5,559 graduates, 14 Foreign Students
I am so glad today to be able to join with all of you for the fourth time to preside over the graduation and diploma presentation ceremony for 5,559 graduands of the Build Bright University. I am so glad to hear the report made by Mr. Diep Seiha, the BBU’s Rector, concerning the progress made by BBU as illustrated by a sum of 30,090 students who have graduated so far and some 25,626 are pursuing their studies.
It should be noted that among the students pursuing their studies here in the BBU, there are 14 of them coming from Vietnam (4), Japan (2), China (2), Nigeria(1), Arabia (1), Korea (1) and the Phillipines (3). This has proven that there has been certain level of trust from outside for the BBU and that BBU as well as other universities in Cambodia has the ability to provide education not only to Cambodians but also to foreign students.
Taking this opportune moment I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the effort made by students so far to strengthen own capacity. It is witness to us all here that 3,993 of them have got their bachelors, 814 have got their masters and 8 have got their Ph D degrees. That is a great victory among all efforts made by the Royal Government in the field of education and human resource development.
What is even more impressing is that the students who have finished their studies in BBU, according to the report of Mr. Diep Seiha, have gained certain knowledge and skill that 81% of them could get jobs either in state institutions or private sectors. Also noted, 27% of them have got on to self employment of all sorts. Those who have created self employment should be considered making contribution for job creation for the society. This is a result of what we have been trying to achieve – the promotion of entrepreneurship so they could become job creators in the field of small-scale industry, handicrafts as well as related services such as tourism, and other service rendering sectors who can provide works for students and people.
As far as salary is concerned, in general, our graduates have received in a range between 200 USD and 1,000 USD. In percentage, 49% of them who have got their bachelors and masters have had their positions as staff, 20.5% had their positions as either heads or deputy heads of sectors and 2.5% are holding positions of general manager or deputy general managers. Among them all, 57.2% have received a range of salary between 200 USD and 350 USD; 8.8% of them received between 351 USD and 500 USD; 2.9% between 501 USD and 1,000 USD and 1.2% over 1,000 USD.
Vocational Orientation – A Common Objective of Education
This achievement has illustrated a wonderful and respectful progress made by the University and I would urge the Rector to go on monitoring job accessibility of graduated students from the University for the sake of using those data to orientate training curriculum in the University. This work is of course not an objective to be pursued by BBU alone. I am of the opinion that it is a common issue of our education and we must do more to reach the level of professional and skill training orientation so that our people can better find jobs in the markets.
As far as this point is concerned I would like to appeal to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and all related education institutions – both state and private – to pay further attention and make further efforts on job accessibility survey on students who have graduated.
2,100 Scholarships for Resource Lacking Students
Once again I am sharing the joy of all the students – the Buddhist monks are also included, both scholarship and fee-paying students – for the efforts they made all these past years. In between 2001/2 and 2012/3, the Build Bright University has provided me 1,191 scholarships. Among all of the graduates I am sure there must be some of you who have studied on the scholarships provided in my name. Every year, various tertiary education institutions have provided me with some 2,100 scholarships to give out to resource lacking students so that they could continue their studies. Thanks to the efforts made by a youth movement to establish contact with various companies to help provide scholarships for needy students, I have the confidence that more scholarships will be available in the coming time.
While presiding over the inauguration of the Cambodia Beer Factory I urged the company to provide scholarships to students and my recommendation was that they should start first of all providing scholarships to children of their factory workers. Doing this, they not only make their workers happy but also increase work efficiency for the factory/company too. I think other companies should also think of a way to follow this trail.
Students’ Own Efforts and Their Families’ Are Determinant Factor
It should be noted that whether there are scholarships available out there, knowledge acquiring would not be possible without own effort by each and every student. Even though the Royal Government has good policy on tertiary education as I always mentioned on various occasions – such as allowing private sector making contribution to the tertiary education or building state of the art school building with many talented professors working in them – a good result would not have been achieved if there were no great efforts made by the students themselves, their families’ sacrifices in financial as well as in labor terms.
While giving appreciation to effort made by each and everyone of you, I would like to take this opportune moment to praise the families, parents, supervisors, grandparents and in various instances husbands or wives and/or children for making efforts to shoulder financial and labor burden so as to let these fellows pursue their studies.
