Excellency Tao Seng Huor, Senior Minister and President of the National Committee for Population and Development
HE Dr. Mam Bunheng, Minister of Health
Ms. Alice Levisay, UNFPA Representative in Cambodia
Dr. Michael O’leary, WHO Representative in Cambodia and Health Partner Representative
Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies, gentlemen and midwives

It is a great honor and pleasure to be here today and to address this distinguished gathering at the opening of the 2nd National Midwifery Forum in Cambodia. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the National Committee for Population and Development, Ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) who have jointly organized this important forum under the critical theme “No Woman Should Die Giving Life”.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to recall that during the Khmer Rouge time, most of the intellectual people including experts and skilled midwives were killed. Soon after the victory day of 7 January 1979, we were faced with the shortage of midwifery skilled practitioners while there was a critical need for most women. The government since then gathered the remaining people who had some medical background for training on the ground that "those who know more teach those who know less and those who know less teach those who have no knowledge." This strategy allowed us to steadily tackle the shortage of health staff, in particular midwives.