s Party, you have decided to keep peace and development […]
In the 2013 elections, you may have reviewed it what happened then after the elections? You may remember that people in Phnom Penh, a number of voted for the opposition party, could not continue their businesses because there were endless demonstrations, which turned out to cause violence and to break open factories doors to gather workers to join them. As for the elections this year, what has happened after the people voted? Political and economic stability allow people to resume their daily lives. Our people may remember now that they should not cast one vote that would cause them worrisome and instability for the country.
It has been fortunate that Cambodia did not go through turmoil and bloodshed after the elections. In 2013, there were bloodsheds and we have arrested the one who caused all the sins. According to law, we must continue with legal process to resolve everything that matters – public property that they had destroyed, etc. They must be held responsible. However, in 2018, a prideful year, our economy has grown to 7.3%, while it is our duty to ensure political and macroeconomic stability […]
A Speedy National Assembly Meeting to Address the UN General Assembly
Let me say a few thing about my missions abroad. It was obligatory and I could not postpone them. Normally we planned to address the UN General Assembly once or twice in each term. For the previous term, we did only once in the fifth legislative term National Assembly Royal Government in 2015 […] for this sixth legislative term, we managed to do it right from the beginning. In order to do that, I had to seek an audience with HM the King to work on calling for the first National Assembly meeting in a speedy manner so that I could make it to the UN General Assembly […] to make our statement about urgent issues on international arena, for instance trade war, which has become a world concern […] beside the Secretary General of the United Nations, I also met with Prime Minister of Bulgaria as we are going to reopen our embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and also to prepare for a visit to Nepal and to take part in an international conference over there […]
Three Lies of the Opposition about the UN
For my work at the United Nations, they (the opposition) had gone about lying three rounds. Firstly, they spread news that the US would not allow me to step foot on their territory. Finally, the US did not ignore their duties to protect leaders who had come for the UN General Assembly […] secondly, they lied people that the Cambodian seat was suspended. Thirdly, they continued to fool people that the seat was not suspended but the Hun Sen delegation were not allowed to enter. The three lies died in New York because we made our presence there and we delivered our statement […] they went on lying every hour, day, week. In Khmer there is a saying that goes the more one lies, the likely it will be for him/her to lose […]
Ready for More UN Peace Keeping Missions
We are pondering to send more Cambodian troops for the UN peace keeping missions. I told the Secretary General of the United Nations that Cambodia is ready to commit more troops to whichever country that he/the UN may see it is necessary. Please allow me to take this chance to express my support to the Cambodian troops stationing in Mali that went under attacks from the guerrilla using eight pickup trucks surrounding and two pickup trucks opened suicidal attack into the barrack. It was lucky that no Cambodian troops was harm but two Burkina Faso soldiers died and five wounded. There was a timely mannered intervention. It is always unpredictable for situations in the Central African Republic and Mali. That requires a more responsible follow-up of situation regarding the Cambodian troops in foreign countries […]
Cambodia to Host ASEM – One Example of Successes
Some have commented that there does seem to be anything from what Hun Sen said the works fulfilled abroad were of successes. I wonder if these people thought that doing this kind of work is like to go fishing and bring fish home for real. They may just think about themselves, how much time they spend to educate themselves. I earned scholarships for our students and we have ascertained international cooperation – politically, economically, and even national defense and security for that matter. When they go about saying that there does not seem to be substantial result, have they asked themselves if Cambodia ever host meeting like ASEM in its history? Is it not a success in Cambodian diplomacy? […] I do not want Cambodian children to misconceive or misunderstand because of what they said […]
More Cambodians to Meet Hun Sen than to Join Demonstrations
When I arrived in Switzerland, I felt strange that there were no demonstration against me. In fact that those people have always asked other countries to cease assistance was nothing new but to see no demonstration in Switzerland is beyond imagination […] they should have done it in Geneva because it is their popular place before to organize demonstrations. Prior to my arrival, they did a couple of them but when I was there, I did not see them. Why? Maybe it is not useful to do so as there would not be many people to join them […]
The Opposition’s “Three No”
We have made efforts to rebuild and build the country but these people have always done three things on Cambodia – (1) tell foreigners to give no assistance; (2) to make no investment and (3) to purchase no goods […] how far have they gone? Foreigners are not always believing in them because in this world there are mechanisms of international relations […] some countries may unilaterally declare tax or prevent goods from other countries to flow in, but the World Trade Organization has continued to be an influential institution to resolve problems. Many countries have in general respected the measures taken by WTO to exchange favors in accordance with economic and political conditions of each country […]
Over 22 Million USD for Abandoned Workers’ Advantages
… Yesterday I signed a letter requesting a pre-financing permission of over 14 million USD. There was one other factory that the boss ran off. The only option left for the Royal Government is to pay our workers’ advantage on their behalves. We do not know yet how much we can claim back from them […] it is because of such problem that we have amended concerned laws relating to workers’ advantage to be paid no later than six months. That they had kept it to many years that the amount has grown big. When the factory bosses ran off, the debt falls on the Royal Government […]