Professors – A Career to Expand Knowledge
I would take this solemn occasion to express my appreciation for the efforts invested by the leaderships, officials, staffs and professors, rector and deputy rectors and board members for the sake of sound operation and management of the University. As far as I know HE Heng Vong Bunchhat (with rank of Deputy Prime Minister) is also teaching here. To have attracted good preofessors to work for the University is a great success of the University too.
In fact holding a teaching career widens one’s knowledge. When I was a soldier, I was appointed first of all as a group supervisor. Over less than one month, not even 18 years old, I was appointed leader of a platoon. In this development I learnt that it was not at all easy when there was a meeting of soldiers. Where I stationed at the time there were so many Stieng ethnic people and I was chosen to teach them Khmer letters. It was because I had to teach Khmer to them that I developed myself a lot from doing that. In such development that I held on to top positions.
In order to establish an army, how do we go about doing it and what do we start with? As I was in leading position I was required to write paper and to lecture about it. We had to create a new army to liberate the nations from the regime of Pol Pot. I was then 25 years old. It was quite young. It was because all those works of writing a paper of morale and political concept for the military development had brought me always to a new level. I also had gone through so many negotiations for peace. Recently, on 9 August 2012, I had to make a presentation for about more than five hours in the National Assembly’s plenary session.
It seems not simple for anyone to wait for Hun Sen to dwindle. As for the presentation, we will soon have a booklet coming out and DVD as well as tapes. The intervention and the elaboration on the border issue between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will be published in both Khmer and English as a contribution for all analysis and for those of you to know what did happen yesterday before we have what it is today.
Historical Concept – A Crucial Factor
In fact I did not want to respond to this issue as I know full well that even if I explain countless times to them, they would pretend to not understand. However, it is logical that in order to understand what is happening today, it is essential to know what had happened the day before. We are younger generation and it is important for us to know what had happened in the past since depicting a particular point in the history would not give us a comprehensive understanding. I already stated in the National Assembly that in order to be a whole banana tree, there has to be its stump, tree trunk and leaves. If any part of it were to be removed, it is not a complete banana tree anymore.
That is why in all research, one has to work on its historical factor. The historical concept is always an essential element in all research methodology. It cannot be overlooked. If you do not base your research from the historical concept, you would not even know from where you are coming. I wish to urge those who will have to write thesis that the three elements – historical, dialectical and logical concepts – are so essential in not only thesis writing but also normal work procedure.
We may have one example. As it is now time to make a decision to put an end to all fishing contracts and to remove all fishing lots, we have to know and understand since when the lots have been there? We have to find out relevant documents such as regulations issued by Samdech Preah Baat Preah Norodom on how to guarantee traffic in the waterways and on how fishing barrier should be placed. Later we had this regulation by Preah Baat Sisowath in 1908 on the establishment of fishing lots to be leased out and controlled exclusively by contractors and on the permission to fish with tax to be paid on fishing tackles.
In 2000, we cut out fishing lots in the first-step reform. However, there were discrepancies between fishing lot contractors and the people. Then we decided to move to the next and final radical reform which is to remove all fishing lots and return those lots to the people. Starting from March 8, 2012, Cambodia no longer has fishing lots and fishing contractors. As for the highland areas, this started in April 10. What we have retained so far is the fish species conservation area, where both state and private agents are not allowed to fish at all. It is reserved for fish recuperation and for people to catch.
A Half Hectare of Phnom Penh Land for Youth Centre
On last Saturday I met with some 4,000 youth in Koh Pij (Exhibition Centre) and there was a consensus that there needs to be a youth centre aimed at developiong and strengthening capacity of the youth with focus mainly on training skills of information technology. I learnt that yesterday HE Say Chhum provided a piece of about a half hectare land in Phnom Penh for the construction of this youth centre. HE Say Chhum told them that it is lucky for them that they could have this land as a heritage from January 7.
I have consulted with HE Say Chhum and these youths that we will use this location to build a training centre on information technology. We will also have one other place to assist our youth in finding jobs or providing them with job market information. As for this information technology centre I think a seven floor building which could adequately house between 200 and 300 PCs for our youth to get training free of charge. We need to help our youth to develop high IT skill. I hope the construction will start fairly soon and our youth who could not afford the school fee anywhere could come to this place. Let’s all do a computer literacy.
