SIEM REAP, 6 December 2018: Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen called for more donations for the conservation of the Angkor Archaeological Park.
He made the comments, Tuesday, at the 25th anniversary of the formation of the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor.
ICC-Angkor was established in 1993 after the Angkor historic site was listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
According to the Khmer Times report, the 31st Technical Session of the ICC-Angkor was also due to take place at the close of the celebrations on Wednesday.
Hun Sen noted that millions of dollars had been spent over the years to support ICC-Angkor’s conservation and development initiatives.
“On behalf of the government, I would like to appeal to all friendly countries, development partners and the international community to continue to provide technical support, human resources and financing,” the PM said. “All relevant ministries and people must join together and provide good cooperation for the protection and conservation of this heritage.”
Around 1.5 million tourists visited the heritage park during the first nine months of this year. It is likely that visits will reach 2 million by the end of this year and projections suggest it could reach 7 million by 2020.
UNESCO director-general, Audrey Azoulay, applauded the conservation of the historic site.
After the opening ceremony, UNESCO, the International Conference of Asian Political Parties and the Asia Cultural Council signed a cooperation agreement to promote Asian culture and use it as a bridge to build peace in Asia.
The Angkor site is Cambodia’s greatest tourist attraction, attracting over 1 million visitors and earning an estimated USD61.4 million in the first half of 2018 alone.
(Source: Khmer Times)
