H.E.Samdech Hun Sen 
Deputy Chairman of the Cambodian People’s Party,
Prime Minister of the Royal Government of 
the Kingdom of Cambodia

 

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure and honor to address this august Conference before all extraordinary individuals, the leaders of Asian political parties. Regardless of our political affiliations, here we are joined together in the common goals of creating a culture of cooperation and committing to the welfare of Asia, our great continent. I sincerely thank the organizing committee, especially the Communist Party of China for offering this precious opportunity.

The Challenges to Regional Stability

We reach out to meet as enormous changes sweep over Asia in recent decades particularly amid forces of globalization and regionalism. Stronger economic integration across Asia has fostered more favorable conditions for solving the lingering strategic and geopolitical problems. The modernization of the economic, social and political landscape in the People’s Republic of China signifies a “new ear” for Asia. ASEAN and Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) have increasingly focused on economic growth, amplified trade and investment and expanded tourist linkages. East Asia cooperation has been growing through the ASEAN+3 mechanism, moving step by step towards an East Asian community. Indeed, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, East Asia has resumed its ascension into enduring prosperity. However, given continuing uncertainty in world politics, our region still faces numerous challenges, which require us to come up with a comprehensive new security concept for regional security cooperation in Asia, and the long-term vision and program for the social and economic development of our countries and of the world community.

Undoubtedly, prosperity cannot be pursued in the absence of peace and security. There are an increasing number of factors affecting peace and development, given the inter-woven security issues in traditional and non-conventional security areas. Since the September 11 event, terrorism remains a serious threat to the region as a whole, let alone the entire world.

We must be more proactive in collectively addressing the most outstanding, urgent and fast-spreading issues confronting us in the 21st century, which are the fulfillment of the basic needs of all, the interlinked problems of the specters of new diseases — particularly HIV/AIDS, SARS or avian flu, transnational crimes, especially drug and human trafficking, nuclear proliferation, population growth and the digital divide.

The New Configuration of Asia

Strengthening the existing mechanisms namely, ASEAN Dialogue Partners, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN+3, ASEAN+1 and Asia-Europe Meeting (SEAM) are of strategic importance in providing geo-political and geo-economic umbrella for Asia to prosper. Cambodia welcomes India, China and Japan’s accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. The Code of Conduct in the South China Sea was adopted during the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in 2002. This strategic partnership is critical to ensuring peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

China has become an economic powerhouse in East Asia. We have witnessed that China is stronger not only in terms of economic strength, but also her political influence and diplomacy are spreading beyond the geographic borders. ASEAN has much to benefit from more developed China, which absorbs more and more imports from all of us, and the improvement in the living standards of the Chinese people will give a boost to the influx of tourists to Southeast Asia. It is my conviction that in 2010, the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area of nearly 2 billion people will take shape and determine the dimension of our engagement with China. Taking this rare opportunity, I would like to reaffirm that Cambodia firmly continues to respect and pursue the “One China Policy” in any circumstances as we consider that the respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of a friendly country is the aspiration of Cambodian people, who likewise want other countries to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia.

Japan also plays an important role and position herself at the core of the new configuration of political and economic landscapes of East Asia. The heart of this cooperation is “the Koizumi’s Initiative for ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership”, project to be realized by 2012.

ASEAN is also discussing with the Republic of Korea on the trade liberalization, investment, and economic cooperation. At the Bali Summit, ASEAN welcomed the proposal of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to study the possibility of an ASEAN-ROK FTA.

India will become another economic powerhouse in the region and a promising growth center. The establishment of an ASEAN-India FTA by 2011 would facilitate the effective linkages of ASEAN to the free trade area of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The ASEAN Community

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Integration in ASEAN is at the heart of our regional development strategy. Indeed, we are on a long journey toward an integrated and competitive ASEAN Community. But, our success will depend on how well we implement the integration initiatives by:

1. Creating conducive economic and political climate and network of both soft-and hardware physical infrastructures to enable free movement of creative and talented people who can bring to ASEAN the technological and value-added edge;

2. Enhance the competitiveness of ASEAN as a regional production and tourist destination, as well as to trade, innovate, and attract investors and tourists within the region and outside the region.

3. Last but not least, efforts in bridging the development gap in ASEAN should be the top and the most urgent priority for our region and for all development partners concerned. The success on this front will provide a full meaning for ASEAN integration and the vision of transforming ASEAN into a Community based on the three pillars, namely political and security cooperation, economic cooperation, and social and cultural cooperation. This can be considered as three inter-twined configurations, which will take shape by 2020.

Cambodian Experiences

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m convinced that as the leaders of political parties, we have obligation to positively contribute to the development of our respective country and people in the quest for prosperity, by effectively and efficiently responding to both the challenges and opportunities facing our peoples. As we win our people’s mandate to serve, we take on the grave responsibility to deliver the basic goods and services they require. In fact, our peoples judge us by our concrete actions, tending to place more value on the short-term delivery of goods and services rather than in long-term leadership. This is a key test of political leadership — to ensure popular support through peaceful and democratic means, leading them towards the long-term goals of strategic importance to the country, rather than focusing on winning the polls in the short term.

Cooperation between political parties in Cambodia is crucial in ensuring political stability and social progress, which is the backbone of peace and well being of our people. Therefore, we highly value the stability of political institutions, especially the development of political process with responsibility, accountability and based on the spirit of national conciliation, mutual compromise and the principles of Democracy, which are the critical factors to foster certainty in the society.

In this spirit, Cambodia will continue to take decisive steps to expand and deepen reforms, and in return, making Cambodia a country of peace, stability, progress, prosperity and development, and a country which is freer, more open to the world, and can integrate itself quickly into the regional and international community.

A new future awaits us. I am confident that Cambodia can respond successfully to the challenges of development. By promoting sincere collaboration and cooperation, we will be happy with the increased living standard of our people.

I thank you for your attention!