Since I talked a lot about coming from where and going to where, I think I should talk a bit about chances. I believe our students of this generation are acquiring a great chance. I mentioned this topic a bit already on August 1, but I wish to add a bit more about comparing with childhood and youth in the past that did not have education chance under the Pol Pot’s regime between 1970 and 75, and again between 1979 and 1993, and in some places in between 1993 and 1998 before we had this win-win policy. The win-win policy brought the country full peace and allowed our students to learn and professors to teach.
In addition to political chance provided by the Governments of the former People’s Republic of Kampuchea and State of Cambodia, permission for state sector investment in the field of education by the Royal Government of Cambodia is not at all a small matter. This has brought to my mind about the conversation of two elderly people in Battambang. One of them posed a question “we have what we have today because of what?” The other responded “because each one of us makes effort.” The first then continued “but each one of us made effort under Pol Pot’s time, why we did not have anything?”
Among all factors, unless we have a correct leadership of the Royal Government or Government or we would not be able to achieve all this. It is so ridiculous that some said that what they have gained is not because of the victory of January 7. I do not urge them to recognize that as I already mentioned in the National Assembly that the beast is by far not human. However, a short question can be posed “if your parents have not been liberated by January 7, would you be able to survive? If no one comes to liberate the country, Pol Pot could have killed all already. In that case would you be able to take up studies?”
Except for those who resided in foreign countries in those days, like HE Heng Vong Bunchhat, had had the chance to continue education, his family members inside the countries could not avoid being killed by the Khmer Rouge regime. This is historical fact. By denying this fact, how could such a person speak of or lead the country? For the fact that they deny that their lives have been saved by January 7, what else could they do in the future? Let’s not forget one fact that if there were no correct policies provided by the former State of Cambodia and the second Kingdom’s Royal Government, and there were no involvement from the private sector in the field of education, you may pose a question, “do we have the Build Bright University in the first place?”
Correct RGC and Ruling Party’s Policy
It is therefore important to recognize a combination between personal effort and correct policy issued and implemented by the ruling Party. There are for example 50,000 students who have graduated and are continuing their studies in BBU. If the Royal Government were to limit involvement from the private sector to invest in the field of education, tertiary education for instance, where can these students go for studies since the state facility could not absorb them all? We have 25,000 students who are fee paying students here and there are many more in other universities.
Speaking about this last night I had a conversation with my wife and we were of the opinion that our grandchildren could have studied in the country as by the time they get to that age, schools in our country would have been advanced such as the North Bridge, International School of Phnom Penh, etc. By the time our grandchildren finish six more years of secondary level education, we believe those schools would have upgraded to be Universities. There is no need in that case to send our grandchildren to study abroad except when there is going to be a need for specialized training or higher education.
As far as this point is concerned, there is a need for a clear political framework. Let’s take the war from 1970 through to 1975 into consideration. It was certainly caused by politics. In those day areas under General Lon Nol’s control, schooling was possible. However, some students and teachers, professors had been incorporated into the military and even become soldiers too. Schools in rural areas were closed. The same is true for business. If the Royal Government does not allow this sector to operate, there were not correct encouragement policy, on taxation for example, our economy would have been stagnant.
Prepared for Economic Slowdown and Financial Crisis
As a number of measures had been taken in precaution of the coming financial crisis and economic slowdown, the Royal Government has provided leadership to channel Cambodia through the crisis safely. Take for instance, as far as financial sector is concerned, we have taken effective measures to prevent the falling down of the banking sector as was the case of Asian Economic Crisis in 1997. As part of the measures, we had increased bank reserve requirements from 8% to 16%. I know that some of the bankers, including also Mr. Pung Khieu Sae, were not that happy.
However, at the end of the day, these measures had ensured safety and therefore increased confidence in the banking system. We have set borrowing ceiling at 15% for any purchase of estate as part of our effort to better manage loans giving. It is to everyone’s concern as to why the economic police such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pay attention only to small countries. Why it cares less on what happened in bigger countries? Take for instance the Lehman Brothers bank that crashed. It is because of lack of inspection on various big banks in developed countries, including also debt control, especially starting in the United States of America, and now mushrooming in various countries in Europe, that has caused this financial crisis for the world. While it is now getting back on track in the United States, countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. are experiencing their bumpy conditions with side effects dashing to Cambodia.
