Cambodia

The official of the Cambodian Cabinet Office, the former Cambodian dean of the Confucius Institute at the Royal Academy, and the translator of the Cambodian version of "Xi Jinping on State Administration" has been paying close attention to the two sessions of China. In an interview with a reporter from the Economic Daily, he said that the rapid development of China's economy not only benefits the world, but also injects a source of impetus into the development of Cambodia through the close bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

    Chemonil believes that China's development's contribution to the world is most prominent in poverty reduction. Through decades of development, China has solved the food and clothing problem of its one billion people, which in itself has made a huge contribution to the world. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said that China’s poverty reduction efforts have contributed to the UN’s advancement of the Millennium Development Goals.

    Chemonil said that there are still hundreds of millions of poor people in the world, and China is unreservedly introducing its own development experience to the poor areas of the world and providing all kinds of strong support. This has not only brought spiritual encouragement to the people in these areas, but has also shown practical results in promoting development. "One Belt One Road" is an initiative with long-term development significance. In recent years, many developments and changes in related countries have confirmed that China is bringing positive changes to the world. The "One Belt, One Road" initiative is an extension of China's reform and opening up and is part of the world economic development and reform.

    Shemonil introduced that since the “Belt and Road” initiative was put forward, China and Cambodia have cooperated closely to help Cambodia achieve many gratifying achievements in economic development. Many friends who came to Cambodia lamented the amazing changes, especially the capital Phnom Penh. Cambodia’s economic growth rate has exceeded 7% for many consecutive years, and the capital Phnom Penh has been rated as the fastest growing city in Southeast Asia for five consecutive years, and it is also the city with the fastest growing population. This is inseparable from the "Belt and Road" initiative and China's support. The various roads and bridges and other infrastructures that China aided in Cambodia have opened up Cambodia's economic lifeline and greatly improved the lives of the people. Over the past five years, there have been more than 700 cooperation projects between China and Cambodia, covering 90% of the provinces, cities and regions in Cambodia.

    Speaking of this year's report on the work of the Chinese government, Chemonil said that he was most concerned about the content of targeted poverty alleviation. He lamented that the report mentioned that China's rural poverty population decreased by 13.86 million in 2018, and 2.8 million people were relocated for poverty alleviation. "This is a remarkable achievement!" Chemonil said that Cambodia is also facing the problem of how to effectively get rid of poverty. He often goes deep into the countryside and thinks about how to apply China’s effective methods of stimulating “endogenous motivation” to poverty alleviation work in Cambodia’s rural areas. He also thinks about what projects Cambodia can learn from and how Cambodian civil society organizations should interact with relevant Chinese institutions. Cooperation to introduce poverty alleviation models, funds, technologies, and talents into Cambodia to help poor people in Cambodia improve their living standards and change their destiny.

    Chemonil is full of confidence in the future development of China-Cambodia relations. He believes that at the official level, more intergovernmental cooperation projects can be reached to promote the rapid economic and social development of Cambodia; at the non-governmental level, the two countries’ civil organizations should carry out more exchanges and cooperation, not only financial assistance, but more experience, Technology Exchange. He hoped that in the future more Cambodian young people would have the opportunity to go to China for further studies and return from their studies to build Cambodia.