PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that when he decided to open the Khmer New Year to the people, he asked himself whether this was a right or wrong decision, but he thought to himself, "if you do not jump in water, you will not know how to swim." He made this remark while speaking at the closing ceremony of the meeting to review the work of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) in 2020-2021 and to set the work direction of the Ministry for 2021-2022, on Wednesday afternoon (27 April).

The Prime Minister continued, "When I turned on the TV [during the Khmer New Year], there were a lot of concerts, even in Sihanoukville there were three, then I asked myself if it was right or wrong that there were so many people going out […] But if you do not jump in the water, you will not know how to swim, that’s what I decided."

He further confirmed that he did not allow festivities at this time to test the people's lives, but because he believes in the vaccine that most of the population have already received.

He reiterated, "If we do not dare to jump in the water, how can we know whether we can swim or not? If we do not dare to stop wearing masks, how can we know that infections will still spread or not."

According to the Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, over the three days of the Khmer New Year and the Sunday of the same weekend (14-17 April 2022) a total of 5,175,754 tourists travelled across the country, including 5,140,495 national tourists, and 35,259 domestic foreigners.

^{PHOTO: EAC NEWS}