In Cambodia, as I said, we have set the 15% ceiling for loan in asset purchasing and all commercial banks must exercise reserve requirements of up to 16%. We then lower the requirement back to 12% while the ceiling for loan to purchase estate has been removed. All this is done in light of better management, especially bank’s own risk management approach in Cambodia. We have done this within our package of macroeconomic management which achieves low inflation rate compared to neighboring countries.
Last year, it was because of high flooding, we predicted that by end of the year, our inflation rate would reach 6%. However, by implementing our policy on radical fishing lot reform, the annual inflation rate was 6.5%. This year, with contribution from growth in various sectors of the economy, we have maintained the inflation rate below 5%. It should be reminded that while there is an increase in income, there is also bigger expense. It is noted that we have maintained growth in income, though slow it is, from both customs and fiscal taxation.
As far as debt management policy is concerned, Cambodia has got a clear policy with two important points on borrowing money from foreign sources. The new Cambodia’s debt ratio is still low if we compare it to the GDP. Firstly, we borrow money from foreign countries only for development of infrastructures such as roads, bridges, irrigation systems and power distribution systems. As for the power generation itself, we have attracted private investment into coal and/or hydropower in BOT form. Secondly, we allow borrowing only at concessional interest rate and not at commercial rate. As we have strictly implemented this policy, we have been able to manage our debt.
Bear in mind that for everything we have achieved today, there has to be correct policy, good management or things would not happen. The chance in older days, in and out of the country, is different from nowadays. Talking about chance of going for education in foreign countries, there was a surprising story in the National Assembly the other day.
Let me talk on this point a bit and I do not mean on anyone personally but in general so that we all know what could be relating to the chance that someone has been offered for studying abroad.
After the liberation in 1979, Cambodia was under international political and economic pressure and Eva Mysliwiec of Oxfam wrote “Punishing the Poor.” Eva Mysliwiec, because of our close relation as brother and sister, said before leaving Cambodia for Mali “it was because of you that I no longer have work to do in Cambodia.” She was in Mali then before coming to Cambodia. She was faced with pressure by the military government there. She is a US citizen. When her father passed away, she made a commitment to come to Cambodia for a few months. It turned out to be over 30 years. She has become a Cambodian citizen and even has a home in Cambodia.
Now she is back in Mali and she has a project to build schools for family members of nomads. I wanted to help her build a school there. Unfortunately now Mali is back in military government regime. So it is not an easy task for her. Well, facing with the difficult situation in Cambodia back then, Eva and her colleagues those days such as Onesta Carpene wrote a book entitled “Punishing the Poor.” In those days, we just recovered from death but we were disapproved and denied. It was the Khmer Rouge that sat at the Cambodian seat at the United Nations then.
PRK and State of Cambodia in Search of Scholarships
You may be reminded that the world then was divided into two blocs – east and west. Near us, only Vietnam and Laos recognized Cambodia. We sent some students to Vietnam and some to Laos. In Europe, we were provided scholarship only by the WARSAW treaty (The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance – 1955/1991) or CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries such as the former Soviet Union, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, former Czechoslovakia and former East Germany. Though communist countries like Yugoslavia, Romania and Albania did not recognize us.
Therefore we could only send students to former Soviet Union, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, former Czechoslovakia and East Germany, which were called “communist countries.” I would like to advise some people, though on different political tendency, to rethink their actions. Some politicians stated that s/he is a physical Doctor trained in the European Union. I would suggest they tell people that they were trained in the former communist countries instead, which some of them have now become members of the European Union. Poland just became an EU member (in 2004).
As foreign minister of the former People’s Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia, I was the trail blazer to get scholarship from those countries for Cambodian students. I am so happy that there are now human resources, though they may belong to different political parties and I do not care, who were trained from that time. It was the result of what we had done in the past. There was a story that in the former Soviet Union, some did not even recognize Cambodia.
Among other students from Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Angola, Congo and other countries in Africa, Cambodian students were not the professor’s favorites. Sometimes later, the Soviet professors liked the Cambodian students a lot as our students have a great sense of virtue. Every Saturday and Sunday, they helped clean the houses and do stuff for the teachers like they would do in Cambodia. So they won heart and mind of the Soviet teachers.
