Opening Speech
By
The Ministry of Planning and UNFPA
Hotel Intercontinental, Phnom Penh
Excellency Chhay Than;
Excellencies;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen!
I am very pleased to be honoured to participate in and to deliver the opening address at the National Stakeholder Workshop to discuss the priority issues on population and development in Cambodia. I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere thank to the Ministry of Planning and UNFPA for giving me the opportunity to preside over this important workshop and to convey my gratitude to the UNFPA for providing financial assistance to the Royal Government of Cambodia in developing a sustainable process of population and development policy formulation.
As H.E. Chhay Than has mentioned in his welcome address, this workshop provides an important forum for stakeholder discussion of an important document that examines the population situation in Cambodia with regard to development strategies.
The Royal Government of Cambodia is committed to integrating population variables into development planning. To this end, the Government is working with the UNFPA in its Population and Development Strategies Sub-Programme, in which the Council of Ministers is collaborating with the Ministry of Planning, the National Institute of Statistics and the Centre for Population Studies at the Royal University of Phnom. Through this Project, the Government aims to establish a sustainable process of population and development policy formulation.
The Government's commitment to population and development strategies is evident from several other actions. Late last year, the Royal Government has set up, at the highest level, a National Committee for Population and Development (NCPD) under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen. I have the privilege of being the Vice-Chairinan of this body and H. E. Chhay Than is among its honourable members. The Cambodian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (CAPPD), established in 1999, provides another forum for debate and advocacy on issues relating to population and development in the country.
The priority issues identified in the report prepared by Dr. Adrian Hayes, which will be discussed at length in today's workshop, were first brought to our attention at a Policymakers meeting organised last year by the Council of Ministers under UNFPA's Population and Development Strategies Sub-Programme. The priority issues identified in the re ort comprise population problems that stand in the country's progress
p towards development and poverty reduction. One major development problem facing the world today is the HIVIAIDS epidemic. Because of its far-reaching consequences HIVIAIDS cannot be described just as a health problem, but as a socioeconomic development problem. The staggering findings coming out the HIVIAIDS conference in Barcelona point to the great urgency of taking appropriate actions to contain the spread of the disease and prevent new infections. Cambodia has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Asia, which needs to be addressed as a priority issue.
I am indeed happy to see that the concept of a population and development strategy and the priority issues contained in the report prepared by Dr- Adrian Hayes are going to be discussed by a wide cross section of stakeholders today, and I thank my colleagues in the Ministry of Planning for sharing the report with other partners in the development of Cambodia and publish it as a Government document. The discussion of the report by stakeholders will enhance its credibility as a government document.
I share with Excellency Chhay Than the hope that the report, when finalised in the light of comments and suggestions received from you, will serve as one of the basic documents for Cambodia's development planning. I hope that you will share with us your knowledge and expertise through your active participation.
With these brief remarks, I declare the National Stakeholder Workshop officially open.