{"id":46839,"date":"2019-01-09T10:07:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T03:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/?p=46839"},"modified":"2019-01-31T10:09:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T03:09:22","slug":"selected-comments-samdech-techo-hun-sen-talk-to-workers-and-factories-employees-in-the-district-of-tramkak-takeo-province-unofficial-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/en\/archives\/46839","title":{"rendered":"Selected Comments Samdech Techo Hun Sen, Talk to Workers and Factories Employees in the District of Tramkak, Takeo Province [Unofficial Translation]"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNV:\u00a0

Fifteen Months of Meetings with Workers<\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, I wish everyone present in this meeting, especially workers the four Buddhist blessings on the occasion of the International New Year \u2013 ending the year 2018 and starting the year 2019, which is nine days today [\u2026] as I have said it, I will conduct my meeting with workers and factories employees in the whole country [\u2026] we first started the meeting in 2017, and continued in the year of 2018, and this year 2019 \u2013 we have carried it through three years within a span of 15 months [\u2026] I have asserted already I would continue to be Prime Minister at least for the next ten years and I would use my time to meet with workers in the whole country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Smart Phones Parts Fabricated in Takeo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe I should say that we have come to a place where there are flowers unseen by many. The reason why I say this is because not many people, even in Takeo, could have known that there are factories in this area [\u2026] I said it is like a flower unseen by many because not many people could have known that we have smartphone\u2019s parts fabricated here in Takeo. It is a factory that produces a world-class products \u2013for world market [\u2026]<\/p>\n

7 January Belongs to Everyone<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are achievements that we scored in the past 40 years \u2013 for which we celebrated on the day before yesterday the commemoration of 7 January victory. Some said \u201chow long do people have to repay their tribute to 7 January?\u201d It was said by a President of a political party and I do not have to name him [\u2026] I wish to clarify that 7 January does not belong to the Cambodian People\u2019s Party alone. 7 January belongs to every Cambodian who had wished to keep their lives. No one has to pay tribute to who because 7 January is not a personal belonging. 7 January belongs to your grandparents, parents, and have now become yours [\u2026] 7 January is a common property of every human beings who wish to stay alive. Voting to keep the spirit of 7 January is in fact voting for oneself [\u2026]<\/p>\n

40 Years of National Construction Efforts<\/strong><\/p>\n

After making efforts in the last 40 years, we have achieved something that we all must (strive to) keep them. The tragedy that had happened to our people in the past and what is happening now is beyond imagination. When I first set foot in Phnom Penh, I was stunt by this feeling of how to go about building this country. Phnom Penh city was without its dwellers [\u2026] it was not a joke that we have made our journey this far. Some countries, though they were in peace and suffered from no genocide, their development levels are still either lower than or one of the lower-middle income countries as Cambodia [\u2026] the past forty years had been full of difficulties. We have just celebrated the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of the day when we launched win-win policy (end war). We just had twenty years for national reconstruction while certain extremists continued to destroy the country from telling foreigners to no provide assistance, to make no investments, and\/or to buy no goods from Cambodia [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Cambodia\u2019s Progress beyond Anyone\u2019s Imagination<\/strong><\/p>\n

Takeo has become one of the provinces making progresses since 1980s through to 1990s, and to the millennium of 2000. Takeo has transformed itself from one with food shortage to one that was self-sufficient and even sharing food to other provinces in 1980s. However, making progress in agriculture is not enough. It was a misconception that Pol Pot said \u201cwhere there is rice, there will be everything\u201d [\u2026] from a country based entirely on agriculture, Cambodia has now become a country with active contributions from industrial and service sectors. Having said so does not mean we ignore and make no further investments to promote agriculture. Cambodia cannot overlook importance of agriculture. Agriculture would provide us food but not make us rich. If we want to be rich and your country advanced, we must combine it with development in industry and service sectors [\u2026]<\/p>\n

