Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

Distinguished guests,

Today I have a great honor to participate in the Opening Ceremony of the National Workshop on Second Five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDPII) organized by the Ministry of Planning under sponsorship by Asian Development Bank (ADB). I would like to highly appreciate best efforts made by the Ministry of Planning, SEDPII Working Group and assistance given by ADB for the sake of drafting this document. I believe that SEDPI! has a better and clearer vision than the First Five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan because over time we made a participatory arrangement, through which we gleaned point of view, idea and recommendation from Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, together with NG0s, private sector, International Organizations and all stakeholders to consolidate into light of this SEDPII; and today's workshop will fill in some rooms left over and make a charge in some contents for a more effective document.

Socio-Economic Development Plan is very vital to govern all countries; and it will be more crucial for a country facing many challenges, such as Cambodia.

On the basis of very challenging achievement of peace, security and national unity and commonly broad national agreement at all national forums and conferences, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) considers that prompt poverty alleviation policy and economic development are an important agenda in its political plate form,.

Poverty alleviation program is, of course, required time to design strategic policy, work plan, concise and logical activities and it will require high political commitments at all levels for the implementation as well as for the mobilization various social forces in order to attain the given goal. Not any poverty alleviation could succeed without reliance on socioeconomic, culture, an improved political stability. In this regard, SEDPII must serve as an important guide to reduce poverty and improve living standard of millions of people, particularly those who live in rural area and one often presented with natural disaster and some deliberate wrong doings.

To promote sustainable economic growth and serve as basic in poverty reduction, SEDPH should focus on the following priorities:

• Long-term sustainable economic development at a level of 6-7% per year,
• Equitable distribution income between the have and the have not, and between city and rural area, and
• Effective and sustainable exploitation and management of natural and environment resources.

Our vision is to case poverty on the basis of long-term sustainable economic growth in order to create a healthy, equitable and just society. This is a sacred objective we need to strive with resolute will.

To achieve this goal, the RGC launched a pro-poor policy by giving the poor with opportunity to participate in economic activities and to share the income from economic growth and to help them become potential laborers, producers and users in society. Major component of policy is as the followings:

First: strengthen peace, stability, social order, human rights protection and democracy in order to develop a preferable political and security environment for long -term social development.

Second: promote and encourage investment through foreign assistance mobilization and foreign direct investment. Main focus is given to the development of a general framework with transparency, accountability and predictability with the view to create a preferable environment for investment attraction.

Third: mobilize local resources through the introduction and strict application of budget and fiscal reform program aligned to generate national revenue and rationalize public expenditure. As a long-term strategy Cambodia is still dependant on foreign assistance; but need to generate local savings together with public and private savings. Private sector is a major driving force for economic development in free market context.

Fourth: mobilize investment resources on priority areas and raise agricultural productivity to ensure the economic growth foundation. Due to the fact that majority of the poor live in rural area, the focus of poverty alleviation strategy must be given to combined development program, especially the promotion of agricultural productivity, physical infrastructure development of land ownership as well as environment preservation. Various physical infrastructure systems in connection with communication network, irrigation system, clean water supply system, electricity and telecommunication network must play a fundamental role in this endeavor. The investment intelligence, knowledge, know-how in rural area is an inevitable performance and more important than investment on physical infrastructure.

The five-year Plan should focus on the Rural Development Policy, which creates economic opportunities helping farmers, landless and homeless to improve their living conditions. This policy should not take the particular needs, conditions and constrains of the rural population into account but it should find out an approach that emphasized the integration of social, economic and political aspects in development. The rural development policy and program should persuade and encourage to actively participate in all societal aspects. Rural Development Program must consider the needs for balancing development between industry, agriculture and related sectors and has to encompass a wide range of activities counting from community development, provision of basic infrastructure and service, generation of employment, access to credit, the expansion of markets for agricultural products etc...in order to place the development in widen context.

Development is not only means to reduce poverty and access to infrastructure and service but also is giving people, in particular the poor, the power to decide how they want to manage the lives. Empowerment is a form of power sharing and building the capacity of the poor take charge in their own lives. The empowerment needs to reform public administration through decentralization in order to meet the needs and demands of the people because local authority is able to response quickly and appropriately to the initiatives of local community.

Fifth: Investment on human resource, especially on education, vocational training, job creation and health, is a key for economic development and poverty reduction. Social and Human resource development is more important in the context of Globalization and economic integration in the region and the world. The Royal Government is doubling its efforts to increase the investment through the mobilization of national budget and international assistance to these sectors.

Sixth: promote tourism development in which Cambodia has comparative advantage on cultural tourism both in the region and world. Furthermore this sector will create more direct and indirect jobs, generate income and reduce development gap between the rural and urban areas contributed to the poverty reduction.

Seventh: for many decades, development policy ignored to the role of women in socioeconomic development but at the presence, many government in particular the Royal Government of Cambodia have recognized that women not only play a key role in agriculture, rural community, households and economic management in their families but also actively participate in the entire development of the country such as political and socioeconomic aspects. In this sense, our policy is aimed at promoting gender equality and providing them more opportunity to access to education and basic health; and enhancing their rights in political and social activities.

Eighth: Cambodia's participation in the process of Globalization and regional economic cooperation will promote its attraction for investment and enhance productivity growth through international competition and specialization. If we properly manage and implement this process, it will be a key factor and positive results towards economic development and poverty reductions.

Ninth: Institution building and good governance are the key foundation in the concept of sustainable development and social justice and link to the strengthening rules of law, public administration reform, transparency, accountability, combat against corruption that impact on poverty reduction efforts and the income distribution. Good governance is a main core in implementing the five-year Plan and related to all sectors; the success in implementing this plan entirely depends on good governance.

Tenth: the improvement of coordination mechanism and the strengthening partnership to ensure cooperation and coherence between ministries, relevant institutions, NG0s and all concerned stakeholders are necessary in the process of preparation and implementations. The Royal Government highly values the principle of partnership with international community and NG0s that have provided valuable technical and financial assistance. Without these kinds of assistance, Cambodia could not reach the current level of development, accomplish many achievements and overcome the difficulties which we will be facing in the future.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

The evaluation made to the result of the implementation of First Five Year Socio- Economic Development Plan (1996-2000) shows that the one of great weaknesses which produce many negative impacts on the implementation of this plan is the weak monitoring and reporting mechanism. This system requires a precisely identified goal on the basis of good quality and credible data. Monitoring and reporting must incorporated in the implementation document and be required an annual evaluation. Doing so is meant to follow the progress of what we have achieved with regard to both substantial and determinant factors as well adjustment needs in other fields on time. It is particularly intended to follow what is evolving and the evolving tendency of private sector, which is a driving force to about economic development. This development lays the foundation for poverty alleviation.

What I have mentioned are the common vision and policy of the Royal Government. I totally support the review and correction of the five-year Plan and I would like to request the Working Group, the permanent Working Group in the Ministry of Planning and international experts provided by ADB to continue the tradition o goo

cooperation in order to have a final draft of SEDPII which is acceptable for all stakeholders. In the current situation, all sectors are priorities for Cambodia but due to the lack of sources, we should choose some top priorities of priorities to put in the agenda of implementation.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to appeal to all ministries and institutions, NG0s and development partner to continue your cooperation and support to the Ministry of Planning to finalize the draft of SEDPII.

I would like also to express my thank to ADB for technical and financial assistance in preparing SEDPII and international organizations, NG0s and Embassies of friendly country which actively cooperate with the Ministry of Planing and ADB.

Finally, I have the honor to declare the seminar officially opened and I wish you to have a fruitful discussion.

Best whishes.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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