Informal translation
Kingdom of Cambodia
Nation - Religion - King
Speech
By
Deputy Prime Minister KEAT CHHON, Minister of Economy and
Finance
At
The Groundbreaking and Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony for
the Construction of Sugar, Ethanol and Power Plant of
Kamadhenu Ventures (Cambodia) Limited
Kratie, January 18th, 2011

I am pleased to be here in the groundbreaking ceremony for the
construction of sugar, ethanol and electricity factories of Kamadhenu
Ventures (Cambodia) Limited, that will help accelerate progress of the
socio-economic development. Along with this joyous ceremony, I am
exceptionally pleased to see the compatriots in Kratie, which is also my
hometown.
I congratulate Kamadhenu Ventures (Cambodia) Limited which has made
the right decision to invest in this province, as Cambodia is in great
needs of the participation from the private sector. I sincerely wish Mr.
A.Nandaa Kumar, director of Kamadhenu Ventures (Cambodia) Limited
and his colleagues great success in their business activities, more
importantly successful implementation of the project.
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Along with the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the
factory, I would like to convey regards and affections from Samdech
Akka Moha Thomak Puthisal CHEA SIM, President of the Senate of the
Kingdom of Cambodia, Samdech Akka Moha Ponhea Chakrei HENG
SAMRIN, President of the National Assembly of the Kingdom of
Cambodia, and especially, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN
SEN, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and Lok Chumteav Dr.
Bun Rany HUN SEN to all the workers of Khamadhenu Ventures
(Cambodia) Limited and all the people in Kratie.
This new achievement will dynamically contribute to the development
and the living standard of the people in this region, and transform this
area into a new development zone and production base of sugar,
electricity, and ethanol for domestic consumption and exports. In this
sense, we are proud of the new achievement as more and more socioeconomic development opportunities will arise from this, including
productivity improvement, job creation and local development. The Royal
Government has always encouraged the private sector to invest and
empowered it as “Engine of Growth”.
I strongly believe that, from the successful implementation of this
project, Cambodia will benefit more as this showcase will highlight
Cambodia’s favorable environment for investment and business to
international investors. Also, I strongly believe the project will see a
rapid success. In particular, because of rising price of fossil fuel, demand
for alternative and cheaper sources of energy will increase, especially
ethanol. This is an opportunity, but it is also a challenge, especially for
poor countries with little potential in agriculture. Therefore, we must
balance between the needs for human consumption and energy, like
what we are doing here.
Cambodia, indeed, has great potential for the plantation of sugarcane
and sugar production. With Cambodia’s firm determination to promoting
the private sector development, such projects will attract further
investment. As a result, our compatriots will get many benefits including
the increased use of fertile lands with adequate water for more
cultivation. In addition, we have markets for agricultural products of the
farmers, and the ability to modify the products for exports.
Nowadays, most land areas that we have used for cultivation are just for
fulfilling the domestic need. However, we have more potential in
cultivation on agro-industrial farming for exports; this will allow us to
earn more revenue than now and it is a new opportunity for us. Indeed,
sugar cane is one good agricultural product; it has provided many
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advantages to all the compatriots’ families living here. That includes
using it for producing sugar, electricity energy, wine or ethanol and biofertilizer and so on. All that is what this factory will focus on for the
operation of its production.
Based on the report, this factory will start producing sugar with the
capacity of about 100, 000 tons a year, producing electricity energy with
capacity of 26 Megawatts, and producing ethanol of about 35, 000 liters
everyday. If we compare the production capacity of this factory to the
current need in this area we see that there is an excess production that
can be distributed to other areas; for instance now the need of Kratie
province for electricity is just 750 Kilowatts, it is not even 1 Megawatt.
Hence, if we can produce 26 times of what we need, how developed are
we?. Besides, within 5 to 7 years, this factory will be able to produce
400, 000 tons a year of sugar, 150 Megawatts of electricity energy, and
200, 000 liters of ethanol everyday. Through this, we shall ask: what are
advantages that we get from this project? Electricity energy produced by
the factory will help the people here a lot such as for agricultural
production, hospitals, schools and using TVs, refrigerators and other
utensils at the residential areas. Electricity energy produced and supplied
by the factory will be cheaper than the current prices.
However, to achieve this objective we need to increase sugar cane
cultivation and sell it to the factory. Through this, we will get revenue
every year. At the same time, the factory will help us with sugar cane
production so that we can increase the yield. Now people or who have
land near the factory can acquire or contact the factory about this. Truly,
this will make it unnecessary for you to migrate elsewhere to look for
jobs.
