In addition to the prepared text given at the celebration of the 11th anniversary of the Cambodian Veterans 21 – June, Samdech Techo made the following ad-lib comments:
Housing for Veterans
From now on, housing for veterans becomes our prioritized actions of our association. I have agreed to turn budgets that provinces have contributed to building housing for our veterans. Oknha Veng Huor came to see me and he told me his company would build for a trial phase some 100 houses. Many companies and generous people with financial resources can contribute directly to building houses for veterans […] there have been contributions made for the construction of the 128 military barrack. On behalf of the Association of Cambodian Veterans (ACV) and the Royal Government, I decided to withdraw a sum of one million USD for housing construction. ACV has now a sum of 6 billion Riel to commence action on this front […] I hope that municipals and provinces will be able to do that on their own. HE Ke Kim Yan, Deputy Prime Minister, has also mobilized resources for this purpose in his area […]
Policy of Cash Provision for Women in Pregnancy
Let me take this opportune moment to declare new policies relating to cash provision/assistance that I have mentioned many times and again for women in pregnancy. We have resolved this issue for women in the armed forces, civil servants, for whom the Royal Government pays them 800,000 Riel for every pregnancy and delivery. For female workers, we have also resolved to provide them with cash assistance of 400,000 Riel for every child delivery. We still have to formulate a policy for other women in pregnancy, and for that matter, we are asking people for their understanding […]
Three Options for Cash Assistance Policy for Pregnancy/Delivery
The Economic Policy Committee of the Ministry of Economy and Finance has proposed to me three different options. It was my idea originally to launch a policy that covers on every women in the country. However, there have been some reconsiderations that should that original idea were to operate, daughters and/or granddaughters of Prime Minister or rich families would also benefit from it. After rethinking it through, I have decided to accept the proposed option iii. The idea is to target this policy to provide help for women in certified poor families or those with equity tickets […]
Option 1: A One-Time Cash Assistance for All
It will be a one-off payment for every woman of roughly 300,000 of them besides those civil servants, armed forces, and workers. If we made payment of 200,000 Riel per woman in delivery, we would need a sum of 15 million USD per annum, and this figure would increase. For this option, we also do not keep track of those women in their post-delivery situation […]
Option 2: Primary Assistance/Care for Women in Poor Families
The social protection policy for 2016/25 has projected a framework that provides assistance and nutrition, in steps, for the first 1,000 days for infants. This option would provide primary cares for women with pregnancy from poor families, with an estimate of about 55,000 of them. We could consider provision of cash assistance in two stages – firstly, 40,000 Riel at a time for four different times during their pregnancy periods. Secondly, we provide them 40,000 Riel each time for ten more times after delivery until the child is two years of age. For this option, we need a sum of 2.2 million USD in the first year, will increase to 4.9 million USD in the second year, and 7.7 million USD in the third year. For this option, we do not provide them any cash assistance on the delivery time […]
Option 3: Three-Stage Cash Assistance for Women in Certified Poor Families
As for option 3, we have combined the two options – 1 and 2. Option 3 assistance would consist of three stages. Firstly, when woman starts to have pregnancy. She will receive 40,000 Riel each time for four different times. This should help her with nutritional requirements for fetus and during her pregnancy. This means that for the nine months and ten days period of pregnancy she will receive this assistance from the state. Secondly, at the delivery time, she will receive a sum of 200,000 Riel. Thirdly, for post-delivery, she will receive each time 40,000 Riel for ten different times until the child is two years of age.
To Implement in Mid-2019
Overall, a woman in certified poor family would receive 160,000 Riel in her pregnancy period at four different times, 200,000 Riel during delivery, and 400,000 Riel in her post delivery time until the child is two years of age. In all, a woman in pregnancy would receive a total sum of 760,000 Riel from the time of pregnancy to delivery and two years in post -delivery period […]
Since this is a new policy, and we need to have a mechanism that will last for a long time, we will make sure that it is up and running in mid-2019, or another one year from today. Mechanism for women in delivery (female workers, civil servants, and armed forces) is easy to monitor but for this whole process from pregnancy to delivery, and until the child gets to two years of age, we need a more complicated mechanism. This requires discussion among related institutions […]
I am sure the announcement today of this policy signifies a new achievement of the social policy of the Royal Government under the leadership of the Cambodian People’s Party, which pays attention to mother and child care and nutrition, reduction of mortality rate for mother and child […]. I do not know if there will be anyone out there challenge this policy to provide more […] I would not know their capacity and ability but this is our policy and it is not our concerns about what they would do […]./.
