On October 14, 2009, His Excellency Mr. Lee Kyung-soo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of Cambodia, together with Mr. Kim Byung-gwan, Director of Korean International Cooperation Agency to Cambodia officially handed over the final report on the formulation of rural development policy and strategy for the Ministry of Rural Development to His Excellency Mr. Chea Sophara, Minister of Rural Development in a ceremony witnessed by His Excellency Mr. Yim Chhayly, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council for the Agricultural and Rural Development of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The Government of the Republic of Korea financed through KOICA a 24 months project aiming at formulating government policy and strategy on rural development With the total cost of 1,800,000 US$. The Project is implemented by the consortium between Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC) and Korean Rural Economic Institute (KREI) for the period from October 2007 to October 2009 with a policy-formulating survey in the field of rural development including community organization, public health and water supply, income-generation business, and capacity building of local people.
Ambassador Kyung-soo referred the success of Korea in agriculture development through its New Village Movement and noted that Korea would like to share this experience of success with other countries. He also reaffirmed the Korean Government’s commitment in assisting the Royal Government of Cambodia in achieving its development goal.
In his remarks, His Excellency Mr. Chea Sophara stressed that the Royal Government’s achievements in the recent past has reflected its long-term vision in the development works. The Ministry of Rural Development has been contributing to successfully implement the Rectangular Strategy of the Royal Government of Cambodia led by Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen. The Ministry has also been preparing and finalizing some other policy and strategy documents such as rural road policy, water supply policy, policy on the development of ethnic minorities. The final report on the formulation of rural development policy and strategy will be a foundation of implementation of future tasks that require a further commitment and involvement of the Ministry.
His Excellency Mr Yim Chhayly, Deputy Prime Minister, welcomed this new achievement of the Cambodia-Korean cooperation. He recommended the Ministry of Rural Development to harmonize its policy and strategy based on this report with other policy and strategy documents of the Royal Government of Cambodia such as the Rectangular Strategy Phase II, the National Social Development Plan, the Decentralization/Deconcentration policy etc.
Phnom Penh, October 14, 2009
