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Address at the Official Inauguration Ceremony of
Prek Kdam Bridge Crossing Tonle Sap and Ground Breaking Ceremony for
Construction of National Road No.61 Funded by Saved Budget or Credit Balance of
Loan from China and Counterpart Fund of the Royal Government of Cambodia
May
31st, 2010
Your Venerable Monks,
H.E
PAN GUANG XUE, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Kingdom of
Cambodia
Excellencies
Ambassadors, National and International Distinguished Guests,
Beloved
Compatriots, Teachers and Students!
Today, I have great honor and pleasure to take part in the
official inauguration ceremony of the “Prek Kdam Cambodia-China Friendship
Bridge and the Opening of Construction of National Road No.61”. For this
auspicious occasion, I would like to share great pleasure with Grandpa, Grandma
and people living in this area, who have received this great achievement to
serve your interest and directly support your livelihood.
Moreover, I would like to warmly welcome H.E. Pan Guang Xue,
Ambassador of the People’ s Republic of China for his first time of his
diplomacy mandate to participate in the inauguration ceremony of Prek Kdam
Bridge and opening site for construction of National Road No.61. This road is
built from west head of Preak Kdam to National Road 6A at sixteen kilometers
junction. It is 10 meters width and costs 9.76 million US dollars. This project
is funded by loan for China and 5% counterpart fund of the Royal Government.
This active gesture is contributed to meeting day-to-day growing demand and
request of the people. It is clearly seen that the Royal Government has
mobilized fund from all stakeholders in order to contribute to building various
achievements for the sake of socio-economic development according to the spirit
of “Rectangular Strategy” for growth, employment, equity and efficiency.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank Her Excellency
Zhang Jinfeng former Chinese Ambassador and her colleagues for their support in
the restoration and development of infrastructure such as Prek Kdam Bridge for
our use. This bridge was actually crossed by the people before and during the
Khmer New Year. H.E. Yim ChhayLy, Deputy Prime Minister and H.E. Tram
Iv Tek, Minister of Public Works and Transport hold Buddhism opening
ceremony on 10-12 April 2010 for people with happiness and safety during the
Khmer New Year.
For this occasion, I would like to convey, through H.E. Pan
Guang Xue, gratitude of the people and Government of Cambodia to Chinese
people and Government of People’ s Republic of China that always lend us money
without setting complicated conditions for road, bridge and infrastructure
construction, in which the roads constructed by the loan from the PRC is around
1509.67 Km length, including National Road No.7, No.8, No.57, No.62, No.76,
No.78 and three long bridges including Sekong, Prek Tamak and Prek Kdam. It all
costs 900 millions US dollar. It is so pround that loan from China is available
when we need. In the name of long-term and close friendship and key financier,
it helps the Royal Government in all sectors such as road and bridge
construction in order to integrate domestic economy and promote economic
development and tourism for poverty reduction. This effort has contributed a lot
to economic growth, job creation and elevating living standard of people that
lead to a rapid poverty reduction. This great sympathy is valueless,
unforgettable and recorded in history and deeply carved in heart of the people
and Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
These growing achievements witnessed the
efforts made by the Royal Government in building physical infrastructures,
regarded by Cambodia as “Locomotive of Economic Growth“ and it is a vein
connecting the Kingdom of Cambodia to become an element of economic activities
for national, regional and international integration. With these purposes, the
Royal Government of Cambodia has continued to build and develop transportation
infrastructure such as road, railway, waterway, ships, international seaport and
airway, including open sky policy for national, regional and international
integration to facilitate and promote all sectors for national development,
especially trade, investment, agriculture, tourism and transportation of goods
across the borders.
Of course, in the past decades, to cross
the national road No.5 at where we have built this bridge to other side of the
river, our people had to travel by small engine boats and ferries. They had to
wait and pay for crossing fees. On the other hand, if we had to transport goods
from Thailand or other places from north-western region of Cambodia to Siem
Reap, Kampong Cham or other north-eastern provinces of Cambodia, we did not have
ferries or bridges, we had to go to Phnom Penh first and then crossed the river
at Chruoy Changvar bridge to national road No.6 or No.7 or No.76, which was
normally time-consuming and caused heavy traffic jams in Phnom Penh, rapid
destruction of Chruoy Changvar bridge and national road No.6 due to heavy
weights. Moreover, if we do not have road infrastructure in this Prek Kdam area,
the Mekong area which is a fertilized area with vast population, only 30 Kms
away from Phnom Penh- becomes isolated like other remote areas and faces many
difficulties. So, the Royal Government has to build this Prek Kdam and
reconstruction of national road No.61, connecting the west of the bridge to
national road No.7 and No.6 at the intersection of national road No.6A, in which
we are now inaugurating for road reconstruction. In fact, national road No.61
and Prek Kdam bridge will act as an effective mean in connecting transportation,
interconnecting with national road No.8 by crossing Tameak bridge which will be
completed in the near future and also connecting to Bavet International Border
checkpoint via national road No.1, which is the potential economic corridor
because this Prek Kdam bridge is the intersection of national road No.5 from
Cambodian-Thailand border, national road No.6 from Angkor region which is the
tourism site and from the national road No.7, connecting from Cambodian-Laos
border and north-eastern region of Cambodia. At the same time, bridge and
national road will contribute to raising people’s standard of living and
facilitate the transportation of goods, services and business operations of our
people. They can go faster with high economic effectiveness and bring other
benefits to the entire nation. Specifically, bridge and national road will
become the historic infrastructure for our people because bridge and road is a
strategic point for integration that connects western and eastern regions. This
connectivity is my strong wishes in which I usually mentioned “develop in the west, but never forget the east”. With the achievement of this bridge and road will lead to the balance of
development between these two regions. This point is the core benefit from this
bridge and road. At the same time, this bridge and road will play a key role in
investment within this region as well as playing role as catalyst for sharing
the progression and economic growth with equity within the society.