Furthermore, we have to understand how ethanol can be used? Ethanol
is a kind of fuel. It can be used in addition to petroleum. It is cheaper
than petroleum. We can mix it with petroleum and use it for running
vehicles. Many countries in the world have used it; they mix it 15 to 20%
with petrol for use. So the price of fuel for running vehicles will go down.
Parallel to this, this factory will produce bio fertilizer that helps with
agricultural production. It has no hazard, and can be easily absorbed into
soil.
Now in general, the most important point is jobs creations by the factory
directly or indirectly. This factory will use 30, 000 hectares of land for
cultivation. So, you all can imagine how many people that the factory
needs? To sum up, we can say that everyone can easily find a job in
Kratie province when this factory is completely constructed and in
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operation. That time will be my happiest time; I will see people earning
income from agricultural production, having jobs, having electricity to
use at homes, and decreasing in price of petrol.
In this regard, it shows that this factory will in part solve the job problem
of people here and generate income in response to the poverty reduction
objective through increasing number of employments; and when people
have sufficient income to support their living, it will reduce internal
migrations. Also, people can also get income from deals related to the
factory; that includes wholesales service or retails service to other cities,
provinces, or urban areas, transportation services, maintenance services,
reparation services, and other supporting industrial services helping
sugar cane cultivation that mutually complement with the factory. One
another special advantage that Cambodia as a whole will get from this
factory is: knowledge, know-how and technology transfer for the agroindustry sector and agriculture sector supporting industry development
Moreover, you all can see that we will get other benefits from the
development of this factory such as construction of roads, schools in
Sam Bor district and hospitals. This achievement is a complementary
work to the socio-economic development.
What we have achieved today stems from the high attention made by
the Royal Government, which is very wisely led by Samdech Akka Moha
Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen. In fact, this project was created with the
particular impression of our Samdech Techo Prime Minister and the
Prime Minister of Vietnam, while the Indian people are investors and
founders of this factory.
This project, resulted from the highly
committed cooperation of Vietnam, will become a big market, and
Cambodia has land and water for cultivation, therefore, we can further
cooperate for mutual interest of our two countries. This development
starts from the long term vision of our Samdech Techo for the
development of provinces as well as creating jobs for our young people.
Before ending, I would like to request all related local authorities in the
province to provide good cooperation with the investors of this project.
This investment project will be completed in 12 to 14 months ahead. I
will be pleased to come and visit this project again when it is coming to
the complete end. At the same time, I would like to request the
company to put effort in promoting quality of the products conforming to
the technical standard, strengthening and expanding capacity constantly
in order to enhance the prestige of Cambodian products and deal with all
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challenges in the market competition. Along with that, the company has
to firmly respect the labor law, environmental law and other legal
regulations that are in effect. The company has to be stick to the
principles of high responsibility on the environment and society by
closely cooperating with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, and
the Ministry of Environment, in implementing laws on the management
of factory, enterprises, and the laws on environmental protection, in
order to protect the welfare, safety and to mitigate all kinds of negative
effect on the social environment, resulting from the process of this Sugar
Producing Factory. In this connection, the company has to continue
paying further attention to the strengthening and enlarging production
activities as contracted in order to ensure suitable market price of the
products as well as providing sugarcane seeds, agricultural materials,
growing techniques, land experiment, in order to improve the land
quality, for the farmers in the locality and other areas that have
tremendous potentials on sugarcane growing, which will make the
company able to supply the factory as needed. At the same time, the
company has to pay high attention to the capacity building, local
community development and welfare program for the workers and their
families through building accommodations, health centers, pagodas,
schools, ponds, water wells, and a number of infrastructures, which are
the foundation of working and ensuring the livelihood of the people and
families with the objective to upgrade their living standard and regional
development. In the future, our Samdech Techo Prime Minister would
probably travel to visit this factory.
At the end, I would like to wish Excellencies, Lok Chumteav, Lok Oknha,
Ladies and Gentlemen, National and International Distinguished Guests,
and the Management and Staffs, Workers and all Employees of
Kamadhenu Ventures (Cambodia) Limited as well as all levels of
Authorities in Kratie Province, Armed Forces, and all Compatriots the
best of health, happiness, prosperity, and I also wish the construction of
Sugar, Ethanol and Electrical Energy Factory of the Kamadhenu Ventures
(Cambodia) Limited a smooth success as we have expected.
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