Your Venerable Monks,
Mr. Essa Al-Mannai, Director of ROTA and Representative of H.E. Sheika Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chair of the Board of Director of ROTA, Qatar,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, National and International Guests,
Dear Teachers, Students and Compatriots!
Today, my wife and I are very pleased to be in this auspicious event to inaugurate “Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN – ROTA High School and Technical School-Ksach Kandal”, which is located in Sonlung Village, Sonlung Commune, Ksach Kandal District, Kandal Province.
I would like to congratulate with the people living in Ksach Kandal district on the recent historic achievements such as Cambodia – China Friendship Bridge and National Road No.8, which links the eastern end of the bridge to Anlung Chrey with this magnificent school.
Taking this valuable opportunity, I would like to convey my sincere and deep gratitude, through the director of ROTA who is present here, to H.E. Sheika Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chair of the Board of Director of ROTA, Qatar for providing grants of USD 4.78 million to support the initiative of building this High School and Technical School, including the infrastructure in package, class buildings, administration building, student and lecturer dormitories, canteen and sport playground. This marvelous asset will indeed provide knowledge to and enable young people who live in this and nearby areas, especially those living in Ksach Kandal, to find jobs.
Moreover, the Royal Government believes this achievement will be a tremendous contribution to human resource development, which is a key determinant of national competitiveness and assurance for sustainable development in the long run. Therefore, I strongly hope that ROTA Organization will continue supporting and funding this High School in the future in order to be the symbol of friendship and close cooperation with fruitful result between the Kingdom of Cambodia and Qatar.
The objective of this school is to provide both the general knowledge and technical skills to those who live in Ksach Kandal and come from nearby districts such as Lvear Em, Muk Kampoul (Kandal Province), Srey Santhor (Kampong Cham Province), and Pea Riang (Prey Veng Province). In this regard, students, who have successfully finished lower secondary education, can be admitted into this school, either in general knowledge or technical skill training according to their preferences. This indeed provides more opportunity to our youths and contributes to growth in this region.
Another advantage is the existence of dormitories for female students and lecturers, who live far from school. Specifically, two dormitory buildings are for female students and one dormitory building is for teachers. This is a new concept, which has been gradually incorporated into the education development policy of Cambodia. Therefore, I would like to encourage and provide my utmost support to this school to carry on its activities and expand education programs for national interest, especially for our youths and people living around this area.
Along with this, what we achieve today also requires contribution from students. In this connection, my wife and I strongly believe that all students will study hard in order to make yourself a good child, a good student, a good friend, a good citizen and a good intellect, who are full of competency, skills, knowledge, know-how, morality, virtue, dignity, gentle, firm and suitable to be a well-deserved Khmer citizen, who can effectively and efficiently contributed to the national development to be more prosperous like other civilized countries in the world.
All students must remember that USD 7.4 million has been invested on this school, a substantial figure of investment on the future. Therefore, you must grab the opportunity and maximize your gain for your own future, your family and the nation as a whole. You must always remember you are the bamboo shoots of the nation. You are the nation’s scarce “resources”. You cannot allow yourself to become the “burden” of your family and your nation. All students must work and study hard to absorb knowledge and skill, as well as eliminating all kinds of bad deeds, which will bring about disaster. What the Royal Government must and can do is to ensure the prerequisite and equitable condition for human resource development so that each of you may become a nation’s resource with efficiency and quality. The final outcome depends on your respective efforts.
The Royal Government has given high priority to socio-economic development in all provinces, especially development of physical infrastructure such as pagodas, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, water wells, ponds and irrigation systems to provide a favorable and appropriate environment to enhance the livelihood of the people, who desire peace and prosperity and be away from poverty. The inauguration of this school reflects the practical result of participation and support from all domestic and overseas corners inside and outside the country for the right policy designed by the Royal Government in its pursuit of poverty reduction and sustainable socio-economic development. Therefore, we can evaluate with confidence that we have been moving on the right path and we will not lessen this effort.
In this sense, the Royal Government will do more to mobilize contribution from development partners, private sector and domestic and overseas donors to fill out the gap in the development of physical infrastructure to doubly accelerate socio-economic development.
As I have already mentioned, the Royal Government clearly understands that education development is the key to promoting Cambodia’s competitiveness, especially the importance of increasing rural schools in ensuring that all children complete high schools. In this connection, we will continue to implement some practical measures to ensure we have enough teachers with modest salaries and suitable means in living and teaching, which is the most effective measure to ensure education quality in Cambodia.
In this regard, I would like to reiterate the importance of the linkage between general knowledge and technical skills. This further moves theoretical education closer to actual implementation, which is a key factor in promoting productivity and job opportunity. Our immediate task is to further promote this linkage by linking general knowledge and skill training to market demand and region’s economic potentials. For example, for general education and technical high schools, we should check them if we can establish a better link between vocational technical skills in school with the practical needs and potential of the economy in the surrounding bases. If we can do that, this link will become an important impetus and movement for the promotion of activities and productivity of the economy in the surrounding regions, which will provide lots of practical benefits for the people in the area.
Before ending, on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, my wife, and myself, I would like to take this opportunity to highly value the achievements made so far by the Local Community Strengthening Body of Ksach Kandal District, led by H.E Dr. Aun Porn Moniroth, complying with the recommended directions of the Cambodian People’s Party and the Royal Government. I would like to express my admiration to the Moni thapana Foundation for the initiative to construct this “Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN – ROTA High School and Technical School-Ksach Kandal”, and to fulfill the obligation to implement the project effectively until we have received such a proud achievement.
Also, I would like to highly value the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance for providing cooperation, support and facilitation to all necessary tasks for completing this project. Along with this, I would like to thank and admire the local authorities and all compatriots at this community as well as other related donors for providing cooperation and support in all kinds to the preparation and implementation of this project until it became completely successful and can be put into operation today.
Once again, I would like to remind the management, civil servants and all branches of armed forces at all levels throughout the country, provinces/municipalities, districts/khan, communes/sangkat to further focus on your work, including placing high value on security and safety of the people, particularly in this upcoming Khmer New Year occasion, without discriminating against skin colors, religions and political ideologies, with the aim to ensure the primary objective of the “Village-Commune with Safety” of the Royal Government. In parallel, we also need to continue with greater focus on the implementation of protective and preventive measures for traffic accidents that have become a new focal point of our society.
Finally, together with the official inauguration of “Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN – ROTA High School and Technical School-Ksach Kandal” now, I would like to wish the Vulnerable Monks, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, National and International Guests, Teachers and Students the four gems of Buddhist blessing: Longevity, Nobility, Health and Strength.
