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Keynote Address at the International Conference on Extractive Industries Under
the Theme of “Cambodia’s Opportunity”
Phnom Penh, May 26, 2010
Excellencies Ambassadors and Representatives,
Mr. Douglas Broderick, United Nations Resident Coordinator and
UNDP Representative in Cambodia,
Excellencies, Oknhas, ladies and gentlemen distinguished
national and international guests!
It is my
pleasure to be here in the International Conference on Extractive
Industries under the theme of “Cambodia’s Opportunity”,
being jointly held for the first time in Cambodia by the Ministry of Industry
Mine and Energy and UNDP Cambodia.
On behalf of the
Royal Government of Cambodia and on my behalf, I highly value the initiative to
organize this event as Cambodian mine officials and other stakeholders will be
able to exchange experiences, lessons and best practices on the management and
development of mining industry to bolster mining activities in the country,
especially the oil and gas sector. The presence of Excellencies, ladies and
gentlemen national and international experts, representatives of national and
international organizations, institutes, development partners, NGOs, oil
companies and all the stakeholders attest to our common concern on the
management and development of natural resource in Cambodia as well as on the
necessary support needed to make the sector an important source of revenue for
national development and poverty reduction.
This event also
shows the Royal Government’s commitment to the development and management of its
resources, as sated in its political agenda during the 4th Legislature of the National Assembly that “the Royal Government promotes
investment in the oil and gas sector by conducting the feasibility study and
assessing its potential toward commercializing this sector by linking it with
the environmental, natural and social preservation initiatives so that revenues
will be efficiently utilized in a transparent and accountable manner to improve
socio-economy and for poverty reduction.”
The aim and
determination of the Royal Government are indeed to strive for better living
standard of its people and a bright future of the nation. Moreover, the Royal
Government is determined to stick to its reform programs to serve the country
and people. In this context, existing reform programs will be broadened,
deepened and firmly implemented to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the
pursuit of growth, poverty reduction, equitable distribution of growth,
environment sustainability, especially through sustainable management and
utilization of its resources.
To serve the
social development purpose, countries all over the world are extracting their
natural resources and process them into various goods to meet the demand of the
people and for constructing various infrastructures in the society. In that
sense, natural resources play a key role in promoting people’s living standard
and for socio-economic development. In particular, some oil-rich Arabian
countries have maximized the gain from the oil and gas sector, as a result their
countries grew very fast and the people’s standard of living was improved. Until
now, Cambodia has not yet benefiting from the sector and has been developing the
country with empty hands. If we are fortunate enough to gain from the sector, we
will use the revenue in a very responsible way to preserve the nation’s benefits
and speed up poverty reduction, especially to ensure that the country receive
blessing from such resources.
In this spirit,
the government will continue to effectively strengthen all kinds of revenue
collection measures, for that purpose the Ministry of Economy and Finance
will have to rigorously examine all kinds of agreements and concession contracts
and must continue to strictly implement existing fiscal tax law and law on
public financial system to achieve efficiency, transparency and accountability
of revenue, particularly those revenues proceeding from mining and oil business.
In parallel, Cambodia will have to make use of its other potentials such as
agriculture, tourism, garment and construction sectors without entirely
depending on the mineral resource. This is a firm stance of Cambodia in its
national socio-economic development journey.
Apparently,
Cambodia possesses natural resources, but Cambodia has been late to develop this
mining sector due to insecurity at mountainous and jungle areas where mine are
stock, lack of human resource and weak institutional capacity. Indeed, the
investment in feasibility study on mineral exploration only took place in 1998
when the country had received full peace. Therefore, the investment from the
private sector in the study is very important while Cambodia is lack of capital
and human resource to conduct the research and to develop the sector by itself.
However, we must bear in mind that development of this mining sector is by no
means the only option in the course of Cambodia’s development. That is because,
besides mine, oil and gas resources which represent the new opportunity for
Cambodia, there are many other potential sectors such as agriculture,
agro-industry, labor-intensive industry, supporting industries and export
products, energy, construction, infrastructure, service and finance and
banking, tourism and telecommunication sectors…etc… all of which have been
actively contributing to Cambodia socio-economic development.
However, if the
development of mining sector is in a positive situation in the socio-economic
development process we will not give up this option. Hence, the government will
continue tightening its measures which is consistent with existing regulation
and mechanism for the management of this sector in order to ensure sustainable
development and ensure a favorable environment for conserving cultural patrimony
and heritage, history and the growth of biodiversities.
