Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday took the wraps
off the final design for the new national stadium – due to serve as the
centrepiece of the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games – a reality a government official
said was made possible with a $100 million donation from the Chinese
government.
Hun Sen,
speaking at the Peace Palace, also an-nounced a near doubling of the wages of
national athletes, coaches and administrators.
During a
state visit by Hun Sen to Beijing in May last year, Chinese President Xi
Jinping promised to fund the construction of the main stadium of the new
multi-purpose sports complex on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Prek Phnov,
National Olympic Committee Secretary-General Vath Chamroeun told the Post.
The first
phase of the project, which broke ground in 2013, is 60 per cent complete and
is set to be finished next year.
The
60,000-seat main stadium, which is estimated to cost about $100 million and
will be built by a Chinese construction firm, will be completed in the next
four to five years with a Chinese grant covering the entire project, Chamroeun
said.
Late last
year, a technical team from China came to the Kingdom to put together plans for
the main stadium, coming up with two designs. A Cambodian architect submitted a
design and a Thai architect submitted two. A committee whittled the five plans
down to two for the premier’s consideration, according to Chamrouen.
In
choosing the winning design, Hun Sen noted its resemblance to a traditional
Chinese ship, saying he considered it a symbol of Cambodia’s friendship with
the emerging global power, Chamrouen said, adding that safety elements such as
wide concourses to ease crowd congestion were also taken into account.
A
multipurpose arena, the Prek Phnov Stadium will house an Olympic swimming pool,
an outdoor football pitch, a running track, tennis courts and dormitories for
athletes.
While
wishing the Kingdom’s medal hopefuls success as the Cambodian contingent
prepares for the SEA Games in Singapore beginning on June 5, Hun Sen also
announced attended by top sports administrators and team members, that the
salaries and monthly food allowance of all national coaches and athletes would
be increased by nearly 50 per cent with immediate effect, as well as a
cent-per-cent increase in the pay of the civil administrative staff at the
national training centre.
The
increase will benefit as many as 300 national athletes and coaches, making it
one of the biggest such hikes in the Kingdom’s sports sphere for a long time.
“Better
pay leads to better living conditions and better training, and eventually to
better results. These highly desirable increases will no doubt motivate our
athletes and coaches to perform at their best, and the NOCC is so thankful to
the prime minister for this grand gesture,” Chamroeun said yesterday.
“More
importantly, these increases will bring Cambodian coaches and athletes on par
with some of the other countries in the region,” he said.
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
No comments:
Post a Comment