Address at the Conferment of Degrees to the Senior and Middle-level Training Officials of the Royal School of Administration 2008 and the Official Ope

Royal School of Administration, 17 June 2009

Your Venerable Monks,

H.E Jean-Francois Desmazierés,

Ambassador of the Republic of France to the Kingdom of Cambodia,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests,

Dear all the Faculty Members and Graduates!

Today I am most honored and pleased to participate in the ceremony of presenting diplomas to 214 senior and middle officials trainees in 2008 and the official opening of the continuing education for 2009 at the Royal School of Administration. The solemn ceremony this morning recalls a great deal of memories we have jointly built, especially the capacity building for our civil servants, which is always in my mindset.

Along with that, I would like to highly evaluate and honestly appreciate the masterworks and various achievements, which have been made by the Royal School of Administration in a cause to participate in the social development as well as responding to the human resource development in Cambodia as stated in the Rectangular Strategy-Phase II of the Royal Government for Growth, Employment, Equity and Efficiency. The fruits obtained from here have become seeds, spreading all over the society.

On behalf of the Royal Government, my wife and I would like to express congratulations and appreciations for the efforts made by all students and trainees of the Royal School of Administration as well as highly evaluating the training provided by faculty members and professors of the Royal School of Administration, who have fruitfully and noticeably achieved the results. The joint efforts with patient spirit and high attention have actively participated and properly and timely responded to the policies of the Royal Government in integrating Cambodia into the regional and global grouping, which require the people to be more competent, highly knowledgeable for receiving the supreme competition in the labor market and improving the economic efficiency for national sustainable development. The fruitful results we have achieved today is also another witness reflecting the efforts made by the Royal Government in building human resources, which is one of the prioritized areas in implementing the Rectangular Strategy-Phase II of the Royal Government.

At the same time, today achievement will also contribute to the socio-economic development, poverty reduction and improvement of people’s livelihoods, which is the main aim of the Royal Government through strengthening the efficiency of public administration to be creative, responsible as well as behaving gentle personality.

On behalf of the Royal Government, I would like to particularly thank the Government and people of France through H.E Jean-Francois Desmazierés, the Ambassador of France to the Kingdom of Cambodia, who have pricelessly contributed to fund a project on solidarity, priority to sustain the modernization of the public function, especially the modernization of the Royal School of Administration since the first start and I hope that this good cooperation will still be pursued. Moreover, I would like to thank and welcome the cooperation of the GTZ and UNDP and other training institutions in the region and world, which have cooperated with the Royal School of Administration in swapping experiences and training programs with an objective to further strengthen the quality of civil servants training and research on public administration.

All graduates who about to receive the diplomas shortly, will get engaged in the public services soon; and you must maintain your personal efforts by trying the utmost to show off your talents and patience especially define and abide by personal disciplines in order to achieve success in all duties provided.

Moreover, I hope all of you will use your knowledge in a sensible manner to bring about benefits to our country. Also, you must keep in mind that the reception of certificates does not imply that you have finished your study, but you must continue to conduct research and improve your knowledge on regular basis to enhance both your competency and knowledge.

As you have been aware, the world is entering the era of knowledge and IT where human resource with competency, talent, innovation and vibrancy is deemed essential for achieving growth and poverty reduction. Prioritizing human resource development is an effective way to improve human characters, promote sustainable development, and ensure equitable distribution of growth.

In this spirit, the Royal Government is fully aware of the role of IT and communication in enhancing efficiency of the public services and national development as stipulated in the Royal Government’s policy for IT and communication development. IT and communication development indeed will enable Cambodia to realize its vision of “E-Administration” and “E-Government”, especially the vision of “Opened-Administration” which supply information on the basis of people’s demand. I think, based on IT, we can enhance the efficiency of public services with good governance and accountability and improve people’s awareness on the structure and management in public institutions. This will indeed enhance the approach how people can participate in decision-making. This vision will move public services closer to the people and serve them better.

Along with this, efficient administration is essential for bettering the quality of public services and poverty reduction, and can act as a mechanism for institutional capacity building which will change the public servants’ behaviour and attitude. People’s welfares and national development depend on many factors, and efficient public administration is one of them. I think public servants who are motivated to fulfil their duties with determination and honesty, and transform themselves from managers to respected servants to address people’s needs with efficiency, moral standard, accountability, transparency, and effectiveness is the pre-requisite to strengthening public administration to achieve the vision of “Serving the People Better”.

In this spirit, the Royal Government has continued to strengthen good governance at all levels of governmental institutions to ensure that the provision of public services are conducted in a transparent, efficient and responsible manner in order to promote state of law and social justice and ethics through broadened and deepened reforms, including judicial reform, anti-corruption, public administration reform, decentralization and de-concentration, armed force reform, economic and financial reform, land reform, natural resource management reform, and so forth.

Along with this, the Royal Government has been implementing its administration reform which concentrates on enhancing public services, raising public servants’ salary, capacity building and the use of IT. Moreover, the Royal Government has disseminated the strategic directives of public administration reform and work plan 2009-2013 which aim at bettering public services in response to people’s needs.

Over the last 5 years, we have implemented numerous public administration reform programs, including public servant census to create an electronic database for managing human resource, introduction of electronic new payroll system for public servants, rationalization of public service, legislation and legal document for managing public servants, introduction of 1^st and 2^nd work plan for good governance which cover 9 priority sectors, the introduction of public services and implementation of Priority Mission Group, the implementation of merit-base payment system, and so forth. From the implementation of its Strategic Framework for Deconcentration and Decentralization which was adopted in 2005, the Royal Government has established a national committee for democratic development at sub-national levels and held successfully the local election for provincial, municipal and district councils on May 17, 2009. The victorious result of the last election, a new achievement, reflects Government’s will in strengthening democracy at sub-national level aiming at ensuring sustainable economic growth with comprehensive foundation, more competitive capacity, improving management capacity and quality service delivery aiming to meet various local needs and upgrade people health.

Indeed, the implementation of decentralization and de-concentration policy and organic laws has contributed to strengthening gender equality and promoting youth role of both sexes, particularly women in decision making at the sub-national level.

In this spirit, I would like to support the initiative of the Royal School of Administration in cooperation with the Ministry of interior under the support of Franco cooperation project and technical assistant cooperation from Germany to conduct presentation on “Theoretical and practical implementation of Cambodia’s decentralization and de-concentration” to all government officials at all level to deeply understand and effectively applied. Taking the opportunity, I would like to request to all development partners to cooperate with the Royal School of Administration in improving the training with more comprehensive climate aiming at meeting the Government’s need in the area.

Once again, on behalf of the royal government, I would like to praise and congratulate to 214 graduates, who successfully finished the course and will obtain up-coming certificate, board of directors, officials, teachers and employees in the Royal School of Administration, who exert theirs most efforts in achieving intellectual resource development mission for our nation. We must bear in mind that quality and effective task with good effort of board of directors, employees and teachers of the Royal School of Administration will bring the quality and efficiency of public service delivery application in Cambodia.

Finally, along with the Conferment of Degrees to the Senior and Middle-level Training Officials of the Royal School of Administration 2008 and the Official Opening of Continuous Training for 2009, me and my wife wish Your Venerable Monks, ladies and gentlemen, board of directors, employees and teachers of the Royal School of Administration, all graduates and new trainers with 4 Gems of Buddhist Blessings.