PHNOM PENH, 29 November 2022 – The Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport and the Phnom Penh City Administration co-organized a ground-breaking ceremony to set up the ASEAN Sports Zone in Preh Neang Pranha Baramey Park, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sar Sokha, State Secretary for Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, delivered remarks on behalf of Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, Minister of Education, Youth and Sport. “I am proud that Cambodia is the first ASEAN Member State to establish the ASEAN Sports Zone,” he said.
Counsellor Lin Ruihua of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Cambodia graced the ceremony and congratulated Cambodia for successfully hosting the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits. He said, “The ASEAN Sports Zones will become a milestone in ASEAN-China cooperation and will undoubtedly benefit thousands and millions of people in this region.” Counsellor Lin added that the ceremony also signifies more opportunities for further exchanges and cooperation in sports between China and ASEAN in the future.
Cambodia is determined to strengthen cooperation in sports in order to promote greater inclusion and a healthier lifestyle amongst its people, more specifically among the vulnerable groups. To do this, more sports and recreation zones will be set up across the country with the engagement of local authorities and other partners in sports infrastructure development. This has been signified under Cambodia’s 2022 ASEAN Chairmanship through the adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on Leveraging the Role of Sports in ASEAN Community-Building and Achieving the SDGs.
Present in the ceremony were representatives from Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China , ASEAN-China Cooperation Fund (ACCF) Management Team, China Sports International Co Ltd (CSIC), and Phnom Penh City Administration. Leaders and representatives from the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Sports (SOMS) witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony via video conference and live broadcast on Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Facebook page.
ASEAN Sports Zones is a project under the ASEAN Work Plan on Sports 2021-2025 that aims to promote community-based, non-discriminatory, affordable, accessible programmes in sports and physical activities. The project aims to build facilities called ASEAN Sports Zone in key public spaces in Cambodia and Indonesia in the pilot stage and in each ASEAN Member State in the succeeding phases.
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