How many people would have thought that Cambodia could have made it here? In 1979, I could have no way of quantifying this development as I did not even know how to rebuild our country while in the city there were no dwellers, electricity, running water, functioning financial system, etc. and in addition to these, war continued [\u2026] we have made efforts altogether to make one step after the other until we reach this height. Transformation has now come not only to Phnom Penh but everywhere contributing to efforts to narrow the gap between urban and rural development [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Takeo Makes 200M USD in Agriculture, Tram Kak Makes 163M USD from Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many could have imagined that Tram Kak district (of Takeo) gather this many factories and this many workers? We can make an estimation that rice and other agricultural produces of the whole Takeo could have reached a sum of about 200 million USD. However, only from the district of Tram Kak, industrial sector already generated income of 163 million USD. The provincial authority may have to conduct this study on incomes generated by agriculture in combination with industry, and its personal incomes [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Twenty Years of Localizing Factories to Provinces<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the decade 1980s and 1990s, the government, and later the Royal Government of Cambodia made efforts to localize schools building closer to people in rural areas. We have been busy lately in localizing factories closer to our people to respond to their jobs demand. This year is the twentyish anniversary of my orientation on putting in place infrastructures to attract investments to provinces. Thanks to that vision and policy implementation, we have factories in many provinces \u2013 Kampot, Kompong Speu, Kandal, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Cham, Pursat, Kampong Som, Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Banteay Meanjei, Koh Kong, and Takeo also included [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Salary Increase, Commodity Prices Stay<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need continued efforts for Cambodia to keep making progresses. For this stage, we must strive to keep macro-economic stability to ensure that commodity prices stay in check while salary is increasing. That would be the real term of increase (with purchasing power) [\u2026] it was in this thought that while increasing salary for civil servants, armed forces, and workers, we also have to ensure that commodity prices stay in check to guarantee real purchasing power of increased salary [\u2026] I have made it my promise to continue meeting with workers and factories employees should I get re-elected as Prime Minister. Everything has been clear now. The Royal Government has been established and functioning in its new legislative term starting from 6 September (2018) \u2013 which is four months and three days today, has fulfilled many works \u2013 domestic and foreign [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Incitement for Total Benefits Now Would Lose Factories<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was beyond my imagination that three factories in Phnom Penh, two in Takeo and one in Kompong Speu demanded to claim their total benefits in January [\u2026] let us think about this. Three or four years ago, no benefits was allowed until workers had to stop from works. Now, there have been some incitements from certain circles to demand for release of total benefits in January 2019. If we were to do that, many factories in the country would close down \u2026 those who demanded that would have got the money in one time altogether but factories would not be here anymore as they would face their bankruptcy. The first to lose jobs and other benefits would be workers themselves [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The Royal Government has sought for win-win solution and leave no stakeholders in lose situation. It has released a sum of over 22 million USD in payment of benefits to workers whom manufacturing owners abandoned. I am asking you to think about it again as what you are demanding is impossible. Should we put pressure on manufacturing owners\/investors, they would resort to closing down factories and you would face with unemployment. The benefit is not going anywhere but you can now claim it one every six months. It is your saving. Should the manufacturing owners abandon your benefits, the Royal Government will take up the burden. You are not going to lose it [\u2026]<\/p>\n

I am calling on trade unions that lead workers\u2019 demonstrations and strike to stop what they do because it has become an extreme demand. We are caring for any losses of our people, especially among workers. I have news that a factory in Phnom Penh has been keeping their wage payment regular for our workers. Unfortunately, such demand has been brought to the management [\u2026] I think such demonstration\/strike should come to a stop and claim your benefit every six months [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Population Census in March<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 I have not got a final figure of tourist arrivals yet and I continue to talk \u201cnearly six million\u201d figure [\u2026] I am waiting for final figure of 2018 tourist arrival [\u2026] if Cambodia is insecure, tourists would not come to visit us [\u2026] I do not talk politics as it is not my concern who would do or not do what [\u2026] we have started with roughly about five million population and we have now set the date for population census on 3 March [\u2026] we will count up number of people [\u2026] we have estimated that our population is around 16 million or an increase of ten millions [\u2026] we will have a more exact figure after the next population census [\u2026] according to the statistics recorded by the Ministry of Health, we have roughly 40,000 newborns per year. Based on this figure, in three years, we could have a rough estimate of 1.2 million more people [\u2026].\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First of all, I wish everyone present in this meeting, especially workers the four Buddhist blessings on the occasion of the International New Year \u2013 ending the year 2018 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":46344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slide-show-english","8":"category-speech"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46840,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46839\/revisions\/46840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressocm.gov.kh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}