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By Deputy Prime
Minister KEAT CHHON, MP First Vice Chairman of CDC
Cambodia-Republic
of Korea Forum on
Palais du
Gouvernement - His Excellency Chang Ho-jin, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea - Dr. Shin Eui-cheol, KOICA Representative, Cambodia Office - Distinguished members of Korean delegation - Colleagues from the Royal Government - Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen 1. It is my great honor and pleasure to welcome you all, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, to this First Forum on Development Cooperation between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Government of the Republic of Korea. Let me extend a warm welcome to all distinguished members of the Korean delegation led by His Excellency Chang Ho-jin, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, and especially to those colleagues from Seoul, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Export-Import Bank of Korea, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea Development Institute and Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, KOICA Headquarter. My welcome is also extended to all my colleagues from the Royal Government who are present at this Forum. The Forum on Development Cooperation will help us to build on the discussions that took place during our First Policy Consultation Meeting on Country Partnership Strategy, which was successfully held on 15 November 2011, in order to strengthen cooperation and partnership between our countries. 2. I would also like to congratulate the Government of Korea on its excellent organisation of the 4th High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that took place in Busan earlier this month. I understand from my colleague, Minister Chhieng Yanara, who led the delegation, that the meeting was a great success. CRDB/CDC colleague who take part of the Cambodian delegation will provide preliminary discussion of Busan as a part of our dialogue today but I wish to add my congratulations for the successful outcome of the meeting. The renewed commitments to effective development and the establishment of a Global Partnership are notable achievements of the Busan meeting. In addition, Korea is now established quite uniquely as a country that is developed and a provider of ODA, yet knows from its own recent history about how to promote national social and economic development. I hope that our partnership in the future can benefit from Korea's unique experience and expertise in the region.
3. The
Partnership between our two countries is becoming stronger through our joint
collaboration in developing the Country Partnership Strategy for Cambodia. This
Strategy reflects the development priorities of
the Royal Government
as stipulated in the Rectangular Strategy and the National Strategic Development
Plan. I believe the Strategy is also fully consistent with the country
policy of the
Government of the Republic of Korea.
This Country
Partnership Strategy Paper,
will therefore become
a guiding framework for cooperation between the two countries for the period
from 2012-2015. I would like
to
reiterate that the Government of the Republic of Korea is a most favoured
development partner that is
highly respected and admired for supporting partner country ownership Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen 4. The Forum on Development Cooperation between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Government of Korea is the first forum that has been organised under the collaboration between the Cambodian Rehabilitation and Development Board of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, the Embassy of Korea and the Korea International Cooperation Agency. Today's Forum is regarded as an important opportunity for both sides to exchange views on how to promote development cooperation in an effective way especially to efficiently use financial resources to support to the relevant target and to directly contribute to alleviate poverty in Cambodia. In this way our national and global commitments to effective development cooperation can be realised. 5- Taking this opportunity, I would like to express sincere thank to Your Excellency Ambassador for your good news concerning the increase of grant amount up to 40% of total Korea's ODA in supporting Cambodia. Once again, allow me to express gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Korea and its people for continued commitment to be our best partner in development cooperation. I declare the Forum open and expect a fruitful discussion. Thank you for your kind attention
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