At a press conference on Thursday, Prey Veng provincial governor Chea Somethy encouraged the province’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors to reduce migration.

He said 220,000 out of the over one million Prey Veng residents had migrated to other provinces or countries to work.

The province is the most important one in the Kingdom’s agricultural sector, he said. Among its 1,245,127 citizens, 78.6 per cent are farmers.

“The Prey Veng administration organised a three-year rolling plan (2019-2021) to encourage citizens to plant crops and raise cattle, chicken, fish, ducks, pigs and oxen. The important point is that we made an effort to find markets for citizens to sell their products.

“When we can find markets for them, I believe the exports of agricultural products in the province will increase. Citizens in Prey Veng are very diligent in agricultural work,” he said.

Somethy said while the agricultural sector has progressed in Prey Veng, it’s lacking in other areas, such as manufacturing.

When there is investment in factories, the number of citizens that migrate locally and abroad will reduce, he said.

“There are 220,000 people who have migrated locally and abroad in our province – 170,000 migrated locally and 50,000 abroad,” he said.

According to a report posted on Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon’s Facebook page, the provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries director Ouk Samnang said Prey Veng produced more food than any other province in 2019.

“Prey Veng is considered the number one province in food production. This province can be compared to a beautiful lady who we never noticed.

“For the past 10 years, the agriculture sector has grown. The most noticeable increase came in rice crops. We produced 1.3 million tons of rice from 2019 to 2020,” Samnang said.