Indeed, both the
concession awardees who invested in the feasibility and assessment study in
Cambodia’s mining sector and the Royal Government of Cambodia are eager to know
what types of mineral resources Cambodia has, in what amount, if it is
economically viable, to what extent it could cast adverse impact on the society,
the environment and deforestation, or if it is better to preserve those mine
deposit area as wealth for next several dozen generations in the future.
Undeniably, extracting the natural resources without conservative philosophy
will manipulate the history, lose cultural heritage and cause environmental
instability, which can transform a green area into a deserted, polluted and
destabilized area because the natural resources are under great destructive
pressure.
Through this,
development must take great consideration of natural resource conservation,
especially natural resource in dry land, Tonle Sap and areas surrounding Tonle
Sap…etc… Obviously, natural resource preservation is clearly inscribed in the
constitution of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia which requires the state to ensure
a rational utilization of the resources along with environmental protection, in
order to achieve the principle of sustainable development whereas laws and legal
standards have been prepared in conformity to the essence of the constitution
including law on investment of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, law on management
and mining business, law on environment and natural resource management, law on
taxation, land law, sub-decree on environmental pollution inspection, sub-decree
on social and environmental impact assessment. And at the moment, we are
preparing a tax regime and excise on mining business in addition to law on
taxation and law on management and mining business.
According to
agenda of the conference, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy will present
the conference with the context and current situation of mining sector in
Cambodia in order to provide a clear understanding of law, legal standard and
the current situation of the management and development in Cambodia’s mining
sector. In overall, I would like to highly value the topics which are carefully
selected by the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy and the United Nations
Development Program, to be presented by national and international experts in
this conference.
Through this, I
certainly hope and believe that this conference will provide all participants
the chance to share experience and knowledge relating to the management,
technique, law and legal standards that other countries are implementing for the
sector, global mining market trend, tax regime that is applied in this mining
sector, the participation of community and minority in the sector, the
employment generation at locality, the conservation and development, the
eradication of anarchic mining business and environmental protection. In order
to achieve above mentioned goals, I would like to take this opportunity to
provide some recommendations as follows:
1. The MIME must
continue its cooperation with related ministries/institutions to implement
monitoring mechanism and strictly monitor the research and mining business
activities. We must take urgent measures to withhold and stop the abnormal
exploration and mining business activities that could harm the environment and
national socio-economy. Along with that, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and
Energy and the Council for the Development of Cambodia must continue to pay high
attention to the analysis and evaluation of the impact assessment in order to
ensure sustainable development and to be able to prevent every risks that may
occur incidentally in doing this mining business.
2. The Ministry
of Education, Youth and Sport must cooperate with the Ministry of Industry,
Mines and Energy in searching for the possibility of producing more experts on
physiology and geology through short course training and providing scholarship
to study abroad, and reopen the University of Geology-Mine.
3. The Ministry
of Industry, Mines and Energy must continue its cooperation with related
ministries/institutions, local authorities, all kinds of armed forces in order
to ensure that every activities of mining business would not destroy, disturb,
and violate sacred places or other noble places, cultural and historical sites
that have been there for a very long time ago. Those resources are truly
valuable for development, yet it is not the only choice that we have, such
violation will make us the prisoner of history, betraying the people’s will, who
have voted for us to support and protect their interest. Therefore, these
reasons are enough for us to take a long-term view.
4. The Ministry
of Industry, Mines and Energy, related ministries, local authorities, and armed
forces must use all means to eliminate every activity of anarchic mining
business within their competent locality as well as condemning all related
culprits according to the existing laws, rules and regulations.
In this spirit,
although we have tremendous opportunities in front of us, I would like to
request all colleagues to put these recommendations into highly effective
implementation with fruitful result for the sake of socio-economic development.
In this regard, I strongly believe that Cambodia will move ahead with optimism,
progress and prosperity base on a more extensive and favorable foundation
together with peace, political stability, national harmonization and sustainable
development.
Once again, on
behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I would like to take this
opportunity to deeply thank the United Nations Development Program in Cambodia
who have cooperated with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy in
initiating the conference today for Cambodian officials in charge of mines
sector and related stakeholders to be well aware about the context of management
and development of mine sector and the process of the mining business operation
starting from the feasibility studies to the final stage, which can extract the
benefit from the underground mineral resources to build and develop the nation.
At the same time, I would also like to thank the Australian Aids for
International Development Agency and the Cambodian Association of Mine Research
and Business Companies that have jointly sponsored this conference.
At the end,
together with the opening of the International Conference on Extractive
Industries under the theme of “Cambodia’s Opportunity” now, I would
like to wish Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, national and international
guests who have participated in this conference the four gems of Buddhist
blessing: Longevity, Nobility, Health and Strength, and may I wish
this conference a success with fruitful results.
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