Now let me count for you countries that recognized Cambodia. In Latin America, countries that recognized us were Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada, where US President Ronald Reagan ordered an invasion. In Africa, there are groups of countries that are Francophone, Anglophone and Portuguese speaking countries. African Anglophone countries that recognized and had diplomatic relations with Cambodia in those days were Congo Brazzaville, Benin, Mali, Guinea Conakry and Burkina Faso. Countries in Portuguese speaking Africa were Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde and Mozambique.
Anglophone countries in Africa that recognized us were Tanzania, Gambia and Serra Leon. There was a surprise fact at the time that Serra Leon disapproved, after signing diplomatic relations with us, the agreement to give their support to Khieu Samphan. There may be some other countries that I could not recall. That was how things were when the country was divided.
Government Selected Students for Scholarships
As for this time, anyone wants to go study abroad will depend on whether s/he has money or not. There also are some scholarships that are provided specifically for students by donor countries. Take for instance my youngest son had been offered a scholarship for the National Defense University of the United States of America. Some scholarships have been channeled through the Ministries of Education, Youth and Sports. In that case a contest for scholarship is necessary, the scholarship from Japan for instance.
It was the same in the past that everyone needs to understand. Scholarships were offered to the Government in those days and it was the government (Ministry of Education) who had set the criteria for qualified students to get the scholarships for the study abroad. If the government did not select you per se, how could you go to study? You do not have the chance. There is no need for torturous language. What do you define yourself when you do not accept this specified part of your life? What would happen if you get to be leader? How could you be faithful to anyone if you are not to yourself? I did not mean to hurt anyone’s feeling but I was so surprised that day (in the National Assembly that one opposition MP disapproved having studied in Poland for the scholarship administered by the State of Cambodia).
I did train so many in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I sent them to the former Soviet Union, Hungary, Bulgaria and they are now working in the Ministry. Take for instance, HE Aun Poan Munnirath, HE Hang Chuon Naron, etc. were the ones that passed the Baccalaureate in 1980s and sent abroad. So these people should not cheat on this as many people know what the truth is. This is to show that scholarships were being provided upon agreement and the Ministry of Education (of the former People’s Republic of Kampuchea and State of Cambodia) was the one who select the students for those scholarships. If the Ministry of Education did not select you, would you be able to go to study?
In 2015, it is expected that there will be a strong competition as far as human resource flow is concerned. In Cambodia, you may want to go back to the book that I wrote in 1988 and published in 1989 entitled “10 years of Cambodia’s March” I mentioned about the fact that after the liberation Cambodia’s infrastructures were compared to a huge head but small feet. I mentioned about surplus versus shortage as well. By surplus, I meant those with insufficient capacity and by shortage, I meant those with sufficient capacity.
That is why I need to remind us all that at this time we must expand our qualifications so that we could expand our chance for job. Some investors have expressed their concerns about lack of human resources in Cambodia. Therefore we have to orientate our training in such a way that trained resources would be able to get a job in both local and external job markets.
Voters Registration and Verification
Let me now address another issue. I would take this opportune moment to give support to the National Elections Committee by appealing to the students here and the people in the whole country to get their names registered according to schedule specified by the National Elections Committee from September 1 through to October 10. I am calling on the youth who turn eligible (on the voting date) and those who have not registered to go register, check your name and go to vote in your residential area. Please register only one name.
If any of you move to new residential place, please kindly remove your name from the old list. Those of you already registered also have to go check your name too. We should do this to help clean the list of voters of the National Elections Committee. It is tremendous task of the National Elections Committee to manage lists of millions of people so I urge that each and every eligible voter go check your name on the list. We also need to clear this issue of misspelling someone’s name and the person could not cast his/her vote. It is important to compare your name on the ID card to the one on the voters’ list. We must ensure that one voter has only one name in the list so that the number of voters on the list will tell the correct number of voters who cast their votes on July 28, 2013.
As for those youth volunteers, instead of giving five days break for teams from Koh Kong, Pursat, Preah Vihear, Uddar Meanjei and Takeo, I would suggest that we give them one extra day between September 1 and October 10 so as to fulfill their registration procedure. Maybe those of you students who travel to the province could be transferred to vote in Phnom Penh but they must remove their names in the provincial lists. I also urge the Buddhist monks to register as well because they also have the rights to vote. Whether you do vote or not is up to you but we have the need to know the true number of eligible voters.
