… It is my pleasure to have come to the inauguration ceremony of a Buddhist library in this old pagoda of Keo Krasaing in the city of Kep and I am honoured that our people here have bestowed upon me this moment of joy. HE Governor of Kep CIty has already reported about history that is known about the pagoda and the different stages that Kep was reconstructed and organized after the fall of Pol Pot regime on January 07, 1979. It was only a district of Kompot province after January 7 and I had signed a sub-decree to make it a city on December 02, 1992 and on February 28, 1993, I came to the city myself to declare the establishment of Kep as a city in its own right. Later it became a district once again and after a short while it has now become a city with one seat of representation in the National Assembly after all.
… As I am in the city of Kep I wish to have your attention that this place is developing with a many-prong strategy. The city has got a size of 2594 hectares of cultivation land, a sizable salt farm and a sea fishing place, though in the last years the number of fishermen has gone down because of less availability of fish in the area. One other potential sector for the city is tourism – if not the foreigners, it should be local ones. But we have to improve the road condition from Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville to the city, which is running through a number of provinces. Some tourists may want to continue their trips from the Sihanoukville to the city of Kep, or vice versa. We have achieved some improvements of the road condition between Vealrinh and Tropenag Ropeo already and from Tropeang Ropeo to Kep is under price bid.
… In days to come there will be a G-8 Summit and I was invited to make a comment in Cambodian perspective on global and challenging issues for the developing countries and I have given it to the French Ambassador yesterday already so that he could send to HE President Jacque Chirac. Even the richest countries in the world still have so many problems to tackle, which include problems of terrorism, drugs, cross border crimes, infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and SARS. Though Cambodia is not infected with SARS, still its economy is severely infected beyond our imagination so we have to make sure that we are making right steps in solving it. This morning I took a look at the Reasmey Kampuchea Newspaper on an opinion poll in which graphics showed 81% of the people interviewed said that the Royal Government is on the right track. So we should go on the way that we have travelled and it was nothing but peace, national reconciliation, democracy building, human right respects, and infrastructural development, which is demanded by our people ranging from school buildings, roads and bridges to hospitals.
… Take for instance, I am in the salt making area and we have produced a surplus of salt between 1500 and 2500 tons per year but I would appeal to salt producers that they should comply their products to a standard set out by the World Health Organization (iodizing it) so that salt consumer would not suffer a bad effect. We should not just stuff our stomach anymore but think of eating for good health. I think our people from the Phnom Voar area are also present today and I wish to say your presence here is a token of successes brought about by the win-win policy. No more fighting in Phnom Voar and no hidden forces abduct tourists in the area and in just a few days I will be going to Pailin to inaugurate a Bailey Bridge and a Concrete Bridge and some other achievements scored as a result of the win-win policy. No one is lost in this game and all Khmers are beneficiaries of development.
… I am taken by a complete surprise that here in the city of Kep we also have the Hun Sen College and Bun Rany-Hun Sen Primary School. People are naming schools after my name but some politicians are finding faults with me that I named schools after my own name. All schools are give names by our people. If they care to scold me is like scolding our people and I am sure our people will not be happy with this move. I went the other day to visit the Wat Phnom Junior College in Phnom Penh and they have requested to name it Hun Sen-Junior College and I would not rebuff that. Some people could not find a name for their political party and they name it after their own names and it is these people who criticize others for the names that people have requested for schools. I have also built schools and named them after some of my friends, take for instance the Primary School Sak Sut Sakhan in Boeung Trakuon of Thmar Puok district and some others like In Sidare, etc. My mother had built here seven wells and they all are named after my mother’s name Di Pok.
… From now on I would not respond at all to those who try to scold me and I would just go on doing what our people think is right for me to do and if they wish to they could go on with their ill intention remarks and I am sure our people are intelligent enough to make judgement on who make efforts to build and who make efforts to interrupt. In 1999 I said on the VOA that the reason why I could have won the election in 1998 because I was scold too much and voters could judge whether I was the one to be scold.
Samdech Hun Sen on that occasion offered 17 million Riel, 20 tons of rice for labour, and a computer and a printer to the pagoda of Keo Krasaing, five million Riel each to the Vihear Sbov and Vihear Phnom Mosques in the commune of Prey Thom, a director’s office of three rooms, a sewing class, fifty sewing machines, two computers, a printer, two fourteen inches colour TVs, two VCRs, a five KVA generator to the Hun Sen-Chamka Daung College, six million Riel to the Bun Rany-Hun Sen Damnak Changoeur Primary School, a school building of six classrooms to the Primary School of Keo Krasaing, a school building of six classrooms to the Primary School of Phnom Leo, a fifteen kilometre road and two Bailey Bridges in the commune of Porng Toeuk, and fifty tons of rice for labour for the renovation of a dirt road to the people in Phnom Voar.
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