Keynote Address at the Official Inauguration of the New Building of Kampong Cham Hospital

Kampong Cham, January 20th, 2011

Your Venerable Monks,
Your Excellency Masafumi KUROKI, Ambassador of Japan to the Kingdom of Cambodia,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen distinguished national and international guests,
Dear the compatriots!

I am pleased to meet Your Venerable Monks, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen and all the compatriots on the occasion ofOfficial Inauguration of the New Building of Kampong Cham Hospital which has been financed by grants from the Government of Japan.

Taking this opportunity, through H.E. Masafumi KUROKI, on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia and all the people, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to the people and Government of Japan for the effort and valuable contribution in Cambodia’s socio-economic reconstruction process after nearly three decades of war, especially after the destruction left by the Pol Pot Regime which was toppled on January 7th, 1979. The new building which will be soon inaugurated is another product of grants from Japan. This reflects the close relationship between the people and government of both countries that help each other during hardship. I strongly believe this will add more weight to the friendship, solidarity and cooperation between the people and government of both countries.

Along with this, I express my appreciation to Consortium of Kanto Construction Co., Ltd, Sanpo International Corporation, Azusa Sekkei Co., Ltd and Nissei Trading Co., Ltd for their joint effort that result in this wonderful hospital building. Also, I highly appreciate the management and officials of Kampong Cham hospital, and all levels of local authority that have worked hard to smooth out the construction process.

I think the new building which has been equipped with more than ten million dollars of modern facilities is an invaluable humanitarian product, especially for the people of Kampong Cham Province. This joint achievement will be able to respond perfectly to the consultation, healthcare and medical treatment needs of the local people. In this sense, I would like to appeal to the doctors, pharmacists, nurses and the management of Kampong Cham hospital and local authorities to maintain and utilize this achievement at its full capacity to serve the people and our society, especially the people of Kampong Cham province. I also request the Ministry of Health to pay more attention on managing and adequately allocating officials, doctors, pharmacists, nurses and midwives to hospitals, referral hospitals, and health centers as instructed by the Royal Government.

Your Venerable Monks,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear the compatriots!

Over the last 31 years, after the great victory on January 7, 1979 which saw all the Cambodian people rescued from the Pol Pot Regime, we have overcome all barriers and have been united in national development and rehabilitation process. In that regard, the health sector has also achieved remarkable development. Indeed, the Royal Government has always paid great attention to health sector development and considered it as one of the most important priority sectors among other sectors which support the national economy. As a result, we have rehabilitated and expanded key infrastructure in the capital as well as in all provinces for the health sector development, strengthened institutional capacity, improved human capacity and increased the numbers of staff in response to the health care need of the people nationwide.

In this regard, the new building of Kampong Cham’s hospital will further help improve the health care services and treatments of our people here as well as for the people in the entire Kampong Cham province. Indeed, these additional building and other modern equipments are important basis; not only will they improve the quality and ability of health care services being provided to our people, but they will also serve as a base for the training of human resources as well. In a nutshell, medical students studying at the medical school in Kampong Cham as well as students from Phnom Penh and other places can take internship courses and apply their practical knowledge here.

Truly, expanding the scope and enhancing the quality of health care provision needs to be done side by side with improving the living standard of the people. In this sense, during the 4th Mandate of the National Assembly, the Royal Government is strongly committed to economic development in order to accelerate poverty reduction rate to more than 1% every year and improve other social indicators, especially for health sector that needs to ensure greater scope, effectiveness, and better quality of public services, which can gain greater confidence from our people. In this spirit, from one year to another the Royal Government has increased public investment on priority sectors to support the economy, and has received remarkable success by steadily achieving double-digit economic growth, before the financial and economic crisis 2008-2009; and that has enabled Cambodia to effectively confront and mitigate the negative effects of the crisis on Cambodia’s economy and the livelihood of the people. In addition, the Royal Government has tried hard to diversify the basis of the economic growth through agriculture sector development that has high potential in order to respond to the need of socio-economic development aimed to reduce poverty and improve the welfare of the people.

Through hard work and efforts mentioned as above, nowadays general health conditions of our people have been continuously improved at all places from the central level, major urban areas to remote areas. We have hospitals, provincial hospitals, health centers, and health stations for providing consultation services, treatments and health care services of our people in all capital, provinces, district, communes and villages. At the same time, with the improvement in physical infrastructure network for health sector, I would like to take this opportunity to remind personnel of health sector at all levels and at all places to continue working hard and diligently performing their duties and obligations with high responsibility and to obey professional code of ethics in order to provide health services to our people with better quality and effectiveness aimed to enhance the welfare of our society.

Truly, a healthy population is a key factor for increasing production activities and services, which is a necessary condition for ensuring economic growth in terms of household and national economy. And this health issue is also a key and needed basis for the development of the entire nation. In this context, the management, government officials and all health personnel must pay attention to health education, which is the first intervention among mechanisms for promoting the people’s awareness of necessary measures and practices including hygiene living and eating in everyday life in order to prevent disease-outbreak and other types of diseases, a saying goes “Protection is better than treatment”. In parallel, in order for this intervention to be effective I would like to appeal to all compatriots, especially for our Kampong Cham residence, to diligently get accustomed to living, and eating with hygiene, drinking clean water, and sleeping in safety nets as such in order to stop the spread of contagious diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue..., which are always threatening the lives of our people. In addition, I would like to remind all local authorities to continue cooperating closely with health officials and personnel to clearly determine the kind of people who are prone to getting health problems by compiling data and sufficient information so that it would be easy to duly deal with the issue when disease breaks out.

Within this framework, the basis of public health such as health center and provincial hospitals have to continue practicing necessary mechanisms more effectively in order to protect poor and disease-prone people and family receiving low income from fatal diseases. In that sense, in the short and medium-term, the Ministry of Health has to reduce or remove financial barriers to the provision of health service; in order to give opportunity to every citizen, especially the poor, to have access to health services when they are sick. In addition, existing mechanisms such as health service fee exemption, equity foundation program and health insurance programs in communities must be gradually strengthened and expanded toward the creation of a social safty nets system that is more effective and covering all over the country in the near future.

Before ending, once again, on behalf of the the Roya Government and people of Cambodia, I would like to express my deepest thanks and gratitute to the people and Government of Japan who have donated this priceless gift along with other Official Development Assistance (ODA), which are all contributing to the socio-economic development and improvement of the sustainable health and welfare for the people of the kingdom of Cambodia. I believe that Japan will still play a significant role in providing support and cooperation to the process of socio-economic development in the future.

At the same time, I also appreciate the management and civil servants of the Ministry of Health, who have tried to implement their obligations with continual success for the cause of promoting health and welfare of the people throughout the country. I would also like to thank and appreciate all officials and health staffs of the Department of Health in Kampong Cham, who have paid more attention to providing better service, councelling, care and treatment with dignity as well as having been stick to the their professional code of ethics for our people living in Kampong Cham province. I also thank and appreciate all levels of authorities, who have fulfilled their duties well in creating all sorts of favorable conditions for the construction and development of health sector in the province with remarkable results.

At the end, together with the Official Inauguration of the New Building of Kampong Cham Hospital, I would like to wish Your Venerable Monks, H.E the Ambassador of Japan to the Kingdom of Cambodia, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlement, National and International Distinguished Guests, Grandfathers, Grandmothers, Uncles and Aunts, and all Brothers and Sisters the four gems of Buddhist blessing: Longevity, Nobility, Health and Strength.