My wife and I, together with the whole entourage, would like to express our joy and appreciation of being here today with all of our people. I am sorry that I have kept you all waiting for a while as I made a bird’s eye view visit to two other bridge construction sites – the Sandan Bridge, to be inaugurated on December 2, and the Kompong Choeuteal Bridge. My wife and I have twice been in the district of Stong – to the pagoda of Stong and to the construction of bridges over there. I watched on TV HE Gen. Kvan Siem, commander of the military engineering team, visited the construction sites in Sandan and Kompong Choeuteal.
I wish to take this solemn occasion to express my sincere appreciation and gratefulness to the military engineering team for their active contribution and efforts in making the construction of the bridges possible. I may say that it is now time to start doing and cannot afford to keep our people waiting any longer, as the bridges in place have an enormous positive impact on the people’s living condition. I have indeed ordered that the bridges of Kompong Choeuteal and Ta Aok be finished before the Khmer New Year so as to allow our people to cross from one side of the river to the other for religious activities. The two bridges were in fact done on April 4th – which also is my birthdate.
These bridges caused different kind of feelings among people involved. Take for instance those who operated ferry have now come to a situation where they could not make business on the spot anymore. There are also feelings of being efficient order taking and implementing among those of the military engineering teams as they have fulfilled their tasks and ensure a timely achievement that is useful for the people. As the leader I have a special feeling that we have united our forces and fulfilled our aim successfully. Last but not least the feelings of our people who find out that the bridges are providing them both direct and indirect benefits. They should be the happiest of all.
This in fact is not achieved of course not without discontent by some circle of opposition views. It can’t be denied that there have been numerous promises to build the bridges here. Promise making has been a way of getting people being persuaded. As for my team I have warned that no one promises anything that one can’t keep. Take for instance, I have sounded out the frog-leap strategy in improving roads and bridges infrastructures in the country as a whole, in the region in particular. Take for instance we have planned to get from here to the district of Sambo of Kratie, but it has to be done in steps – from Sandan to Tumring, and from Tumring at some stage to Samdo. Take also for granted here we have now a few concrete bridges and some in Bailey. All Bailey bridges would eventually replaced by concrete ones. Once we have a road connection from here to Sambo of Kratie, we could shorten the trip to Stoeng Treng on the border with Laos. In July I will go to Stoeng Treng to preside over the connection of the 1000-meter concrete bridge over the Mekong river and the 198 Kilometers road between Kratie and the border with Laos – that are assistance provided by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
In face of outcry on increased salary, I would suggest our people to think about giving more salary to civil servants while reducing investment in infrastructure and to demand high salary while scaring investors to close down factories, the result of which would be no jobs and no pay at all. Our people have appropriately exercised their understandings. I was born where there are heaps of difficulties and I could not stand neglecting those difficulties at all. It is also my duty to think first of all about real needs of our people. Pol Pot incited among classes through what they called class struggle within the Cambodian society, by which result people dared killed people just because of a slogan “the trees are in the rural areas, whereas the fruits are in the cities.”
In fact it is indeed a trade relation pattern. If you do not sell your products in markets that are in the cities, where else could you sell your products. Vice versa people in the city produce clothing and they sell in return to people in the countryside. Therefore it is indeed a kind of trade relation and it would be absurd to think the way Pol Pot did that those in the cities are exploiters of those in the countryside. Now, we have a problem of marketplace, whereas the Royal Government has been requested to help ensure not only local marketplace but also those abroad.
On that occasion Samdech Hun Sen offers a six classroom building to the college of Ta Aok, a six classroom building to the college of O Ta Khiev.
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