Hailing the 69^th Birthday of Samdech Techo (04 April 1951-2020)

I visited Pailin, Samlot, Kamreang, Sampov Loun, Phnom Preuk and Malai. My mother and my grand aunt opened the door of my room and said to me “Aren’t you afraid that they would kill you?” I told them “if that happens, only I and a few of my colleagues would die. However, if I were to gain, I gain the whole country. Khmers would no longer fight with each other…

Samdech Techo Hun Sen,
Impromptu Comment during the Inauguration of
Achievements in the City/Province of Pailin, 03 January 2013.

[…] I decided to go with the first option, which is to cancel the Khmer New Year holiday. Every state and private institutions must continue to work normally. The state will offer a five-workday holiday at an appropriate time […] Deputy Prime Minister HE Aun Pornmoniroth, after finishing this press conference, must convene a meeting immediately to set out measures for factories and companies to continue working. The Council of Ministers must instruct normal workdays for state institution (during the Khmer New Year) [...]

[…] We are currently fighting on three directions […]. Firstly, to fight against imported infection cases from outside. Almost all of 115 are imported cases [...] secondly, to prevent transmission from cases imported to locals […], and thirdly, to provide effective treatment for infected persons […]

[…] we must have two strategic stocks (of medical equipment/supplies). Firstly, it would be the stock of the Ministry of Health. It supplies to hospitals […] another stock would be under the Royal Government. I have ordered purchase […] the Ministry of Health will be the one to use them but they must ask for permission from me because a refill will be important […]

[…] we have ordered the state company Green Trade and private companies to store rice/paddy, salt, fish – so that they would be available when the state requires. As rain has yet to come, we may have more time to produce more salts […] we also ban exporting bottled drinking water along with fish […] we also are appealing to our people to grow vegetables […] and to practice poultry raising for local consumption […]

[…] calling on understanding of situation among those in private sector […] some have had difficulties paying rent of shops or buildings. They could not make money at this time and there should be some forms of mitigation […] there should not be any confiscation of houses and/or land in this situation […] a number of measures already put forwards by banks but we should observe more […]

Samdech Techo Hun Sen,
a Press Conference on Covid-19 in Cambodia.

• I have issued an order to store 10 million masks. We must refill the stock every time we used any number of them. The number on stock must stay 10 million at all time [...] we purchase more from abroad and the factory in the province of Preah Sihanouk must continue to produce for us.

• As for the 5,000 sets of personal protective gears/equipment (PPG/E), we continue to place order from abroad and from local suppliers […] while we had 34,000 N95 masks for medical staff in stock of the Ministry of Health, I have ordered a purchase of 200,000 more. This shall increase N95 masks in stock to 50,000. All 5,000 sets of PPG/E will be in stock of the Ministry of Health and they can use them as required [...]

• As for alcohol, previously we had ordered to distill […] we have noted current usage of about 3,000 to 5,000 liter per day. I have ordered to have in the Royal Government’s strategic storage of at least 1 million liters of alcohol. For any usage that takes out from stock, we must refill it [...]

• On another front, food stock, […] we are to consider higher producing capacity of our country of instant noodle. The Royal Government could guarantee buying a certain amount of them and the rest they could sell them in the market. This should also prevent the price from going up [...]

• […] Minister of Agriculture, HE Veng Sokhon, to jump in […] we should also ban exporting fish abroad. We have not done that yet as we had only banned exporting rice/paddy. We should keep fish for local consumption [...]

• I am calling on (Minister of Health), HE Mam Bunheng and (Deputy Prime Minister) Aun Pornmoniroth to think about increasing daily allowance for the frontline medical staff. It has been months that they have not been seeing their families. It is a huge sacrifice. To help them frame their mind on the job, and not to worry too much about their families, please increase their daily allowance […]

• Besides food and everything that I have mentioned earlier, we must also discuss about how to cope with possible need for drinking water. We may ask factories that produce drinking water to supple a certain amount of it for the Royal Government [...] They should be able to help us when something happened in certain location, and there was going to be need for drinking water. We must be able to answer to that need [...]

Samdech Techo Hun Sen,
Facebook Page, 25 March 2020.

[…] I talked to medical volunteers about whether we needed to have a law about emergency and I also studied possibility to implement Article 22 of the Constitution. We now have our draft law. I will lead a permanent Cabinet leadership meeting tomorrow – March 31, to review the law once more before we have it for the Cabinet full session on Friday. Why do we need to have this law? Let me assure our people that they should not worry about (this law is going to) close Cambodia, to put into force martial law, and so and so. We just needed to have law ready and in our hand [...]

[…] My order to stop exporting paddy and white rice temporarily, except aromatic rice, for local consumption until further notice. The practice will go into action on 5 April 2020. Most of our paddy/white rice sell to Vietnam and Thailand. We continue to allow exporting aromatic rice since there is not high demand for it inside the country. Most of our people are using lower quality rice in their daily consumption. The high quality rice we exported to markets in Europe, China, and other countries [...]. Why 5 April? We keep a period of one week for our people and traders to complete their selling/buying deals to either Vietnam or Thailand […]

[…] All casinos will close from 23:59 hours on 1 April 2020. Why do we leave it until 1 April to close them? The issue would not be about those who go there but those who work there [...] we gave this task to the Ministry of Economy and Finance to work with Casinos owners to figure out how to go about it, for instance, they may have to be free of income payment obligation in the closing period [...]

[…] Issued an order to confiscate tools and medicines on sale without recognition of the Ministry of Health of Cambodia and of the World Health Organization. Yesterday we confiscated what they called Covid-19 test kits. Search must continue. Whatever is out there without recognition of the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization must be confiscated and destroyed. I am calling on traders not to cause more problem while they are not sure about their products on sale [...]

[…] Calling on people to transform their fear and concerns into measures to protect themselves as instructed by the Ministry of Health. I thank the Ministry of Health, the media, and artists for their campaigns to raise awareness about how to protect our health and to keep practicing sanitation and hygiene. I thank artists for their lyrics and music to help with this education effort [...] while we are practicing social distancing and reducing large crowd gathering […]

[…] Calling on people in private sectors to understand each other in their businesses [...] as one private business owner for example hires a location from another […] at this downturn time the rentee could not afford to pay the rent. I would say they understand the situation and readjust the price or reschedule payments. I am just issuing this appeal because I have no right to decide on their behalves. I am calling you exercise mutual understanding [...]

[…] I thank HM the King, HM the Queen Mother, as well as many other generous beings for pooling so far over ten million USD (as donations for our efforts to combat Covid-19). In addition to what the Ministry of Health has in hands, I have ordered three million facemask, and 5,000 sets of medical gears and dresses for our medical staff. As a commander in chief on this front, I must have what we needed in hand. We must make sure our medical staff have everything needed for protection while working at the frontline [...]

Samdech Techo Hun Sen,
holds a press conference on current development in Cambodia, 30 March 2020.