ASEAN to prioritize fighting pandemic, reviving tourism in 2022: Cambodian PM

By：Xinhua News Agency Update：2022-01-19

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Tuesday that the ASEAN's priority tasks this year are fighting against the COVID-19 and reviving the tourism sector.

Hun Sen made the remarks addressing the opening ceremony of the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Tourism Forum 2022 in the coastal city of Sihanoukville in Cambodia, which is the ASEAN chair for 2022.

"This participation really shows the common commitment, solidarity and friendship in the development and revitalization of the tourism sector to recover from the COVID-19 crisis," he told tourism ministers and representatives from ASEAN member states.

The Cambodia leader said his country "fully supported the initiatives to reopen tourism within ASEAN as well as to reopen the whole region to welcome international tourists," according to the live broadcast of the National Television of Cambodia.

He backed the ASEAN tourism ministers to announce the reopening of ASEAN tourism on Wednesday from Sihanoukville, noting that for the past two years, the COVID-19 crisis had caused devastating socio-economic impacts, especially on the tourism sector.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen called on the tourism ministers and ASEAN health institutions to study and develop a common system for the certification of full vaccination in the region.

"I would also like to request ASEAN to consider gradually easing travel restrictions in line with the principle of high vigilance," he said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.