In summary, this work cannot happen by chance; it happens by
commitment, preparation and firm decision from the Royal Government for the
national integration, economic effectiveness, and equity of sharing growth and
to reduce the traffic jams. In fact, in this region, land are fertilized, which
could be used to plant and cultivate with high yield, as well as strengthening
and increasing investment, trade greatly, which will lead to build strong
foundation for the national economy and micro economy growth days after days,
especially connecting national road No.5 and No.6 and facilitate the smoothness
of traffic. At the present, with these achievements coming from our commitments,
we can see the real benefits and it will grow double in the near future.
In this spirit, on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I
will continue to uphold my firm stand, commitment and strong support to all
reconstruction and development of all sectors, especially I still consider the
reconstruction, development, maintenance and repairing of transportation
infrastructure as a prioritized policy which could help the Government to
achieve its desirable goals to rapidly reduce poverty for our people. At the
same time, I would like to recommend to all ministries, institutions, and all
level of local authorities, especially the management and officials of the
Ministry of Public Works and Transport, to continue to strongly cooperate,
maintain and repair all transportation networks to all regions across the
country as well as neighboring countries with high quality. Together, the
participation and understanding of our people is a key factor for construction
and maintenance of all roads and bridges.
In this regard, I would like to appeal to all people who have
been living in the area of national road No.61 and all levels of local
authorities to provide good cooperation in order to facilitate smooth, timely
and highly safe construction work as expected.
At the same time, on behalf of the Royal Government and People of
Cambodia, I would like to thank the Governments and peoples of friend countries,
development partners and all financing agencies who have always pad attention to
donate and spiritually and materially support in all kinds to restore and
develop Cambodia in all sectors. Once again, I would like to convey my deepest
thank to the people and Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who
has unconditionally provided loan on time at the request of Cambodia who is now
facing difficulties and it is necessary for us to promote economic growth and
social development. Along with that, I would like to appreciate and encourage
the close cooperation between the management and officials of the Ministry of
Public Works and Transport and SHANGHAI Construction (GROUP) General Company of
the PRC who have tried to save at the maximum in order to keep a partial budget
for building national road No.61 and I would like to appreciate and encourage
the close cooperation between the management and civil servants, workers,
employees of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the local
authorities as well as with related institutions who have made their utmost
physical and mental effort to cooperate and implement to achieve the success of
strategic plan set out by the Royal Government so far, especially on the
construction of roads, bridges, railways, skyways, waterway and ports all over
the country. I would like to highly appreciate and encourage the SHANGHAI
Construction (GROUP) General Company and Guangzhou Wanan Construction
Supervision as a technical advisor, who have made greatest efforts in building
Prekdam before the set plan and according to my suggestion during the linkage of
bridge tie on 14 September 2009 and I strongly hope that both companies will
continue their work with further success in building the national road No.61 to
conform to the international standard and will be completely done as expected or
before.
In this connection, I would like to remind all people to take
care of their traveling and advise their siblings, nieces and nephews not to be
extremely happy while traveling over the bridge that has already been
constructed and don’t drive over speed in order to prevent from any unexpected
accidents causing human lives and property damage. Along with that, competent
authorities must strictly implement like drizzling rain in combating against the
transportation of over 25 tons. In this case, the Royal Government will
continue to strengthen and adopt the law on road as well as other laws and legal
documents for effectively managing the transport infrastructure. The Royal
Government will also pay further attention to the traffic safety and will put
out firm measures for any crimes transporting over the limited weight.
I will not forget about the gratitude made by officials, staff
and workers of the Prekdam Ferry who have so far transported the people and have
fulfilled the strategic and economic requirement of the Royal Government,
especially when Chruoy Changvar bridge and national road No.6A was cut off
during the war and have released the burden on Chruoy Changvar bridge as well as
the congestion in Phnom Penh. In this sense, I would like to take this
opportunity to encourage the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to timely
build new ferry port at Chruoy Changvar -Svay Chrum in order to take staffs,
workers and means of the Prekdam Ferry Port to be processed there after the
contract of private ferry port comes to an end at the end of this year 2010.
At this end, along with the crowded gathering with joy during the
official inauguration of “Achievement of Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge in
Prekdam and the Opening of Construction of National Road No.61” today, I
would like to wish the venerable monks, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
National and International Guests, Compatriots, Teachers and Students the four
gems of Buddhist blessing: Longevity, Nobility,
Health and Strength.
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