The second issue I wanted to have your attention is the issue of drought in certain areas. Maybe it is not yet completely hopeless. There have been floodings this year in Manila of the Philippines, and China’s Beijing too. In Cambodia, certain areas have plenty of water but some are lacking water. I learnt that the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery are making constant efforts to provide assistance to the areas where water for rice cultivation is needed.
I am appealing to all levels of local authority to participate by whatever means they could account for in helping irrigate rice and rice seedlings in drought affected areas. As there is one month rolling on the Chinese calendar this year, which infers that flood could come late and would last through to early December, I doubt if we are not celebrating water festival under rain. Three tropical storms that were predicted to happen in Cambodia have instead hit China and caused flooding not only in China itself but also in North Korea. There are about 20 some more tropical storms and I am sure they will have impact on flooding in rivers in Cambodia.
That said we still have more time. If the rice seedlings are older than the normal age for transplanting, we could come up with common seedling beds. We must make sure that rice in areas where there is water reservoir will not die of drought. According to weather forecast, rain would come within three to four days. As for those places where there are insufficient water sources, there is nothing that we could do but wait for the rain to come. This is where zoning has become very critical. Areas where water is scarce, growing potatoes, sugar canes, beans, maize, etc. could be alternatives.
Yesterday I found it funny that (this person from the opposition party I mentioned in the National Assembly of coming to see me at home) wrote in an open letter that “he, his wife and children did come to see me in Kraing Yov,” which he confirmed it was for the first time. My wife also found it a surprise statement because his wife and my wife sat together in our home at Takhmao unlike what he said in his letter.
The person went to see me and reported to me sitting in the kiosk build in the fish pond behind my house. That he did not say the truth, I urge him to be careful for the sacred spirits who look after those places. I did not even ask him to come but he asked to come himself. He even claimed that the 10,000 USD was the money given by the Royal Government. I must remind him that there is no such “regime” and that sum of money was for him to do two things. I thought it is better if he kept quiet. The more he disclaims, the more he reveals what kind of person he is. He may have done so to reassure trust and I do not care since it is his rights.
Land Measured for over 100,000 Families
My last point is about the youth mission. We will send ten more groups for the job. I would take this opportune moment to express my respect and appreciation for the efforts made by our youth that up to now some 100,000 families have their land specification registered. Among them, 84,000 families have already finished their verification stage. We will post more information about land size and ownership for people to look in certain areas for a period of one month. We already did that in Snuol district, the communes of Kbal Traj, Pi Thnu and Sre Jar.
The posting of information for a period of one month is for the people to check and verify, while demanding corrections or changes should there be problem to the information about their lands. The primary title will be issued. In fact I mentioned many times already that there is no difference in term of legal value between primary and final ownership title. I would go to anywhere that land measuring and titling is done. I think perhaps I would come to one place in one province. In Kratie’s Snuol district, I would come to the communes of Kbal Traj, Sre Jar and Pi Thnu as they were places where I came to set up the National United Front for Salvation of Kampuchea’s army in the past.
Any commune I mentioned has had the measuring and titling done, I would come to offer land titles myself for the people.
I appreciate the efforts made by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction as well as those officials who have worked together with the youth volunteers to fulfill this historic mission. I thank all involved for going to visit and provide the youth volunteers with encouragement. Thanks also go to our people for supporting the youth volunteer activities. We will go on regardless how much time we need to spend and how much price we have to pay. We first planned for six months to complete the job but now we need more time to do it so that our people will receive legitimate land titles, then we have to go on.
Let me clarify that newly claimed lands and lands that are in conflict between owners, measuring will not be possible. We send our youth to resolve land holdings that are illegally occupied and those lands in the forest concession and economic land concession areas. In the concession areas, priority must be given to people in every settlement. We also need to speed up the process of providing social land concession.
I would take this opportune moment to once again express my gratitude to parents and supervisors for allowing those youths to fulfill this mission. They are at the local areas from where they sent us words and hardships of the people. We learnt from them those information and figure out what to do. Take for instance, there are two families in Stoeng Treng province in which one family has nine children and the father died and the other her husband ran off. With this information, the provincial authority and Oknha Mong Rithy have worked together and provided them with descent homes and utensils to start their lives with. This clearly proves that our youth mission really attaches with the people and some of them will become true technicians on land survey and rural development./.
