Thursday, August 14, 2014
Remarks by His Excellency Dr. SOK An, at the Inauguration Ceremony of the 40th Annual Gathering / 13th AIBD General Conference and Associated Meetings
Phnom Penh: 13 August 2014
- H.E. Dr. Khieu Kanharith, Minister of Information;
- Madam Dra. Rosarita Niken Widiastuti, President of General Conference of Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development;
- Mr Yang Binyuan, Director of Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development;
- Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is my pleasure to be with Excellencies, Distinguished National and International Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen at the Inauguration Ceremony of the 40th Annual Gathering, 13th AIBD General Conference and Associated Meetings in Phnom Penh hosted by the Ministry of Information of Cambodia in collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD). I would like to extend my warm welcome to all delegates to this gathering and express my appreciation to the AIBD and the Organising Committee of the Ministry of Information for their effort in organising this event.
The three-day gathering is of significance, further raising the spirits of solidarity, friendship, and cooperation among professionals in broadcasting, journalism and related fields in the region. I strongly hope that the event will further promote professional ethics in writing, reporting, and broadcasting the information and news in an impartial way and with strict adherence to journalism code of ethics and highest quality of ethical behaviors and integrity. This will undoubtedly build public confidence and reputation of individual professionalism and institutions which one works for.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
Cambodia has rapidly transformed from what the world knew as “the killing fields” of year zero under the Khmer Rouge to a new society with peace, security, stability and development, moving towards a prosperous future. Through the Win-Win policy of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Cambodia has enjoyed an unprecedented peace and political stability over 500 years or so. This provides the strong foundation of development aimed at livelihood promotion and poverty reduction.
In 2013, Cambodia recorded a growth rate of 7.6% and it is estimated to remain at between 7% and 8% for the coming years without overheating. Based on this high growth, Cambodia is ranked 5th among developing countries that have realized their Millennium Development Goals—many of which we have achieved and even surpassed. Additionally, Cambodia is moving towards becoming a lower-middle income country in the near future and is estimated to become an upper-middle income country in 2030. These outstanding achievements could be attained thanks to the will and capacity of the Royal Government and the active involvement of the private sector and citizens from all walks of life in promoting development in all sectors, including media.
With respect to media sector in Cambodia, the Royal Government has actively promoted the freedom of press and expression, where all types of media, both local and foreign, can write, report and broadcast their news freely. As a result, print media have grown significantly from very few in 1980s to around a thousand today while radio stations have also increased dramatically, close to 200. Regarding TVs, we currently have 14 licensed TV stations in operation. In addition, cable TVs have become very popular throughout Cambodia, including households in the rural areas.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
Although new media and social media are playing an increasingly active role in the global society, broadcasting media remain an important channel through which information, education-related programs and entertainment are disseminated to the public, attracting millions of viewers to their enriched programs. With the latest technology, broadcasting institutions in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond have also embarked upon serving their audiences so that they can catch up with the latest developments and meet their needs of information surfing around the world.
Digital broadcasting is the next technological breakthrough that will completely take over analog throughout the globe in the very near future. For ASEAN, the member states have set the target to switch to digital broadcasting by 2020. This is another major task for AIBD to help the ASEAN member states and its members to achieve their target. To deal with challenges, may I encourage AIBD to continue to closely cooperate with its members and partners to invest more resources in capacity building and training for content providers and technology developers to cope with the daily increasing needs by the public.
To conclude, I would like to wish the conference a great success and wish Excellencies, Distinguished National and International Guests, Ladies, Gentlemen good health, great success and happiness.
I now declare the opening of the 13th General Conference of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development.
Thank you!
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