PREY VENG: Prime Minister Hun Sen has inaugurated the National Road No. 11 in Prey Veng province on Monday. During the inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen has expressed gratitude to China as Cambodia’s “friend of steel”. On behalf of the Chinese government, Ambassador Wang Wentian has attended the ceremony announcing more development for Cambodia aided by China. One of them is the factory for Covid-19 vaccine.

The 96.48 kilometres road’s construction started in 2018 through China’s concessional loan to Cambodia worth over $94 million. Prime Minister Hun Sen has again reiterated how grateful he is for China’s continued support to Cambodia and the friendship between the two nations. Ambassador Wang Wentian has represented the Chinese government during the ceremony.

In his speech, he has announced that Cambodia will soon use locally produced Covid-19 vaccine.

He says Chinese vaccine maker Sinopharm is currently in talks with the Cambodian Ministry of Health to open a vaccine factory in Cambodia. This was in response to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s request from China almost three weeks ago.

Apart from the vaccine factory, the Chinese Ambassador has also informed that their team is studying the possibility of Cambodia being able to export more agricultural products to China. The Chinese ambassador says a team from the Chinese government will evaluate Cambodia’s longan fruit and fish farm to enable Cambodia to export directly to China soon. The evaluation has been agreed to be done online due to the Covid-19 situation.

Prime Minister Hun Sen was delighted upon hearing the good news from the Chinese government.

In addition, the Prime Minister has also announced that the Covid-19 situation in Cambodia continues to show positive signs. There were only more than 20 of Covid-19 cases discovered in the country for the past few days.

Prime Minister Hun Sen says that because of the low number of cases recorded, some treatments centres have to close. However, he has urged Phnom Penh Governor Khuong Sreng to build a new treatment facility for Covid-19 patients while taking them out from the Olympic stadium. He says that stadium must be ready for sports events, especially the SEA Games which is scheduled to happen in 2023.

The Prime Minister has highlighted the great success of Cambodia’s fight against Covid-19. In connection, he has slammed Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister Hoàng Xuân Chiến for calling Cambodia as a source of contagion to Vietnam. He says the Vietnamese general should apologize to him and to the Cambodian people, adding that what he said is unacceptable. On Sunday, Vietnam found nearly 1,400 cases of Covid-19 cases.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has also announced during his speech that he will meet the Foreign Minister of Myanmar Wunna Maung Lwin on Tuesday. He has added that the ASEAN has no right to expel any member and that ASEAN’s decision is made in the spirit of consensus.