20th Anniversary of Localization of Factories
We are meeting here at Muk Kompoul today, Kandal, where there concentrates so many factories/enterprises […] 464 of them, and there are 150,000 workers/employees. Annual salary is amount to 372 million USD. There are 170 apparel and shoes factories, employing 137,000 workers at an annual wage of 330 million USD. This is clearly the success of our policy to localize factories closer to people’s residences. I declared this policy over 19 years ago. In a few months it will be the 20th anniversary of the policy […] talking about the four priority vision, this year is the 31st anniversary of the day when I made investments in water/irrigation, roads, electricity, and human resource the country’s priorities. We have rearranged the order of priorities now to human resources, roads, electricity, and water/irrigation. They have been our prioritized investment areas in the last 31 years. As for factories localization closer to people’s homes, the policy is now in its 19 years […] I remembered that we launched in 1998 a forum between the Royal Government and private sector. In 1999, I issued this vision to localize factories to wherever our infrastructures reached, after we did the same for schools […]
Meeting Workers for Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025
… Should there not be factories in Muk Kompoul, not far from Phnom Penh, for instance, […] what would you be doing at this moment? There would be two answers only. Firstly, you are leaving your hometown to look for jobs in industry, handicraft, or service sectors, in other places far from home; or secondly, you are cultivating rice with your families. You are working in agriculture. Having said this, they may see how far is the vision of the Royal Government of Cambodia led so far by the Cambodian People’s Party. We have localized many factories now to numerous provinces. Take for instance, we have many factories in the province of Sihanouk Ville and there are many workers/employees too. We also have many factories and workers in Svay Rieng. I will continues to visit our workers/employees in Kompong Speu, Takeo, Kompot, Koh Kong, Pursat, Banteay Menajei, etc. […]
I will do that for at least ten more years […] as we are now in the stage of developing objectives and plan for industrial development policy for 2015-2025 to allow for wider contribution from industry and service to our economy, and whereby to support agricultural sector. You have seen that the district of Muk Kompoul has transformed and I sent more schools through HE Vongsey Visoth to the college of Prek Anjanh, where there is this program of new generation school. After localizing schools closer to people’s homes, we have now in process the localization of factories to people’s residential areas […] the Royal Government is focusing on placing more investment to support small-scale industry and handicraft and localize them as it possibly can. We need to continue to invest in necessary infrastructures such as roads, electricity, etc. to support development of industry and handicraft […]
Fifth Legislative Term Royal Government’s Growth at 7.3%
I wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciations to every state institutions of the fifth legislative term for scoring great successes in economic progress for Cambodia. The prediction of early term was to achieve a 7% economic growth. As of this moment, we have scored 7.3%. This success may allow our people to ascertain personal annual income at 1,706 USD for 2019. For this year, 2018, we did only 1,556 USD. I am thinking on this achievement that before ending the sixth legislative term, we may succeed in moving our people’s personal annual income to over 2,000 USD. This sounds smaller than the amount you are earning now […] according to the evaluation organized by the United Nations, any person earning 1.25 USD a day is considered living above the poverty line. However, you are making now from seven to eight USD already […]
Lower Mekong Water Level Would Be Difficult to Organize Boat Race
If we are looking at our country in this very moment, wherever water retreated, we can see rice cultivations. People are working on flood receding rice plantation. We are in concern now about water level of the Mekong. As of today, the Mekong level is at 6.2 meters (in Phnom Penh). We are worried that by the time the scheduled water festival comes, we would have a lower water level than we can organize boat race. Previously, we were concerned that the water level would be too high for the same ceremony. If it stays by that time at 5.3 or 5.2 meters, as in 1993, we could go on with the boat race. If it is lower than 4.5 meters, we might not want to do it […]
Workers Continue to Have Jobs and Make Incomes
We now are in the process of making further steps forwards. There is nothing to worry about. When you still have jobs to do and make incomes, you just keep doing it. You may not want to be distracted by some ill-will propaganda. I may send a message to some that “a ghost would never come back alive.” […] judging by lies they make, it is useless to talk to them. When a dog bite your foot, you would not want to bite the dog’s foot in return […] our economy is keeping up its forward momentum. We are working in multi-sector efforts – agriculture, industry and service. This year, we hope to receive over 6 million tourist arrivals which would provide our people incomes and jobs. Our cultivation this year has been good, though we might have some problems from flood in some places. Some places, because of flood, rice has grown even better. We also provided people who needed seed in a timely manner. However, most often, people always keep to themselves seed for force majeure case. It is the Cambodian ways not to eat rice kept as seed […]
Condolence to a Family Losing Three Children in Kandal
It was a sad news yesterday that there was this tragedy that in Svay Rolum, Sa Ang, a family lost three children in a boat sinking accident […] I am sending the family my grievance and express my deep condolence. This has alerted us that even you are living along the river, you may have to take extra precaution as far as water is concerned. It is a story that should not have happened. HE Mao Phirun (Governor of Kandal) must look after the family. It is a big and severe loss. They lost many children in a blink of an eye. A tragedy, indeed./.
